GREAT LESSER KNOWN BOOKS BY WELL KNOWN AUTHORSI think these are probably not in Mr Bloom's book, and I want to know why!1. Ray Bradbury’s history of British sport Something Wicket This Way Comes2. Charles Dickens novel on the ravages caused by tuberculosis, Great Expectorations3. Dostoievski’s biography of George Bush, The Idiot (I prefer that one to Raymond Chandler’s The Big Creep)4. Mary Shelley on the current crisis in capitalism Investment Bankenstein5. Dickens again on the same topic Our M...

The Religion of Good WritingIncomparable Bloom. Inspiring and informative in equal (and large) measure. Bloom's religion is literature; this is its originating text. Don't miss it.

I finally had to read Bloom because he seems to irritate so many people. He is the torchbearer of literary aesthetics, or rather an aesthetic literary canon. He repeatedly denigrates and teases the contemporary schools of thought: feminism, new historicism, deconstructionism, etc. As such, mention of this book most frequently invokes a scoff, usually by someone who hasn’t read it. I urge you to. Bloom has read with extraordinary breadth and depth and seems to remember it all. I cannot vouch for

Reading literary criticism is like having a tour-guide to a book. And having someone passionate about the subject makes it that much more enjoyable. Prof. Bloom is an unabashed lover of literature with none of the disdain for "dead white male Europeans" that many academics have (he calls them the "school of resentment"). His passion for Western literature is so fierce that it is inspiring.In the book, he walks us through the ages of literary history, pointing out great authors and great works. H...

Harold Bloom really is a cantankerous old thing, so hard to please and yet so seemingly pleased with himself. I actually enjoy reading Bloom, if only because I like arguing with him in my head. He makes plenty of good points in this massive exploration of Literature with a capital "L," but he also highlights many of the reasons the "dead white male" pantheon persists, and why he thinks it should. Many of his arguments are in complete opposition to the idea of diversity in literature that I hold

Tradition is not only a handing-down or process of benign transmission; it is also a conflict between past genius and present aspiration, in which the prize is literary survival or canonical inclusion. As far as I know, Harold Bloom is the last major proponent of the ‘Great Books’ paradigm of higher education. This makes him something of an apocalyptic prophet. With great solemnity, he predicted (this was in 1994) that the Western world was about to enter into a new cultural era, a new Theocr

There was an old critic called Harold Bloom,Who thought Great Literature faced Final Doom,He resented all Schools,Other than his own Fools,So killed what he loved, and emptied the Room! My reading experience after finishing has not changed the overall impression, but it has made me think, and I took away the second star, which initially was awarded for writing style and erudition. Too much hatred, too much bias, and too much bigotry and repetition to get more than a solitary star for being a pri...

In the (unlikely) event that literary theory again becomes relevant to mainstream society, or even mainstream academia for that matter, should there ever be a FOX News of theory, Harold Bloom would be the ideal candidate for the role of anchor.The Western Canon is just so antiquated and conservative, in the very worst way. It's as if one's great-grandfather is lecturing from beyond the grave. For instance:Finding myself now surrounded by professors of hip-hop; by clones of Gallic-Germanic theory...

4/11 I’m really curious about how many I’ve read. It’s been two years now and I’ve been plugging away. I may try to count them this week. Im afraid I’m just going to get discouraged.27/21 I’m close to 500 people! 5/7/20. UPDATE I have read about 400 from this list! I’m slowly getting there!I. WILL. NEVER. READ. ALL. OF. THESE. BOOKS. EVER. FAIL“Who reads must choose, since there is literally not enough time to read everything, even if one does does nothing but read.” CHALLENGE ACCEPTED1/19/22Sti...

One of the most useful works of non-fiction to be published in recent decades, written by the sturdy Yale professor Harold Bloom. Camille Paglia said that this work was as much about Bloom himself as it was about the "best that has been written"(one of many phrases that Bloom is quite of fond of using again and again), and this is certainty true, as the irascible scholar's personality comes through in every supple sentence. If there is a flaw in Bloom's work, it is repetition, as the reader is b...

