For the past two months I've been reading books solely found in the Western Canon, according to Harold Bloom. I admire Bloom and his stance that a Western Canon does indeed exist and that it is exclusive, by that I mean, not everyone who has ever written a novel, play or collection of poetry is included in the Canon. I've decided that I'm going to try to make it through his Canon, try to read every scrap ever written that has been included. After getting through a few novels I decided I should begin to document my travels, or rather adventures, and present my thoughts and ideas on the items that I read.
I started this process when my husband got me Bloom's The Western Canon for my birthday. I began reading it and am taking my time getting through his explanations of why certain pieces are included and others not. I am, to be honest, reading Bloom's book as a supplement to the actual texts of the Canon. After getting through a few segments of his book I flipped to the Appendices, anxious to see what I had already read of the Canon, and what I could possibly read in the future. Majoring in Drama and minoring in English literature during my undergraduate work, I had indeed conquered a number of selections, but only a small percentage of what is the complete Canon. Thus the challenge began.
The following is a list of what I have previously read. Please note that I intend, if time permits, to get back to and reread each of these pieces as well... but anyone who knows anything about the Western Canon knows it is quite extensive and will most likely take the rest of my lifetime to complete, and even with the years I have left, I may not finish.
Selections previously read (along with an approximate time of when I read them) are listed below. For some, I don't know what translations I had read, but from now on, I will stick with the translations recommended by Bloom.
The Iliad - Homer (read 1988)
The Odyssey - Homer (read 1988)
Oedipus the King - Sophocles (read 1992)
Antigone - Sophocles (read 1992)
Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes (read 1990)
The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer (read 1994)
The Vicar of Wakefield - Oliver Goldsmith (read 1994)
The School for Scandal - Richard Brinsley Sheridan (read 1995, performed 2000)
Tartuffe - Moliere (read 1991)
Peer Gynt - Henrik Ibsen (read 1993)
Hedda Gabler - Henrik Ibsen (read 1993)
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (read 2003)
The Picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde (read 2004)
The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne (read 1989)
The Balcony - Jean Genet (read 1994)
No Exit - Jean-Paul Sartre (read 1994)
The Bald Soprano - Eugene Ionesco (read 1995, performed 1995)
Rhinoceros - Eugen Ionesco (read 1995)
Pygmalion - George Bernard Shaw (read 1994)
Howards End - E.M. Forster (read 2003)
Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett (read 1994)
Endgame - Samuel Beckett (read 1994)
Krapp's Last Tape - Samuel Beckett (read 2001)
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott (read 1986)
The Homecoming - Harold Pinter (read 1994)
1984 - George Orwell (read 1991)
The Notebooks of Malte Laurdis Brigge - Rainer Maria Rilke (read 1998)
The Good Woman of Setzuan - Bertolt Brecht (read 1992)
Mother Courage - Bertolt Brecht (read 1992)
The Caucasian Chalk Circle - Bertolt Brecht (read 1993)
Spring Awakening - Frank Wedekind (read 1995)
The Visit - Friedrich Durrenmatt (read 1995)
Selected Poems - Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) (read 1996)
Long Day's Journey into Night - Eugene O'Neill (read 1995)
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (read 1991)
Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald (read 1993)
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner (read 1995)
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway (read 1990)
The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger (read 1988)
The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams (read 1994)
A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams (read 1994)
Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller (read 1993)
Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison (read 1992)
American Buffalo - David Mamet (read 1994)
Speed-the-Plow - David Mamet (read 1994)
Fences - August Wilson (read 1992)
Angels in America - Tony Kushner (read 1995, performed 1995)
So that's it, those are the selections I have previously conquered, adventures I've previously experienced.
The following titles are the adventures I've taken since March of this year, in the order in which they were read...
Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison (March 2010)
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston (April 2010)
Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson (April/May 2010)
Sister Carrie - Theodore Dreiser (May 2010)
Before I sign off for the evening.... let me introduce you to the next adventure in my trip through the Western Canon. Tonight I begin Charles Dickens' Bleak House. Written in 1853, this hefty novel should take some time to get through. Luckily school is almost out and except for gardening, my summer can be devoted to my adventures through the Canon!
Until next time....
