Summary
Shakespeare imbued A Midsummer Night's Dream with extraordinary complexity. This ethereal fantasy involves four different levels of representation, which intermingle but never wholly fuse. The enchanted forest in which most of the action takes place proves to be the ideal setting for a comedy exploring the intersection of reality and illusion, love and desire. This invaluable new literary reference presents a selection of the best contemporary criticism of one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, introduced by an essay from esteemed scholar Harold Bloom and featuring a bibliography, index, and chronology of the Bard's life.
Volumes in the Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations series are intended for in-depth study of literary classics through eight to 12 full-length essays that represent the best criticism available on a specific work.
Specifications
Chronology. Bibliography. Index.
About the Author(s)
Harold Bloom is Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University. Educated at Cornell and Yale universities, he is the author of 30 books, including Shelley's Mythmaking (1959), The Visionary Company (1961), Blake's Apocalypse (1963), Yeats (1970), A Map of Misreading (1975), Kabbalah and Criticism (1975), Agon: Toward a Theory of Revisionism (1982), The American Religion (1992), The Western Canon (1994), Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, and Resurrection (1996), and Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), a 1998 National Book Award finalist. The Anxiety of Influence (1973) sets forth Professor Bloom's provocative theory of the literary relationships between the great writers and their predecessors. His most recent books include How to Read and Why (2000), Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds (2002), Hamlet: Poem Unlimited (2003), Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? (2004), and Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine (2005). In addition, he is the author of hundreds of articles, reviews, and editorial introductions. In 1999, Professor Bloom received the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Criticism. He has also received the International Prize of Catalonia, the Alfonso Reyes Prize of Mexico, and the Hans Christian Andersen Bicentennial Prize of Denmark.