Bloom skriver om "The Aristocratic Age" (år 1321-1832):
- - - It is a span of five hundred years from Dante's Divine Comedy through Goethe's Faust, Part Two [1321-1832], an era that gives us a huge body of reading in five major literatures: Italian, Spanish, English, French, and German. In this and in the remaining lists, I sometimes do not mention individual works by a canonical master, and in other instances I attempt to call attention to authors and books that I consider canonical but rather neglected. From this list onward, many good writers who are not quite central are omitted.
El Cid og Cinna.
The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, The School for Wives, The Learned Ladies, Don Juan, School for Husbands, Ridiculous Precieuses, The Would-Be Gentleman, The Miser, The Imaginary Invalid
Andromache og Athaliah
Seven Comedies.
Samlede dikt, romerske elegier og venetiske epigrammer.