About this Item
1st Printing. Signed. 745 pages. Published in 1998. Massive collection of essays on subject. One of the greatest books of the 20th century. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. Publisher's "Autographed Copy" round white sticker pasted in front. Presents Harold Bloom's "Shakespeare: The Invention of The Human". The crowning achievement of Bloom's genius: A 745-page celebration - "commentary" does not quite do justice in this context - of the one writer that he, very controversially, regards as the greatest literary artist of all time, the beginning, the middle, and the end of everything, in effect AND affect. The central narrative of Harold Bloom's life-work is the existential struggle between "authority" and "personality". Whether it's specifically between orthodoxy versus heresy, The Holy Bible versus The Book of J, normative Judaism and Christianity versus mystical Kabbalah/Gnosticism, "personality" is triumphant because it is more expressive, more subtle, and more multitudinous whereas "authority" inevitably becomes predictable, rigid, and ossified. The idea of "personality" is not just articulated, but sublimely dramatized by Bloom. He credits Shakespeare with inventing it, and devotes a definitive essay to each of the plays, emphasizing their "personality" and influence on all subsequent literature, feeling, and thought. "Before Bloom is done with us, he has made us wonder whether his vision of Shakespeare's influence on the whole of our lives might not simply be the sobering truth. A feast of arguments and insights, written with engaging frankness and affecting immediacy. Filled with literally thousands of insights" (Daniel Hintzsche). "The ultimate use of Shakespeare is to let him teach you to think too well and towards whatever truth you can sustain without perishing" (Harold Bloom). An absolute "must-have" title for Harold Bloom collectors. This Autographed Copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the publisher's tipped-in page by Harold Bloom. This title is a great book. As far as we know, this is the only such pre-signed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (American) available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: The publisher issued a limited number of pre-signed copies, which vanished from bookstores (within a day of their release in 1998). No such copies have resurfaced since, more than twenty years later (as of 2019), which means that collectors have held on to them. Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. The greatest literary critic of our time on the greatest writer of all time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER HAROLD BLOOM TITLES IN OUR CATALOG) ISBN 1573221201. Seller Inventory # 19622
Bibliographic Details
Title: SHAKESPEARE: THE INVENTION OF THE HUMAN - ...
Publisher: New York City, NY: Riverhead Books, 1998
Publication Date: 1998
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: As New
Dust Jacket Condition: As New
Signed: Signed by Author
Edition: 1st Edition.
About this title
It is a long and fascinating itinerary, and one littered with thousands of sharp insights. Listen to Bloom on Romeo and Juliet: "The Nurse and Mercutio, both of them audience favorites, are nevertheless bad news, in different but complementary ways." On The Merchant of Venice: "To reduce him to contemporary theatrical terms, Shylock would be an Arthur Miller protagonist displaced into a Cole Porter musical, Willy Loman wandering about in Kiss Me Kate." On As You Like It: "Rosalind is unique in Shakespeare, perhaps indeed in Western drama, because it is so difficult to achieve a perspective upon her that she herself does not anticipate and share." Bloom even offers some belated vocational counseling to Falstaff, identifying him as an Elizabethan Mr. Chips: "Falstaff is more than skeptical, but he is too much of a teacher (his true vocation, more than highwayman) to follow skepticism out to its nihilistic borders, as Hamlet does."
In the end, it doesn't matter very much whether we agree with all or any of these ideas. What does matter is that Bloom's capacious book sends us hurrying back to some of the central texts of our civilization. "The ultimate use of Shakespeare," the author asserts, "is to let him teach you to think too well, to whatever truth you can sustain without perishing." Bloom himself has made excellent use of his hero's instruction, and now he teaches us all to do the same. --Daniel Hintzsche
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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