Rating: 
Summary: A subjective view of Shakespeare
Review: This book, whilst making several interesting points about character as the invention of Shakespeare's brain actually adds very little to the sum of our knowledge of the plays or their characters. Bloom's almost obsessive interest in Hamlet and Sir John Falstaff actually unbalances the whole book as an academic exercise. His passion is endearing but, at times, obsessive and his quotations overlong. This is neither truly a book for the academic wanting new insight nor the new convert seeking enlightenment. His sweeping statements about productions or the unproducibility of certain plays is also, by definition, subjective and shows that he cannot, as none of us can, begin to see a minute fraction of the productions of the plays offered in any year let alone a lifetime. However, most of us do not air this lack in print and make sweeping statements on performance based on this lack. This is not to say that this is not a good read or thought provoking- it certainly roused my interest and feelings - I shouted at it several times!
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Summary: The Cult of Personality
Review: This book is valuable, being, as one of the professional reviewers states, basically a collection of aphorisms, from a truly great interpreter. Bloom drives his thoughts relentlessly, untill they leap off the cliff of his own personality. The pieces you will find at the bottom are not organized or thematic, but these modern fragments are some of the most useful pieces of scholarship you will ever find. Quibble with his "theme" if you want (he seems to himself, at times), it won't affect what is supremely valuable INSIDE this collection. As for that theme, I think maybe it would have been a more accurate title to call it "Shakespeare and the Modern Cult of Personality." I think he would have called it that if he did not have what borders on a high scool crush on "Shakespeare the man." Bloom does not argue, as some reviewers pretend, that Shakespeare is responsible for creating all that is human, but for shaping the way we view "the human" and our own humanity NOW. He may well be correct about that, although that very thought is so upsetting to some people that what should be (and at heart is) a very boring book to them suddenly becomes a topic of heated conversation.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of great content. A bit windy.
Review: I picked this up because I wanted to be re-introduced to Shakespeare. I was not disappointed on that score. There are bold assertions, to be sure, but also a wealth of tasty tid bits, anecdotes, social commentary and generally thought provoking writing. On the other hand, Bloom seems to repeat himself a bit often, and one occasionally wonders where the editor was.
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Summary: Bloom is losing steam
Review: A better, certainly faster read of Bloom"s is RUIN THE SACRED TRUTHS. This new books is a sum of pale Bloomian generalizations. Of course, his recent book on gnosis would make any further addition to his work a vast Improvement. Bloom should get to work and write a book on EMERSON. Now that would be a contribution.
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Summary: Shakespeare and Management
Review: The Board of Directors Career Resource Center (www.stybelpeabody.com) usually reviews books about corporate strategy, corporate governance, and senior level career management. Why should a book about Shakespeare's plays be in our line up? At a professional level, Bloom sensitizes the reader into understanding that Shakespeare is a master, timeless psychologist who still has much to teach us. Here is but one example: I was working with a CEO who had a brilliant subordinate. But that subordinate appeared to delight in creating chaos in the office. The CEO was failing in attempts to rehabilitate this brilliant individual. The CEO could not comprehend why this subordinate would spend the time and energy on chaos-producing behavior. The CEO's image of himself was as someone who knows how to master chaos. Rather than get into a lengthy discussion with my client, I simply asked the CEO to re-read Shakespeare's "Othello" and pay attention to the character of Iago. Such people do exist in our own companies! Not only was my client able to appreciate the Iago-like qualities of the subordinate, but he also comprehended his own, unflattering Othello-like failings. Bloom believes that Shakespeare was THE master psychologist of the Western World in addition to being THE major poet and dramatist. Indeed, Bloom makes the case that our core Western notions of ourselves are essentially inventions of Shakespeare. What other author before Shakespeare created characters that simultaneously value and deplore themselves? Shakespeare took literature beyond eloquent caricatures. Our concept of personality is Shakespearean more than it is Freudian. SHAKESPEARE: THE INVENTION OF THE HUMAN makes a great gift. It can simultaneously be used as a reference book when thinking about specific plays or as a text for reading about Shakespeare. But I think of the book as a core book about understanding people. Ask me "Why Shakespeare?" and I will say. "Who else is more worthy of your reading time?"
