Cleopatra : I am fire and air / Harold Bloom.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bloom, Harold, author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare's personalities

Shakespeare's personalities

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, -30 B.C--In literature.

Cleopatra.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Antony and Cleopatra.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Characters.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, -30 B.C.

Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare, William).

Characters and characteristics.

Literature.

Physical Description:

xiii, 138 pages ; 22 cm.

Edition:

First Scribner hardcover edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Scribner, 2017.

Summary:

Offers an in-depth exploration of Shakespeare's character Cleopatra, delving into the complexities of her personality as well as how the author's understanding of her has evolved over the years.

"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. 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, he delivers exhilarating clarity and invites 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." -- Publisher's description

Contents:

To cool a gypsy's lust

No single thing abides but all things flow

O'erflows the measure

Oh, my oblivion is a very Antony

Antony and Octavia: a sacrifice to Roman power

I that do bring the news made not the match

In the east my pleasure lies

You will be whipped

The god Hercules withdraws

This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me

I am dying, Egypt, dying

The round world / should have shook lions into civil streets

He words me, girls, he words me

Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness

I wish you all joy of the worm

I am fire and air.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9781501164163

1501164163

OCLC:

1004963659