From Harold Bloom, one of the greatest Shakespeare scholars of our
time, comes an intimate, wise, deeply compelling portrait of
Cleopatra--one of the Bard's most riveting and memorable female
characters--in "a masterfully perceptive reading of this seductive
play's endless wonders" (Kirkus Reviews).
Cleopatra is one of the most famous women in history--and thanks to
Shakespeare, one of the most intriguing personalities in literature. She
is lover of Marc Antony, defender of Egypt, and, perhaps most
enduringly, a champion of life. Cleopatra is supremely vexing, tragic,
and complex. She has fascinated readers and audiences for centuries and
has been played by the greatest actresses of their time, from Elizabeth
Taylor to Vivien Leigh to Janet Suzman to Judi Dench.
Award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom writes about
Cleopatra with wisdom, joy, exuberance, and compassion. He also explores
his own personal relationship to the character: Just as we encounter one
Anna Karenina or Jay Gatsby when we are in high school and college and
another when we are adults, Bloom explains his shifting understanding of
Cleopatra over the course of his own lifetime. The book becomes an
extraordinarily moving argument for literature as a path to and a
measure of our own humanity.
Bloom is mesmerizing in the classroom, wrestling with the often tragic
choices Shakespeare's characters make. With Cleopatra, "Bloom brings
considerable expertise and his own unique voice to this book"
(Publishers Weekly), delivering exhilarating clarity and inviting us
to look at this character as a flawed human who might be living in our
world. The result is an invaluable resource from our greatest literary
critic.
