Books by Harold Bloom

In a culmination of a series that began with "The Anxiety of Influence" and "A Map of Misreading", Harold Bloom expands upon his controversial theory of revisionism, which he views as a contest of opposing artistic and moral drives. From this theoretical perspective, Bloom re-examines Freud, religious sources of literature, literary models such as fantasy, and the sequence of American writers that includes Emerson, Whitman, Wallace Stevens, Hart Crane, and John Ashbery.

The story of the Nation of Islam's early leader is dissected by Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University and major literary critic. Part of the literary criticism series "Bloom's Notes", this volume also includes a biography of Haley, a list of characters, and extracts of major critical sources.

In this strikingly bold and original work, Harold Bloom extends his investigation of the religious imagination to produce a brilliant examination of America's national soul. We think we are a Christian nation, but we are not, says Bloom, who identifies the American religion as a variation on Gnosticism. We are Americanized Gnostics, believers in a pre-Christian tradition of individual divinity. Americans believe that God knows and loves them in a personal way, and that something inside them, deeper even than a soul, is already in contact with god. The American self stands outside of creation; it is older than creation, as old as God, of which it is a part. In the American religion, to be free is to be joined in solitude with God or Jesus. "No Western nation is as religion-soaked as ours," says Bloom, and he explores the varieties of religions that have grown on American soil. With perception and insight he examines Christian Science, Seventh-day Adventism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostalism, and the varieties of New Age and African-American beliefs. But he probes most deeply into the two religions that he believes will come to pervade our national life in the next century: the Mormons and the Southern Baptists. Bloom's analysis of religion in America, while certain to be controversial, will influence and perhaps shape any discussion of this subject for years to come.

Essays discuss the title character from Willa Cather's "My Antonia," as well as the author's themes and style.

Harold Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence has cast its long shadow of influence since it was first published in 1973. Through an insightful study of Romantic poets, Bloom puts forth his central vision of the relations between precursors and the individual artist. His argument that all literary texts are a strong misreading of those that precede them had an enormous impact on the practice of criticism and post-structuralist literary theory. The book remains a central work of criticism for all students of literature. Written in a moving personal style, anchored by concrete examples, and memorable quotations, this second edition of Bloom's classic work maintains that the anxiety of influence cannot be evaded - neither by poets nor by responsible readers and critics. A new introduction, centering upon Shakespeare and Marlowe explains the genesis of Bloom's thinking, and the subsequent influence of the book on literary criticism of the past quarter of a century.

Offers concise, easy-to-understand biographical, critical, and bibliographical information presented in a user-friendly format for book reports and term papers. It condenses extensive critical research into one compact student handbook.

Bloom's notes offers concise, easy-to-understand biographical, critical, and bibliographical information presented in a user-friendly format for book reports and term papers Most importantly, it condenses extensive critical research into one compact student handbook.

The country's foremost critic, Harold Bloom, chooses the greatest American poetry for our time from ten years' worth of the widely acclaimed "Best American Poetry" series.

This book is part of the series "Modern Literary Characters", edited by Yale professor Harold Bloom. Professor Bloom presents a collection of essays from a variety of critical perspectives on Bigger Thomas, the main character in Richard Wright's "Native Son".

Offers brief profiles of Black writers, including Paul Laurence Dunbar and Phillis Wheatley.

Offers brief profiles of Black poets and dramatists, including Jean Toomer and Langston Hughes.

This volume provides detailed biographies, a wide selection of critical extracts, and comprehensive bibliographies of the thirteen most significant black American prose writers up to the early twentieth century

Provides biographical, critical, and bibliographical information.

This volume provides detailed biographies, a wide selection of critical extracts, and comprehensive bibliographies of the Thirteen most significant black American prose writers of the early twentieth century.

This volume provides biographical, critical and bibliographical information on the fifteen most significant black American women fiction writers, including Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston, Gayl Jones, Terry McMillan, and others.

This volume provides biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on the seventeen most significant black American women poets and dramatists.

