The Western Canon

The Books and School of the Ages

By: Harold Bloom

Narrated by: James Armstrong

Length: 22 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Harold Bloom explores our Western literary tradition by concentrating on the works of twenty-six authors central to the Canon. He argues against ideology in literary criticism; he laments the loss of intellectual and aesthetic standards; he deplores multiculturalism, Marxism, feminism, neoconservatism, Afrocentrism, and the New Historicism.

Insisting instead upon "the autonomy of aesthetic," Bloom places Shakespeare at the center of the Western Canon. Shakespeare has become the touchstone for all writers who come before and after him, whether playwrights, poets, or storytellers. In the creation of character, Bloom maintains, Shakespeare has no true precursor and has left no one after him untouched. Milton, Samuel Johnson, Goethe, Ibsen, Joyce, and Beckett were all indebted to him; Tolstoy and Freud rebelled against him; and while Dante, Wordsworth, Austen, Dickens, Whitman, Dickinson, Proust, and the modern Hispanic and Portuguese writers Borges, Neruda, and Pessoa are exquisite examples of how canonical writing is born of an originality fused with tradition.

©1994 by Harold Bloom (P)1997 by Blackstone Audiobooks

This one is tough sledding.

I have been an Audible listener for many years and I try to explore a diversity of literature and subject matter. However, this book was a challenge to the extent that I could not finish it. I tried twice. I can agree with Jerry from Topeka that Professor Bloom is pedantic, but that was not the worst thing for me. The worst thing was the narrator who was reading the pedantry of the writer. A better narrator might have improved the book, because the material is actually quite interesting. Instead, the droll pseudo-British accent of this narrator was too much for me. I recommend that you pass this one by. There is plenty of better material available on Audible.

The sound quality is horrible.

The sound quality is really bad. The book focuses too heavily on defending Shakespeare from cultural studies. If you are reading this book chances are you share the sentiment but will learn very little new information. Harold Bloom says too little with too many words.