Synopses & Reviews
"The indispensable critic on the indispensable writer." -Geoffrey O'Brien,
New York Review of Books A landmark achievement as expansive, erudite, and passionate as its renowned author, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human is the culmination of a lifetime of reading, writing about, and teaching Shakespeare. Preeminent literary critic-and ultimate authority on the western literary tradition-Harold Bloom leads us through a comprehensive reading of every one of the dramatist's plays, brilliantly illuminating each work with unrivaled warmth, wit and insight. At the same time, Bloom presents one of the boldest theses of Shakespearean scholarships: that Shakespeare not only invented the English language, but also created human nature as we know it today.
Review
"The indispensable critic on the indispensable writer." Geoffrey O'Brien, New York Review of Books
Review
"You don't have to swallow Bloom's argument whole...to value his local insights. The most exhilarating observations...have the quality of aphorisms." James Shapiro, New York Times Book Review
Review
"It is a huge cloak-bag of ideas, stuffed with true wisdom and false bombast in equal measure. It breaks the rules, but demands to be forgiven because it is alive and full of magnanimity. It is a feast." Wall Street Journal
Review
"A study that is as passionate as it is erudite, as provocative as it is sometimes perverse....[I]t's hard not to be impressed by his overall knowledge of and insight into his subject's work." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
Review
"[E]legantly written, scholarly yet accessible, radiant with Bloom's love for Shakespeare in particular and literature in general." Kirkus Review
Review
"Bloom...is a master entertainer." Newsweek
Review
"Should this be the one book you read if you're going to read one book about Shakespeare? Yes." The New York Observer
Review
"Bloom has given us the crowning achievement of his career...If any piece of literary criticism can have a practical effect on our stage and imaginations this is the one." Salon
Synopsis
A landmark achievement as expansive, erudite, and passionate as its renowned author, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human is the culmination of a lifetime of reading, writing about, and teaching Shakespeare. Preeminent literary critic Harold Bloom leads us through a comprehensive reading of every one of the dramatist's plays, brilliantly illuminating each work with unrivaled warmth, wit and insight. At the same time, Bloom presents one of the boldest theses of Shakespearean scholarships that Shakespeare not only invented the English language, but also created human nature as we know it today.
Synopsis
"The indispensable critic on the indispensable writer." -Geoffrey O'Brien, New York Review of Books
A landmark achievement as expansive, erudite, and passionate as its renowned author, this book is the culmination of a lifetime of reading, writing about, and teaching Shakespeare.
Preeminent literary critic-and ultimate authority on the western literary tradition, Harold Bloom leads us through a comprehensive reading of every one of the dramatist's plays, brilliantly illuminating each work with unrivaled warmth, wit and insight. At the same time, Bloom presents one of the boldest theses of Shakespearean scholarships: that Shakespeare not only invented the English language, but also created human nature as we know it today.
About the Author
Harold Bloom's many achievments include simultaneously holding teaching positions at two universities as Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale and Berg Professor of English at New York University. He spent sabbaticals teaching at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and at the Universities of Rome and Bologna. A past Charles Eliot Norton Lecturer at Harvard and Flexner Lecturer at Bryn Mawr, Bloom received the Christian Gauss Award for the best book of literary criticism. He is a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the recipient of many other awards, honorary degrees and prizes. His essays and reviews appear regularly in The New York Times Book Review, the Times Literary Supplement, and other periodicals.