Based on incidents that took place in the southwestern United States and Mexico around 1850, this novel chronicles the crimes of a band of desperados, with a particular focus on one outlaw, known as "the Kid," a boy of fourteen.

A discussion of poetic theory examines the language of poetry, three models of poetic originality, and the technique whereby modern poets come to terms with those of the past.

Presents a selection of criticism on Lady Brett Ashley, a survey of excerpts and critical essays, and unpublished chapters of "The Sun Also Rises"

Presents literary criticism focusing on Caliban, the grotesque character from Shakespeare's "The Tempest" who also appears in works by Robert Browning and W.H. Auden.

Joseph Heller's manic, bleak, blackly humorous, and brilliant novel has become a classic of American literature, and "Catch-22" has entered the language as a term describing a no-win situation. Set during the last months of World War II, the novel tells the story of an Air Force bombardier, the hapless Yossarian, who is convinced--quite rightly, of course--that people are trying to kill him. The famous "catch" is that the terrified Yossarian, who constantly and by increasingly inventive means tries to persuade his superiors that he is crazy and should be grounded, can't be grounded because his fear of dying proves that he is sane--and so he is assigned to more and more bombing missions. Heller makes the horrors of war, which include Yossarian's traumatized reliving of the particularly grisly death of a friend, into comedy with the help of a Dickensian cast of characters, including the elusive Major Major Major Major, the blackmarket profiteer Milo Minderbinder, the photographer Hungry Joe, and the wonderfully named parade-loving Lieutenant Scheisskopf. Based on Heller's own war experiences, CATCH-22 was published in 1961 and was considered shocking because it viewed World War II as anything but the glorious, romantic adventure depicted in many postwar movies and books. Heller's novel became one of the defining texts for Vietnam War protestors in the late '60s and early '70s because of its fierce, irreverent denunciation of war and bureaucracy. An interesting sidelight on the book is that Heller originally titled it CATCH-18, but the change was made because Leon Uris's WWII novel, MILA 18, had just been published.

Offers a brief profile of Charles Dickens, and discusses themes, plot, and characters in "Great Expectations"

"Great Expectations" is at once a superbly constructed novel of spellbinding mastery and a profound examination of moral values. Here, some of Dickens's most memorable characters come to play their part in a story whose title itself reflects the deep irony that shaped Dickens's searching reappraisal of the Victorian middle class.

Includes a brief biography of the author, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

This book is part of the series "Modern Literary Characters", edited by Yale professor Harold Bloom. Professor Bloom presents a collection of essays from a variety of critical perspectives on the main character from Virginia Woolf's"Mrs. Dalloway".

Profiles writers such as John Buchan and Dashiell Hammett.

Offers brief profiles of L. Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll, Kenneth Grahame, H. Rider Haggard, Lafcadio Hearn, Rudyard Kipling, Beatrix Potter, and George MacDonald.

This volume provides biographical information on the twelve most significant writers of classic horror fiction, including Ann Radcliffe, Charles Robert Maturin, Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, Ambrose Bierce, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, and Henry James. Included are detailed biographies, a wide selection of critical extracts, and comprehensive bibliographies.

Offers brief profiles of Ambrose Bierce, Charles Brockden Brown, Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, Edgar Allan Poe, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Bram Stoker.

This volume provides biographical, critical and bibliographical information on the thirteen most significant writers of mystery and detective fiction up to 1930, including G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Dorothy L. Sayers, and S. S. Van Dine.

This volume provides biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on the twelve most significant writers of science fiction up to the 1930s, including Edgar Rice Burroughs, Aldous Huxley, and others...

Since its first publication in 1965, this edition has been widely hailed as the best available text of Blake's poetry and prose. Now revised, if includes up-to-date work on variants, chronology of poems and critical commentary by Harold Bloom. An "Approved Edition" of the Center for Scholarly Editions of the Modern Language Association.

This volume provides biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on the twelve most significant contemporary black American fiction writers, including Toni Cade Bambara, Ernest J. Gaines, Alex Haley, Toni Morrison, Ishmael Reed, and more.

