Kyle Harrison
to-read
The Western Canon
The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages
- Author
- Harold Bloom
- Published
- 1994
- Pages
- 562
- Recommended
- Once
Why it’s on the list: Harold Bloom’s defence of the canon — twenty-six writers from Dante and Shakespeare to Kafka and Beckett, read as the standard against which literature is measured.
Where I heard about it
- @athenaeumbc — one of ~35 old books in a stack photographed by Athenaeum Book Club (October 2026) under the line “One of the hidden benefits of reading old books is that they rescue you from the arrogance of the present.” The full stack is listed on One of the hidden benefits… (tweet).
Connections
- Harold Bloom — author.
- Western Canon — the idea the book defends.
- How to Read and Why — Bloom’s shorter companion on reading.
- One of the hidden benefits… (tweet) — the stack it came from.