Suggest a book for me on the history of the Western Cannon
I am on a mission to self educate, to become what I would call ‘a well educated person’.
My mother was a university lecturer in the Arts, and is currently finishing Theological College. My father is a lawyer, and has a degree in literature. My brother has honours in ancient history and a masters in teaching, as does my sister. My wider family contains three pastors, three PHDs, a dental surgeon, and a gynaecological surgeon.
I’m the oldest of my siblings, and while I received a very good high school education, I never finished my degree in physiology, dropped out three times, and now run a nightclub 😂
I don’t feel embarrassed by my profession within my family context, I earn a good living, however I’ll admit my goal of self education in literature is fuelled by a desire to ‘keep up’, if you will.
I’m fairly well acquainted with Russian and eastern block literature (Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, Nabokov, Gogol, Pushkin, Tolstoy, Chekov, Lermontov, etc) and some European writing (Nietzsche, Kafka, Orwell, Donne, T.S. Eliot, Conrad, etc).
I’m looking for a book to give me a guide or roadmap on how better to structure my self education. Something that will point me in the right direction of where ‘the beginning’ of Western Literature is, and how to branch from there. I understand it to a degree, but history is complicated, and there are many people smarter than I am that I’m sure could offer more advice.
Thank you.