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Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by…
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Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (original 1998; edition 1999)

by Harold Bloom

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2,816225,037 (3.9)35
A scholarly, yet not pretentious look at Shakespeare's works as a reflection of human nature. A very good reference work. Read Bloom's take on any play before reading/seeing it, and you will surely get much more out of it. ( )
1 vote AliceAnna | Oct 22, 2014 |
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The eminent critic Harold Bloom explores Shakespeare in this large book. Bloom’s argument is that before Shakespeare we didn’t have human characters as we know them except on rare occasions. Of course, there was Marlowe and Chaucer, but with Marlowe, it seems that a lot of his characters were hyperbolic parodies. I read “Tamburlaine,” “Dido, Queen of Carthage,” “Doctor Faustus,” and I think the Jew of Malta. Therefore, I am somewhat familiar with Marlowe. As for Chaucer, I believe I read most of Canterbury Tales. Now when I say I read them, I mean that I passed over them once or twice. I didn’t go and study the plays and stories extensively. This might be to my detriment in this case.

Bloom goes through each play that is accepted in the Shakespeare Canon and discusses how these characters act in a believable manner that makes them good characters. So you get a summary of each play along with some of the more important lines. It explores those lines and tells you what those lines mean. Even in his earliest plays, Shakespeare had a faint glimmer of genius. Of course, a lot of his works borrow a great deal from Marlowe, which is why I mentioned him. Eventually, Shakespeare took off the training wheels and makes his own characters.

It is a great new take on the plays of Shakespeare. Even though I had to read Shakespeare in school, examining his works in this light brings a whole new dimension of meaning to what is said. Even Romeo and Juliet becomes interesting again since he explores it in a way that was not acceptable when I read it in high school. Take the character of Mercutio. It might have been revealed to me that he was a bawdy sort that only cared about sex and whatnot, but I think I would have remembered that, especially as a hormone-ridden teen. Even Bloom’s favorite Shakespearean character, John Falstaff, was someone I never encountered when I was younger. I only read Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet, and Macbeth when I was in school. I also read some of the sonnets, but those are not included in this book. So I never met Rosalind either, since I didn’t cover any of his comedies or histories.

I don’t really have any issues with this book. It flows really well and the book is organized in a manner that makes it easy to find what you need. It might be a bit of a hassle if you don’t know the order of the Shakespeare Canon, but that is what a Table of Contents is for. It is quite informative and a great resource. If you only read one book on Shakespeare let this one be it. ( )
1 vote Floyd3345 | Jun 15, 2019 |
A scholarly, yet not pretentious look at Shakespeare's works as a reflection of human nature. A very good reference work. Read Bloom's take on any play before reading/seeing it, and you will surely get much more out of it. ( )
1 vote AliceAnna | Oct 22, 2014 |
I'm not all the way sure I agree with Bloom's ideas on Shakespeare, but I'd be the first to add that Bloom is very hard to disagree with. ( )
  pewterbreath | Nov 3, 2013 |
Typical Bloom - some extremely insightful and enlightening insights, and some that are completely bizarre and absurd. Good for referencing Shakespeare and for finding interesting bits. I admit that this is a bit beyond my fragmentary experience with Shakespeare, so I'll just give it three stars and try again after I've read some more. ( )
  HadriantheBlind | Mar 30, 2013 |
A deeply interesting book that analyzes each and every one of Shakespeare's plays showing how the Bard "invented" the human as we know it. In terms of a being capable of self reflection and self evolution.
At times it is heavy going, but the parts about Falstaff, Hamlet and Macbeth are really enjoyable, of course much depends also from which plays you like most.
It definitely sits between a reading book and a reference volume, it's for you to decide. ( )
1 vote CarloA | Feb 14, 2013 |
Though Bloom apparently now agrees with me on Measure for Measure, which I have taught in Freshman and Sophomore college classes for thirty years--often preferring it to the old ethnic chestnuts of MV and Othello (Shakspeare's only Arab play, the Moor)--this is not a particularly revealing critical work, and an opportunistic venture, since Bloom's whole career was based on dissing the canon in favor of Blake, Blake, Blake. And his work Anxiety of Influence is much more innovative, though it derives from contentious, patriarchal Freudianism.
As for Shakespeare criticism, Shapiro's 1599 is much better written and more insightful, though on fewer plays, of course. Bloom runs through each play in a separate brief chapter, like 100 Famous Novels. I never thought of novel plot books as real books. Q.E.D. Is this? ( )
2 vote AlanWPowers | May 10, 2012 |
No noun exists without an djective in Bloom's energetic style. He confesses that the book is based on a lecture series that fits my frequent bias for the spoken wor in academic subjects. However I also have a footnote fetish and miss things like an index to help me revisit choice comments. ( )
  selmablanche | Dec 3, 2011 |
If you are a student who is new to Shakespeare and are having difficulty with the language, my first suggestion to you is to go to see the play in the theatre, that will make most of it make sense. Read the play through from start to finish and see if you can make sense of it. But then read the chapter in this book by Harold Bloom about that particular play. Once you have gotten the basic plot and characters of a play, Bloom can help you to start thinking about what the play means, and about what is interesting about it as compared to other literary works. It's true what mmckay says about Bloom going on and on. I agree with mmckay that if anybody should be allowed to go on and on, it would be Harold Bloom. I am sure that I can learn a lot from him.
Just to give one example, please look at the description on pages 252-253, when he describes the poetic utterances of Richard II in the play of which he is the central character: "When Richard, in Act V, begins to sound a little like a proleptic parody of Hamlet, we distrust the king as much as ever, and yet we also come to realize that he has been dazzling us since Act III, Scene ii, though with a purely verbal brilliance."
This should give you an idea of the flavour of the prose in the book. At first glance it seems a bit on the heavy side, but I think this would be unfair, because the sentiments expressed are fairly complex, and there are no extraneous words. I have no complaints. After reading or attending a performance of a Shakespeare play, I am just overwhelmed with the drama, and I think I can benefit from the reasoning and insights that Bloom brings. I feel like I'm not as smart as him, and his wisdom can rub off on me.
2 vote libraryhermit | Sep 18, 2010 |
This is the best book on Shakespeare's plays I have ever read, but it left me with a strange sensation. After reading the book, I felt like a professor who has just read a term paper that - even though the student wrote it in two days - is better than any paper on the subject he had ever read. Like the professor I was amazed and disappointed at the same time and, like him, I will always wonder what the paper would have been like had the student spent the whole semester writing it. I may be doing Mr. Bloom a grave injustice by saying this and he may very well have 'spent the whole semester' writing the book, but I just cannot shake the feeling that there is a great deal more in the mind of Mr. Bloom and I long to see it.

