Hamlet: Poem Unlimited

In his New York Times bestseller Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Harold Bloom showed us how Shakespeare shaped human consciousness and addressed the question of authorship in Hamlet. In Hamlet: Poem Unlimited, our most celebrated critic turns his attention to a reading of the play itself and to Shakespeare's most enigmatic and memorable character.

Hamlet: Poem Unlimited is Bloom's attempt to uncover the mystery of both Prince Hamlet and the play itself, how both prince and drama are able to break through the conventions of theatrical mimesis and the representation of character, making us question the very nature of theatrical illusion. In twenty-five brief chapters, Bloom takes us through the major soliloquies, scenes, characters, and action of the play, to explore the enigma at the heart of the drama, that is central to its universal appeal.

Every reader of Shakespeare will delight in this step-by-step analysis by our most beloved critic.

Author Biography: Harold Bloom, foremost literary critic and bestselling writer, is the author of numerous books, including the forthcoming Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds; How to Read and Why; Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human; The Western Canon; and The Anxiety of Influence. Among his many awards and honorary degrees, he holds the Gold Medal for Belles Lettres and Criticism from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and, most recently, the International Prize of Catalonia. A MacArthur Prize fellow, he is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University and Berg Professor of English at New York University.