This volume provides biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on the fourteen most significant contemporary black American poets and dramatists, including Ed Bullins, Rita Dove, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, Thylias Moss, Ishmael Reed, and Ntozake Shange.

Offers a brief profile of Dante, provides an overview of the themes, structure, and characters of the "Inferno," and includes selections from critical essays.

Presents a selection of literary criticism focusing on the character of David Copperfield, ranging from contemporary reviews to essays from noted critics.

Edith Grossman's definitive English translation of the Spanish masterpiece. Widely regarded as the world's first modern novel, and one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the famous picaresque adventures of the noble knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. Unless you read Spanish, you've never read Don Quixote.

"Though there have been many valuable English translations of Don Quixote, I would commend Edith Grossman's version for the extraordinarily high quality of her prose. The Knight and Sancho are so eloquently rendered by Grossman that the vitality of their characterization is more clearly conveyed than ever before. There is also an astonishing contextualization of Don Quixote and Sancho in Grossman's translation that I believe has not been achieved before. The spiritual atmosphere of a Spain already in steep decline can be felt throughout, thanks to her heightened quality of diction.

Grossman might be called the Glenn Gould of translators, because she, too, articulates every note. Reading her amazing mode of finding equivalents in English for Cervantes's darkening vision is an entrance into a further understanding of why this great book contains within itself all the novels that have followed in its sublime wake."

From the Introduction by Harold Bloom

Miguel de Cervantes was born on September 29, 1547, in Alcala de Henares, Spain. At twenty-three he enlisted in the Spanish militia and in 1571 fought against the Turks in the battle of Lepanto, where a gunshot wound permanently crippled his left hand. He spent four more years at sea and then another five as a slave after being captured by Barbary pirates. Ransomed by his family, he returned to Madrid but his disability hampered him; it was in debtor's prison that he began to write Don Quixote. Cervantes wrote many other works, including poems and plays, but he remains best known as the author of Don Quixote. He died on April 23, 1616.

Emily Bronte's novel is about two families in Yorkshire, a brooding Byronic hero, and a love that is stronger than death. WUTHERING HEIGHTS is her only novel--unless it is true that, upon her death, her sister Charlotte burned the manuscript of another. Drawing on the Gothic tradition, it is a tale of obsession, and tells the story of Catherine Earnshaw, a wilfull and romantic girl brought up to be a lady, and Heathcliff, the mysterious gypsy orphan. The relationship between these two remains tempestuous to its end, and affects future generations of these complicated families. The novel's complex structure and point of view were ahead of their time.

This book is part of the series "Modern Literary Characters", edited by Yale professor Harold Bloom. Professor Bloom presents a collection of essays from a variety of critical perspectives on the main character from Flaubert's "Madame Bovary".

Includes a brief biography of the author, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

Includes a brief biography of the author, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

Offers a brief profile of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and discusses plot, characters, and themes in "The Great Gatsby"

Offers a brief profile of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and discusses plot, characters, and themes in "The Great Gatsby"

Presents a representative selection of criticism devoted to the character of Falstaff, with a chronological survey of excerpts and critical essays.

Essays discuss Raskolnikov's motives, the themes of Christianity and existentialism, the causes of crime, and the use of space in Dostoyevsky's novel.

Offers a brief profile of the author, discusses the themes, structure, and characters of "Nineteen eighty-four," and includes selections from critical reviews.

In Jonathan Swift's bitter, witty, and utterly brilliant satire of the state of England in the early 18th century, his hero, Lemuel Gulliver (the epitome of the average man), becomes, as he travels, increasingly frustrated by the corruption and irrationality of the human race. His sea voyage takes him first to Lilliput, where he is first exploited by its tiny citizens and then condemned as a traitor. Then he lands in Brobdingnag, to whom he is the Lilliputian; he is repulsed by the size, grossness, and stupidity of the giants who capture him. His third voyage is to Laputa, where Swift wickedly satirizes intellectuals as impractical twits. It's only in the land of the Houyhnhnms that Gulliver finds peace, where gentle, intelligent, and ever-rational horses rule the land, and the humans--known as Yahoos--are brutish and stupid. When Gulliver is cast out, he is consumed with grief, and his return to England--the land of true Yahoos--brings him no joy. When it first appeared (1726), GULLIVER'S TRAVELS shocked the reading public with its pessimistic outlook, general irreverence, and graphic descriptions of bodily functions. It remains, however, a treasure of English literature. Even for readers who no longer understand the political context that is the main point of the merciless satire, the book is a work of wild imagination, enormous humor, and thrilling adventure.

