Harold Bloom is one of those critics that provoke all kinds of mixed feelings. On the one hand, he’s a brilliant scholar (there are no two ways around this, he’s smart); on the other, I don’t quite agree with his stance of analyzing books as a unit independent of their context. I’m sorry, but I think of books as cultural products and they do have some sort of relation to their context. But I’m not going to focus this review on the many things I don’t quite agree with Dr. Bloom. I’m just going to focus on his Western Canon.

His very short overview of Western Literature does deal with the most important authors in our history. That is, if our history is that of white male Europeans. With the exceptions of Jane Austen, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf, there are basically no women writers whose work is worth discussing with Shakespeare, Dickens, and others (that is, according to Bloom. I happen to enjoy the Brontës’ books a lot more than Dickens’, for instance). I understand that he is just giving a very broad overview, but the implications are there.

One thing very positive about Harold Bloom is that, while he is a serious scholar, he doesn’t make his subject matter heavy or boring. The essays in this book are easy to read, and I think even someone who does not have a Literary Theory background can understand what he is saying. So, that’s a point for Dr. Bloom.

Being a Shakespeare nerd (and proud of my nerdery), I actually had a lot of fun when reading how he connects EVERYTHING (literally) with Shakespeare. I’m not really sure if I agree completely with what he says, but it’s interesting that Western literature is tinted with some sort of Shakespearean hue. I mean, he’s supposed to be the greatest writer of our history, I guess it’s kind of natural that he influences everyone. It speaks miles of what he did for our literary history, I guess. So, I think Bloom makes a good point there.

While I definitely don’t agree with everything this man says, I do think that this could be an interesting resource if you’re thinking about studying literature. One of my professors told me to photocopy the final pages in which he gives a list of canonical works, and read the books he recommends. After, all, even if I’m not a big fan of it, there is a literary canon. And if you (like I do) are thinking of studying literature, is a good idea to become acquainted with this works. And then, read whatever you like. Because, as Dr. Bloom mournfully says, the canon is dying because people want to include women and non-white people. Apparently, he sees it a terrible thing, but I don’t think it’s so.

As said before, this is a book that gives me mixed feelings. So I’d only recommend it if you’re the kind of person who feels in this way about the canon: you like that there are books that are important for everyone, but you don’t like that they are (almost) all written by white males. If you read this, you can argue your point a lot better, I think.