Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human

The used copy of SHAKESPEARE,The invention of the Human/Harold Bloom was received promptly, and in excellent condition. It was hard to believe it was USED.

Bloom is at his best when he dissects many of Shakespeare's most wonderful dialogues and speeches. His analysis of Iago's soliloquys or of the pastoral section of The Winter's Tale are unforgettable. He is also quite convincing in demolishing various modern critical attempts to put Shakespeare in one box or another -- feminist, Freudian, anti-colonialist, or whatever suits the day's fancy.

He also makes no effort to hide his "bardolatry," i.e. his worship of Shakespeare. At age 13, I was given a Complete Works and started to read it. I can be assured that if I made something of Macbeth, I made nothing of Love's Labour's Lost. Yet the poetry rang true for me and always has rung true. Bloom brings back that sense of Shakespeare as unequalled genius of poem and character.

However, I grew tired of the constant litany of "Hamlet, Lear, Rosalind, Cleopatra, Iago," and others -- the names that Bloom constantly invokes in every chapter. These are Shakespeare's greatest creations; we know that. Bloom should not belabor the point. It only detracts from the power of a major work of criticism.

THIS book is like having an excellent professor guiding you through the labyrinth that Shakespeare can be...and Harold Bloom blows away the doors of perception!

Bloom is the great literary critic of our day, the master reader of our greatest literature. Shakespeare has always been for him the central figure of our literary tradition, the one who by far created the most. In his play by play analysis of Shakespeare Bloom argues that Shakespeare invented our present day conception of the human. He is the one who allowed our own inner minds to speak on the page. He is the one who created characters of flexibility and breadth beyond those we had known before. Bloom writes with inspiration as he exalts Rosalind, Falstaff, Hamlet, his major favorites and hosts of others. Bloom does what a great critic is supposed to do he gives us a far richer and greater sense of the work than we had before. He makes us eager to know it more.

I have to admit up front that I like reading Harold Bloom. I don't always agree with him and I often find his pronouncements on this, that and the other quite arrogant and short-sighted. On the other hand, his opinions often challenge me to consider my own and I respect his decades of grappling with the Bard and the history of Shakespearean criticism. As a fellow sufferer of Bardolatry, I feel I can sympathize with the man.

And what of this book? Well, it is quite the tome. Containing analysis of each of Shakespeare's plays, it's a test of endurance. Anyone who isn't familiar with the vast majority of Shakespeare's plays would be advised, perhaps, to read the introductory essays and dip into those chapters on the plays he knows.

As for myself, having read and seen most of the plays in the canon, I read the book through. In every chapter I found something valuable and I wouldn't have missed reading it for the world. When he feels a character is interesting or important--Iago, Cleopatra, Rosalind, Lear to name a few--he can wax practically poetic in his insight. The things that don't interest him he dismisses out of hand with a cutting remark or ignores entirely.

Still, to be frank, reading too much of this at once can be tiresome. In large doses it is like listening to the grumblings of an old man who feels his time is past and he doesn't get the respect he deserves anymore. He hasn't seen a performance of Shakespeare he's liked in thirty or more years. He rejects all modern forms of criticism and interpretation. His obsession with Hamlet and, in particular, Falstaff, finds its way into the discussion of practically every play. I love Hamlet almost as much as Bloom but even I got tired of him as he appeared time and again. As for Falstaff: there can be no doubt he is a great character; however I think it takes a man of Bloom's age to rate him so far above many of the other Shakespearean characters.

And as for Bloom's assertion that Shakespeare invented the human as we know it? Well, that may be pushing it a bit far for my taste but I take his point. The introspective nature and universality of Shakespeare's greatest characters was revolutionary. Certainly many important thinkers after him have found in Shakespeare the inspiration for ideas that have impacted our world. Our world--and most definitely our theater--would be different had Shakespeare never written. Still, would the nature of human beings be so very different? I remain unconvinced.

Ah, but Bloom makes it easy to argue with him. He invites it. And I enjoy the debate. If one can ignore the provocative prose and rake for the gems, these are pages worth mining. I, for one, am glad I did.