The book is worth much more than whatever was paid for it. If you love Shakespeare, read it; if you just kind of like Shakespeare, you really should read it; and if you do not like Shakespeare - you must read it. ( )
5 vote millsge | Jun 24, 2009 |
Most anything Bloom writes is worth reading. Occasionally he can be tiresome, occasionally he can be repetitive; occasionally he can be tiresomely repetitive (see the later chapters from his book "Jesus and Yahwah--the Names Divine").
But he, along with Jacob Neusner and Norman Cantor (all of them Jewish, coincidentally?--and Richard Posner), are the most genuinely educated writers we have in America. Anything Bloom writes has been well thought through. It doesn't matter if you agree with him on everything. It's merely enough that he gets one to think!
Live long, Harold Bloom, and prosper. And keep writing! ( )
3 vote Pianojazz | Aug 9, 2008 |
This book could have been subtitled, "Shakespeare for the Common Reader". Despite the fact that Hamlet and Falstaff intrude unexpectedly, and interesting characters are kept off-page, the book contains many interesting insights into the plays. And so Bloom inspires us to re-read Shakespeare.
3 vote RaviSankrit | Oct 15, 2007 |
Often incomprehensible but sometimes helpful before watching a performance. ( )
  Doondeck | Apr 18, 2007 |
Alternately really insightful and really annoying. Bloom is so full of himself I fear he may explode. ( )
1 vote bhalpin | Nov 27, 2006 |
I adore this book. It gives a voice to the genius of shakespeare. ( )
  justine | Sep 10, 2006 |
It is a great lesson on Shakespeare. ( )
  Filzero | Nov 27, 2015 |
It is a great lesson on Shakespeare. ( )
  Filzero | Nov 27, 2015 |
It is a great lesson on Shakespeare. ( )
  Filzero | Nov 27, 2015 |
Shorter Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human: "Shakespeare is awesome, especially Falstaff and Hamlet!"
  rameau | Aug 3, 2011 |
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 > Characters/Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 > Knowledge >/Psychology/Characters and characteristics in literature/Drama > Psychological aspects/Personality in literature/Humanism in literature
  Budzul | May 31, 2008 |
MH Bayliss (Amazon): I appreciate all my fellow reviewer's criticisms about the book: yes it's true that Bloom was opinionated, non-politically correct, and a bit of a wacko at times. Still, he's one of the few 20th century critics who has the self confidence not to fall into lit. crit. jargon to express himself -- he manages to avoid the snobbiness that often accompanies Shakespeare studies. The word I would use to describe this work overall is uneven. Some chapters are so insightful that you may ask yourself how you could have ever read the play without reading the essay and still appreciated it. Others are small ruminations on intersting points which are much less earthshattering. Sure, there are much more "scholarly" essays out there on Shakespeare, but these are all READABLE essays, all well-written. I happen to enjoy Bloom's lack of tight structure. It's like sitting down with Bloom at a coffee house or bar and hearing him ramble on about his thoughts and lifetime reflections on Shakespeare.
But remember, Bloom was not just your average guy chewing his cud -- he's probably the most well-read and brilliant reader of our generation. Due to a sleep disorder that he had, he often would stay up all night and would typically consume several volumes of literature in one evening. So, when forced to listen to his musings, there are many kernels of brilliance that make their way to the surface. Many professors have begrudged him his popular success, but by avoiding jargon, Bloom does us all a service by popularizing Shakespeare for everyday readers and making us want to go back and read and reread Shakespeare. At the very least, these chapters will make you run to a bookstore to read more Shakespeare -- how can you criticize anyone who instills a passion for literature? I have read all of Bloom's major works and enjoyed them for many of the same reasons I list above. Buy this one and read a chapter or two at a time along with the plays. It's a book to be savored over a long period of time.
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6 vote | mmckay | May 9, 2006 |
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