Shakespeare: The Invention Of The Human

Harold Bloom, the doyen of American literary critics and author of The Western Canon, has spent a professional lifetime reading, writing about, and teaching Shakespeare. In this magisterial interpretation, Bloom explains Shakespeare’s genius in a radical and provocative re-reading of the plays.

Understanding Shakespeare's Genius

How can we understand Shakespeare, whose ability so far exceeds his predecessors and successors? His genius has defied generations of critics’ explanations, and his work holds greater influence in the modern age even than the Bible. This book serves as a visionary summation of Harold Bloom’s reading of Shakespeare. In it, he expounds a brilliant and far-reaching critical theory:

Shakespeare, through his dramatic characters, was the inventor of human personality as we have come to understand it.

In short, Shakespeare invented our understanding of ourselves. He knows us better than we do:

‘The plays remain the outward limit of human achievement: aesthetically, cognitively, in certain ways morally, even spiritually. They abide beyond the end of the mind’s reach; we cannot catch up to them. Shakespeare will go on explaining us in part because he invented us…’

A Chronological Survey of the Plays

In this book, Bloom offers a chronological survey of Shakespeare’s plays, exploring the supra-human personalities of his great protagonists:

• Hamlet
• Lear
• Falstaff
• Rosalind
• Juliet

These characters represent the apogee of Shakespeare’s art, an art that stands as Britain’s most powerful and dominant cultural contribution to the world.

Here, Harold Bloom, an inspired and wise scholar at the height of his powers, vividly recovers Shakespeare’s genius, offering readers a profound understanding of the playwright’s unparalleled achievements.