**"The indispensable critic on the indispensable writer." -Geoffrey
O'Brien, *New York Review of Books
A landmark achievement as expansive, erudite, and passionate as its
renowned author, this book is the culmination of a lifetime of reading,
writing about, and teaching Shakespeare.
Preeminent literary critic-and ultimate authority on the western
literary tradition, Harold Bloom leads us through a comprehensive
reading of every one of the dramatist's plays, brilliantly illuminating
each work with unrivaled warmth, wit and insight. At the same time,
Bloom presents one of the boldest theses of Shakespearean scholarships:
that Shakespeare not only invented the English language, but also
created human nature as we know it today.