To some Harold Bloom might just be a pompous critic, but if I can have an ounce of literary knowledge that this man has in his brain, I would consider myself lucky. I admire Harold Bloom, which makes me a bit bias when reading any of his criticisms. Unfortunately, I cannot help to admire a man that has an extensive knowledge of literature. Literature is my passion and it is his unending passion to read and to celebrate the art and styles of literature, which I cannot overlook. The School of Rese...

This book is half brilliant, a quarter nonsense, and a quarter defensible but repetitive and angry venting at deconstructionists, New Historicists, neo-Marxists, queer theorists, feminists, etc. Okay, art should be judged on its esthetic and conceptual merits and not as it accords with someone’s political or social agenda. Fair enough, and enough said already, Harold. He idolizes Shakespeare, and makes an almost convincing case for us to do the same. He’s incredibly well-read and knowledgeable,

"The only spirit in 'Ulysses' is Shakespeare.""In conversation with John Dryden, [Milton] once confessed rather too readily that Spenser was his 'Great Original,' a remark that I have come to understand as a defense against Shakespeare.""Oedipus, I suggest, was hauled in by Freud and grafted onto Hamlet largely in order to cover up an obligation to Shakespeare.""Except for Shakespeare, Chaucer is foremost among writers in the English language."'Knowing more English would not have enlightened Tol...

Harold Bloom is one of the most well known literary critics in the US, and in my opinion an unfortunate national embarrassment. One problem with him is that he sees literature as a precise and objective science rather than an art. In Bloom's world, books and authors are not only objectively good or bad, but can be easily ranked from best to worst like runners in a race. For Bloom, there is only 1 possible interpretation of a work and that is what the author intended. If Cervantes was being truth...

What's fascinating to me is that even though there is all the unfortunate blather and fulmination against his critical antagonists in the academy, most of whom appear to have completely ignored him, and there is also a lamentable amount of the Because I Say So school of argument, Harold Bloom, when he actually gets down to talking about the authors he loves and why he loves them, makes a certain amount of sense. He has what would have been called, in the era he should have lived in, good taste i...

Harold Bloom is like your ornery grandpa: he's very old-fashioned, and goes on uncomfortable rants about the blacks and the feminists a lot, but if you keep listening you realize that he has real wisdom and an experience that you can learn something from. You always complain about him when he's not around, but when he's gone*, you wish you had stayed in his world a little longer.*This is referring to the end of the book, not Bloom's undoubtedly iminent death by rage-induced heart attack. What I

A life, focused like a laser on a single pursuit, can accomplish amazing things. Mozart with music, for instance, or Bobby Fischer in chess; Steve Jobs, Alexander the Great, Winston Churchill …. the examples are many and noteworthy.Such was also the case, I’m convinced, with Professor Harold Bloom, a faculty member of the Yale English Department for 64 years, who taught his final class four days before he passed away last October at the age of 89. His passion for fine literature was lifelong and...

I was once told that it's not enough to just read the classics: one also has to read the essays and reviews written about the classics by those with minds broader than our own - the critics. It was good advice, I think. Those who have studied these books for most of their lives have a lot of value to add - they can illuminate historical context, author intent, author influences, and why the classics are important. I mean, these books and plays and poems have survived for centuries and every new

Of course I readily agree with author Harold Bloom in The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages considering William Shakespeare as one of the greatest (dramatic) authors ever (or thus far) and also in fact in any language. And I can to at least a certain point even be on par with Bloom therefore placing Shakespeare at the centre of his envisioned Western literary canon. Nevertheless though, part of me also rather chafes a bit at this, since William Shakespeare is really known only for

At least one a week while reading the review of friends on GR I am reminded of books that I have read at some distant point in the past and then add them to my GR database. The Western Canon is the most recent title to fall into this category.Despite my reservations it was great fun to read. I greatly enjoyed the parody of it in Episode 104 "The Graduate" of the Northen Exposure television series. Nonetheless, this work has not aged well. It was written in protest to what Bloom believed to be wa...