Since its first production in London in 1602, the tragedy of HAMLET has become Shakespeare's most famous play, staged thousands of times, and considered a masterpiece of English literature and culture. On the ramparts of the Danish castle, young Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, receives a visitation from the ghost of his dead father who reveals a betrayal "most foul strange and unnatural": the old king claims to have been murdered by his own brother, Claudius, who then assumed the throne and married his widow. Hamlet swears to seek vengeance against his uncle, but soon finds himself plagued by doubts, indecision, and moral and religious quandaries. As he struggles with his task, Hamlet feigns madness, speaks in riddles, and contemplates suicide. After he accidentally stabs Polonius, Claudius's counselor, Hamlet is sent into exile--and Polonius's daughter, Ophelia, who had been in love with Hamlet, goes mad from grief and drowns herself. In the tragedy's climax, Hamlet returns to Denmark and stages a play in the hopes of exposing his uncle's guilt, while unbeknownst to him, Claudius has set about plans to have Hamlet poisoned. HAMLET is part of the well-established tradition of "revenge tragedies" that were popular at the end of the Elizabethan era, but the play transcends all its influences in its examination of justice and duty, and as a subtle portrait of a sensitive young man torn between righteous revenge and his duty as a moral man. For many critics Hamlet's psychological and philosophical dilemmas represent the greatest depiction of the complexities of the modern man.

Offers a brief profile of Harper Lee, and looks at the plot, characters, and themes of "To Kill a Mockingbird"

Bloom's Notes offers concise, easy-to-understand biographical, critical, and bibliographical information presented in a user-friendly format for book reports and term papers. Most importantly, it condenses extensive critical research into one compact student handbook.

Includes a brief author biography, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

Compiles a selection of literary criticism focusing on Heathcliff, the dark, mysterious character in Emily Bronte's classic Wuthering Heights, starting with contemporary reviews and ending with essays from noted critics.

Includes a brief biography of the author, thematic and structural analysis of the works, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

Offers a brief introduction to the works of Homer, and discusses plot, characters, and themes in "The Odyssey"

By its evocation of a real or imaged heroic age, its contrasts of character and its variety of adventure, above all by its sheer narrative power, the Odyssey has won and preserved its place among the greatest tales in the world. It tells of Odysseus' adventurous wanderings as he returns from the long war at Troy to his home in the Greek island of Ithaca, where his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus have been waiting for him for twenty years. He meets a one-eyed giant, Polyphemus the Cyclops; he visits the underworld; he faces the terrible monsters Scylla and Charybdis; he extricates himself from the charms of Circe and Calypso. After these and numerous other legendary encounters he finally reaches home, where, disguised as a beggar, he begins to plan revenge on the suitors who have for years been besieging Penelope and feasting on his own meat and wine with insolent impunity.

At a time when faster and easier electronic media threaten to eclipse reading and literature, the author explores reasons for reading and demonstrates the aesthetic pleasure reading can bring.

Critical essays on the "The Portrait of a Lady" examine the ways in which Isabel Archer embodies the themes of the novel.

Includes a brief biography of the author, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

Compiles a selection of literary criticism focusing on Joan of Arc as portrayed in the works of Shakespeare, Friedrich Schiller, Mark Twain, and George Bernard Shaw.

A collection of seven critical essays on Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" arranged in chronological order of publication.

A collection of seven critical essays on Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" arranged in chronological order of publication.

