The Western Canon: Books and Teachings Through the Centuries

Harold Bloom (1930–2019) is a famous American literary critic and scholar, Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University and Berg Professor of English at New York University. Author of twenty books, member of the American Academy, laureate of many awards, honorary degrees and prizes.

“The Western Canon. Books and Teachings of the Ages” (1994) is the most famous and, perhaps, the most controversial book by H. Bloom, where he explores the Western literary tradition, focusing on the works of twenty-six authors (from Dante to Tolstoy, from Goethe to Beckett, from Dickinson to Neruda), whom he considers the most important. Bloom places Shakespeare at the center of the Western Canon, who has become a standard for writers of all times - playwrights, poets and prose writers.

At the end of his provocative and remarkably thorough work, Harold Bloom offers a comprehensive list of the writers and books that he believes constitute the Western canon.