William Shakespeare's King Lear

by Harold Bloom, Neil Heims

Based partially on a Celtic legend, King Lear occupies a special place in the Shakespearean canon. Lear's descent into madness, the central event of this play, illustrates the extent to which humanity can be degraded by its errors. Harold Bloom calls King Lear "the unique eminence in the world's literary world." This new edition is perfect for high school and college students doing in-depth study on this work of the Bard. Further resources such as a chronology of Shakespeare's life, a useful bibliography, and a handy index round out the title.

Genres: Nonfiction, Classics, Shakespeare, Literary Criticism

86 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2010

About the author

Harold Bloom was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world." After publishing his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than 50 books, including over 40 books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for the Chelsea House publishing firm. Bloom's books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1995.
Bloom was a defender of the traditional Western canon at a time when literature departments were focusing on what he derided as the "school of resentment" (multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, and others). He was educated at Yale University, the University of Cambridge, and Cornell University.

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of excerpts from essays about King Lear, including authors from Samuel Johnson's time to the present day (presented here in chronological order). Many of the excerpts, especially the older ones, are thought-provoking, and will probably lead me to the discovery of other secondary texts -- but there's something a little spooky about how Lear scholarship (at least with Harold Bloom in the driver's seat) seems to be getting duller and duller as decades pass.