Includes a brief biography of Jonathan Swift, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

In THE TRAGEDY OF KING RICHARD III, Shakespeare brilliantly dramatizes the terrible rise of Richard of Gloucester to the throne of England, and the subsequent downfall of his bloody reign. Unrepentant, deformed in body and spirit, willfully evil, and blessed with a serpent's tongue, the hunchbacked King Richard III sits aside Milton's Satan as one of the greatest villains of English literature. The play opens with Richard's brother Edward IV as King and England at peace, but Richard, "determined to prove a villain," sets about a series of heinous acts to pave his way to the throne: he has his older brother imprisoned and murdered, beheads nobles opposed to him on false charges, locks away his young nephews in the tower where they are later killed, and even does away with his wife to make way for a more politically advantageous marriage to his own niece. Finally, feared and despised in all quarters, and with his closest ally, Lord Buckingham, turned against him, Richard III loses his crown and his life in the battlefield, leading to the rise Henry VII, and the end of the War of the Roses between the York and Lancaster families.

A special edition honoring the 150th anniversary of the poet's seminal work presents the original 1855 text in its complete form, in a volume that includes.

Presents a selection of literary criticism focusing on Vladimir Nabokov's controversial character, including critical extracts and essays from noted critics.

Shakespeare's dark portrait of ambition begins when the eponymous hero, a Scottish soldier, encounters three witches, who mysteriously refer to him as the future king. As, step by step, their prophecy begins to be fulfilled, the seeds of ambition are planted not only in Macbeth but in his scheming wife, who soon is plotting the murder of Duncan, King of Scotland. This murder--and the string of killings that inevitably follow--sets in motion a series of dark deeds that torment Macbeth and Lady Macbeth with guilt, which manifests itself most pointedly when a sleepwalking Lady Macbeth attempts to wash the blood from her hands, famously uttering "Out, damn'd spot!" MACBETH was probably written between 1603 and 1606; it is the last of Shakespeare's major tragedies and is peculiarly concise, perhaps because Shakespeare had learned of King James's penchant for shorter works. The plot was inspired by the Chronicles of Holinshed's narrative of the reigns of Duncan and Macbeth in Scotland. Richard Burbage, one of the most prominent actors of the Elizabethan stage, is said to have originated the title role.

Covers eleven writers.

Covers twelve African American writers since World War II, including Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison.

Called the greatest American novel, "Huckleberry Finn" follows a no-account boy and a runaway slave as they make their way down the Mississippi. In a world filled with con men and slavers, Huck and Jim have only each other to rely on. Mark Twain blends brilliant satire and social commentary with breathtaking adventure, told in Huck's own wry, observant words.

Offers a brief profile of Mark Twain, and examines the plot, characters, and themes in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"

Charles Marlow, the narrator of four of Joseph Conrad's greatest works--'Youth' (1902), and Chance (1913)-- is as enigmatic as the tales he recounts.

Seven critical essays bringing various interpretations to the novel about a monster created by a scientist.

This volume provides biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on the twelve most significant modern black American fiction writers, including Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes, Paule Marshall, Ann Petry, and John A. Williams. Included are detailed biographies, a wide selection of critical extracts, and comprehensive bibliographies.

Providing biographical, critical, and bibliographical information, a volume includes significant modern black poets and dramatists such as Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorrain Hansberry, Robert Hayden, Margaret Walker, and Jay Wright.

Provides brief biographies, critical extracts, and bibliographies for thirteen modern crime and suspense writers.

This volume provides detailed biographies, a wide selection of critical extracts, and comprehensive bibliographies of the fifteen most significant fantasy writers of the mid-twentieth century, including Ray Bradbury, E. R. Eddison, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Clark Ashton Smith, and J. R. R. Tolkien.

Provides biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on thirteen significant mystery writers from the 1930s to the 1960s, including Margery Allingham, Erle Stanley Gardner, Ngaio Marsh, Ellery Queen, Rex Stout, and Josephine Tey.

Chronicling the achievements of such authors as Robert Bloch, Shirley Jackson, and H. P. Lovecraft, a collection of profiles provides biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on noted horror writers from the first half of this century.

