Harold Bloom's "The Western Canon"

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Literary critic Harold Bloom’s controversial list of the books that shaped Western culture, from his The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages.

I have tried to list inexpensive English-language editions whenever possible. Occasionally the edition or translator will not precisely match that specified by Bloom; this seems unavoidable.

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  1. 1.
    The Epic of Gilgamesh (Penguin Classics)
    by Anonymous

    Drag me to re-order


  4. 4.
    Apocrypha
    by Edgar J. Goodspeed

    Drag me to re-order


  5. 5.
    ?
    Pirke Aboth, The Ethics of the Talmud: Sayings of the Fathers
    by R. Travers Herford

    Drag me to re-order


  6. 6.
    The Iliad (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    by Homer

    Drag me to re-order


  7. 7.
    The Odyssey
    by Homer

    Drag me to re-order


  8. 8.
    Hesiod : Theogony, Works and Days, Shield
    by Hesiod

    Drag me to re-order


  10. 10.
    The Odes (Penguin Classics L209)
    by Pindar

    Drag me to re-order


  12. 12.
  13. 13.
    Prometheus Bound (Greek Tragedy in New Translations)
    by Aeschylus

    Drag me to re-order


  14. 14.
    Persians (Greek Tragedy in New Translations)
    by Aeschylus

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  15. 15.
    ?
    The Suppliant women
    by Aeschylus

    Drag me to re-order


  24. 24.
    The Knights of Aristophanes
    by Aristophanes

    Drag me to re-order


  25. 25.
    Clouds. Wasps. Peace (Loeb Classical Library)
    by Aristophanes

    Drag me to re-order


  27. 27.
    Herodotus The Histories
    by Herodotus

    Drag me to re-order


  30. 30.
    Poetics (Penguin Classics)
    by Aristotle

    Drag me to re-order


  38. 38.
    The Complete Fables (Penguin Classics)
    by Aesop

    Drag me to re-order


  39. 39.
    Selected Satires of Lucian (The Norton Library)
    by Lucian

    Drag me to re-order


  41. 41.
    Amphitryon, and Two Other Plays (The Norton Library, N601)
    by Titus Maccius Plautus

    Drag me to re-order


  42. 42.
    The Comedies (Penguin Classics)
    by Terence

    Drag me to re-order


  43. 43.
    The Way Things Are: The De Rerum Natura
    by Lucretius

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  44. 44.
    The Nature of the Gods (Penguin Classics)
    by Marcus Tullius Cicero

    Drag me to re-order


  45. 45.
    Odes and Epodes (Loeb Classical Library)
    by Horace

    Drag me to re-order


  48. 48.
    Catullus, Tibullus, Pervigilium Veneris (Loeb Classical Library No. 6)
    by Gaius Valerius Catullus

    Drag me to re-order


  49. 49.
    The Aeneid (Penguin Classics)
    by Virgil

    Drag me to re-order


  50. 50.

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Created by c. libre on Apr 10, 2006.
 

Comments

The Subjected Reader

Duplicate — 2 years ago

How German It Is/Wie Deutsch ist Es was on twice, so I deleted the duplicate.

Jan 02, 07:33AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

Neil Moakley
Philadelphia

From a formal list — 2 years ago

sipes23 -

This list is from Harold Bloom’s book “The Western Canon”. In the book, he elaborates on the reasoning behind many of his choices, which he acknowledges often deviate from what is typically considered a “canon”. Most especially, the section from which most of the modern books are drawn is called “The Chaotic Age: A Canonical Prophecy” – maybe that makes a little more sense out of the number of relatively contemporary picks?

Anyway, more information is available here:

http://www.literarycritic.com/bloom.htm

Aug 21, 04:39PM | 1 comment | Reply to this

sipes23
Crystal Lake

Long and slanted list — 2 years ago

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.”

Aug 03, 08:38AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

JordanHay
Seattle

This is a loooong list! — 3 years ago

I got through Page 26 #1300. I still need to finish the last 6 pages.

Thanks for taking the time to enter this in!

May 26, 05:39PM | 0 comments | Reply to this