Harold Bloom's "The Western Canon"

Ok, I think I’m pretty well read. And given that I studied Latin (and teach it now) in high-school and college, I thought I’d have read more of the list. Yeah, I’d pick up a few more if I counted “part” or “one story from the collection” as counting.

Ok, so the list is long, and I hadn’t truthfully expected to cross off more than say, 50-100. I was expecting plenty of odd and obscure stuff.

Instead I got the bulk of the list in 20th Century Prose and Poetry. And nearly the balance in 19th Century Prose and Poetry. How can this list be a “Canon” if it skims 25 centuries of writing and focuses on 2? I was hoping to uncover hundreds of goodies from the 14th-17th Century.

Wrong. Instead, it’s recent stuff that, while it may be quality, hasn’t been around long enough to qualify as “canon.”

This list would better be titled, “Famous Books of Western Literature.”