Bigger Thomas, a young black man in Chicago, murders two women and is condemned to death. Bigger, whose crimes escalate as the story takes its sad and terrible course, feels--like Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT--that the act of murder is a kind of existential act, and is the only kind of freedom he has ever known. Wright deliberately avoided making his protagonist a sympathetic character, wishing to accurately depict the dehumanization of blacks in American society, as well as his belief that Bigger, as a product of his environment, is not truly guilty of the murders he committed.

Presents a representative selection of criticism devoted to the character of Odysseus, from Homer and the Romans to Shakespeare and Joyce, with a chronological survey of excerpts and critical essays.

Ellison's watershed novel of race is summarized, critiqued and detailed in vivid tones as part of this acclaimed series. A perfect resource for introducing readers to both the analytical technique of literary criticism and the world of black studies.

A comprehensive new volume that includes all of the poetry that Emerson published during his lifetime, demonstrates his skill and depth as a poet, and reveals his private, meditative, emotional side--a portrait of a freer, more unconventional Emerson.

The still controversial first novel by Richard Wright is examined in its entirety as part of this series. "School Library Journal" says ". . . these titles fill a void: literary criticism for high school students".

Such scholars as Robert Langbaum, Ann Wordsworth, and John Killham analyze Browning's poetry, drawing attention to styles, literary structure, and themes.

'Romanticism and Consciousness' is a comprehensive collection of essays on Romanticism-its intellectual and political backgrounds, its place in literary history, its continued relevance to the present age, its relation to psychoanalysis and other modern trends of thought-and on the major English Romantic poets. The topics covered include the relations between nature and consciousness, nature and revolution, and nature and literary form; the principal poets studied are Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats.

Set during five of the most intensely dramatic days ever portrayed, ROMEO AND JULIET was probably written in 1594 or 1595, and first published in a 1597 edition, as transcribed by actors who had performed it. Other editions appeared later, but even the more authoritative versions, such as that of 1599--probably drawn from Shakespeare's own manuscript copies--lack the detailed stage directions present in the actors' transcription; thus, modern editions incorporate several sources. ROMEO AND JULIET is among the most oft performed of Shakespeare's works, and it has been among the most beloved since its earliest days on the stage. Though the title page of the 1597 edition declares that ROMEO AND JULIET had been performed and enjoyed many times prior to its publication, the first extant direct record of the events of a production refer to a 1662 staging, in which the play was probably adapted or altered--adaption was particularly popular in the 17th century. One London stage ran different conclusions on alternative nights; audiences who went home glum on Friday could be uplifted by the play's ending if they returned on Saturday night. The story of ROMEO AND JULIET was derived by Shakespeare from many sources. The version most contemporary to his own was the 1562 poem "The Tragicall History of Romeus and Iuliet" by Arthur Brooke, which itself was an adaptation of a French piece by Pierre Boaistuau, which Boaistuau had adapted from the Italian. Indeed, aspects of the tragic story have recurred throughout Western literature since at least the third century. Shakespeare greatly intensified the pace by compressing a piece which had unfolded over the course of several months into the space of five days--a period in which much transpires at daybreak, including the famous balcony scene where Romeo declares, "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?/It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." Romeo is forced to approach Juliet in secret because of the impassioned rivalry between his family, the Montagues--and Juliet's, the Capulets. Despite the intensity of their family's mutual disdain, the young lovers strive to marry. However, fate intervenes to keep them apart, and, when the Montagues and Capulets discover the folly of their ways, it's too late for Romeo and Juliet.

Rosalind was first performed in proper Elizabethan fashion by a young boy; in turn, Rosalind, through the play's narrative, disguises herself in exile as the male Ganymede, who then flirts with her male love Orlando in the Forest of Arden. In this volume's section of short critical extracts Hugh M. Richmond finds that Rosalind's gender experiment have given her 'sexual insights....so potent that she anticipates Prospero's dominion in The Tempest.

This volume provides biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on the thirteen most significant science fiction writers of the Golden Age. Each chapter consists of three parts: a bibliography of the author; a selection of brief critical extracts about the author; and a bibliography of the author's published books.

SHAKESPEARE: The Invention of the Human is the culmination of Harold Bloom's life's work in reading, writing about, and teaching Shakespeare. It is his passionate and convincing analysis of the way in which Shakespeare not merely represented human nature as we know it today, but actually created it: before Shakespeare, there was characterization; after Shakespeare, there was character, men and women with highly individual personalities--Hamlet, Falstaff, Iago, Cleopatra, Macbeth, Rosalind, and Lear, among them. In making his argument, Bloom leads us through a brilliant and comprehensive reading of every one of Shakespeare's plays.

With this study, the student will find a running synopsis of the action, an explanation of difficult words, and a wide range of classroom-tested activities of Shakespeare's work to help turn the script into drama. This dramatic experience for groups as well as for individuals, is at the heart of the series.

Compiles a selection of literary criticism focusing on Shakespeare's King Lear, ranging from early critical extracts to essays by noted critics.

Presents a selection of criticism on the character of Shylock, with a survey of excerpts and critical essays on one of Shakespeare's most controversial characters.

Includes a brief biography of Sophocles, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

Includes a brief biography of Stephen Crane, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

America's premier literary critic defines a "Western Canon" of children's literature in this enchanting anthology of the best poems and stories ever written for young people. STORIES AND POEMS FOR EXTREMELY INTELLIGENT CHILDREN OF ALL AGES is a must-have anthology, sure to inspire readers young and old for years to come.

Generally agreed to be Shakespeare's last play, THE TEMPEST was most likely written in 1610. Twelve years before the action begins, Prospero--Duke of Milan--and his daughter, Miranda, were stranded by Prospero's brother, Antonio, on a remote and idyllic island where Miranda has grown up happily among the beasts and flowers, never seeing any man but her father. Many years later, Prospero uses his powers and the help of Ariel, the sprite, to effect a shipwreck--hence the play's title--that brings Antonio to the island, along with the king of Naples and his son, Ferdinand, who promptly falls in love with Miranda. Their love story, juxtaposed with Prospero's revenge on his brother and his final act of mercy, form the basis of a simple plot. A combination of tragedy and romantic comedy, the play includes a happy ending that, finally, leans toward the latter. Unlike Shakespeare's other plays, THE TEMPEST is full of magic and exoticism and what we now think of as special effects, using evocative music and extravagant imagery to create a mood of enchantment that, nonetheless, confronts serious questions about reality and illusion. Some interpretations of the play see Prospero--who, in his dazzling last speech, renounces his magic powers--as the aging Shakespeare bidding farewell to the theater. THE TEMPEST is also interesting because its events take place in a 24-hour period. And it is, of course, the source of a famous phrase: when the sheltered Miranda first lays eyes on Ferdinand, she exclaims, "Oh brave new world, that has such people in it!"

Let Yale University professor Harold Bloom--author of The Western Canon and a leading authority on literature--help develop your understanding of the world's great literary works. Unlike other study guides, Bloom's Notes offers a wide selection of critical analyses by renowned scholars, as well as concise biographical and bibliographical information and a comprehensive thematic discussion of the plot--all in one handbook.

The author of The Western Canon surveys Walt Whitman's significant poetic works, from early notebook fragments of Song of Myself to the late poems of Good-bye my Fancy.

More than a required reading list, The Western Canon is a major work of vision by the foremost literary critic in America. In defining the essential masterworks of world literature--the Western Canon--Bloom enlightens and inspires all readers to return to the special joys of reading that our literary tradition offers. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Includes a brief biography of William Golding, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

Offers a brief profile of Shakespeare, and discusses the plot, characters, and themes in "Hamlet"

Offers a brief profile of Shakespeare, and discusses the plot, characters, and themes in "Hamlet"

Includes a brief biography of the author, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

Includes a brief biography of the author, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

Includes a brief biography of the author, thematic and structural analyses of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

Includes a brief biography of William Shakespeare, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

Unlike other study guides, Bloom's Notes offers a wide selection of critical analyses by renowned scholars, as well as concise biographical and bibliographical information and a comprehensive thematic discussion of the plot--all in one book.

Explores the impact of the English romantic tradition on the poetry of Yeats.