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Summary: Shakespeare: The Invention of Harold Bloom
Review: As with nearly all Shakespeare criticism in every age, Bloom, more often than not, reveals more about himself and his age than Shakespeare. (Shakespeare seems especially suited to this sort of thing.) The deeper the critic probes, the more they probe themselves. Writing about Shakespeare inevitably becomes a kind of excuse to write about oneself--and revel in it. And how Bloom revels! To meet Harold Bloom must be an entertaining experience. One Star, for this book, might have been anough had it only been about Shakespeare, but that half of the book about Harold Bloom is just too entertaining. Consider the following typical sentence: "The power of the state will be personified by King Henry V, whose attitude toward Falstaff differs scarecely a jot from that of academic puritans and professorial power freaks." Of course, such a comparison means very little to anyone who is not familiar with Bloom's academic world (with which he appears inrodinately familiar, despite his disdain). And the comment says far more about Bloom than Shakespeare's play. But Bloom's not only disdainful of the academics, but the feminists, deconstructionists, theater directors, etc.. He lets them all have it. And whether one agrees with him or not, none of its really about Shakespeare. In this, he reveals the age he lives in; his frustrations with its readings and interpretations of Shakespeare. So, by trying to correct them if not condemn them, he defines his Shakespeare (a.k.a himself) through them. He invents himself through Shakespeare. Why Bloom encourages so many to return to Shakespeare is self-evident. They want to try reading Shakespeare the way Bloom reads Shakespeare. Bloom is, after all, a far ranging and knowledgeable mind. He provides an admittedly powerful and compelling lense through which to read Shakespeare. Don't read this book to learn more about Shakespeare's practical art, however: his use of meter, rhyme, imagery; how he applies these skills to create drama(those skills that most make Shakespeare, Shakespeare). Bloom's book is about Shakespeare's characters and their "Bloom", as it were. It does make for fun reading. And pick up Azimov's Guide to Shakespeare, if you can find it--in many ways an ideal companion.
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Summary: Philosophically preposterous
Review: Frankly, I find the central thesis of this book an outrageous nonsense. It's not the grandeur of the Bard that is debatable: it's the very notion that someone, within a brief span of a few years, has undergone innumerable protean personality-transformations and projected them into vivid, flesh-and-blood characters ( true ), and that this feat represents the final dictum and stage in evolutionary ladder of human consciousness ( false ). As I recall, Bloom claimed in his "The Western Canon" that Freud was essentially a prosified Shakespeare. Good. But, prosified or not, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche or Jung are worlds quite beyond Shakespeare's reach. If we define "the human" as something intimately connected with "the physical/temporal", then Bloom is not entirely wrong. But, if "the human" encompasses also "the numinous", or "pneumatology", not just psychology, then Dostoevsky, Hegel or Jung are inhabitants of the universes Shakespeare knows nothing about.
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Summary: I Prize This Book
Review: This book has encouraged me to delve again into Shakespeare and become more aware of all he can offer me. Not only did I decide to buy myself a copy (after reading the copy from the library), I also bought a copy for my Father. Although I haven't been able to find the recommended Arden text for reading Shakespeare (which somewhat grieves me) I have checked out some plays, some audiotapes and will observe videos later. You might say this book has inspired me to get a bit outside myself, exert myself intellectually and discover the world of Shakespeare.
Rating: 
Summary: Bloom's work illustrates a skewed perception of the human
Review: I first heard of Bloom's new book from a friend of a relative. I was at first intrigued by the notion of an indepth study of the human spirit invariably present within Shakespeare's glorious works. With this perception, I proceded to read the book itself. I was certainly surprised by what I discovered. Bloom dares to assert that Shakespeare invented the human and its individual spirit. This notion seems so utterly preposterous. As another reviewer remarked, how can Bloom discount the works of Dante, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Homer, anyone you can name who lived and worked before Shakespeare. I find great irony in the decision to put the Delphic Sybil by Michelangelo on the cover. Michelangelo being one of the greatest INDIVIDUALs ever to create art in any medium. And wasn't he working previous to Shakespeare's arrival on the scene? Perhaps Bloom should consider a few of his arguments a bit further.
Rating:
Summary: provocative
Review: What a romp to read Bloom's take on the Bard and his art and time. This is surely a must for students of all ages. It's hard to further dramatize current affairs but Bloom does make one yearn for a Bardlike voice to comment on the brazen charm gaining kneed worship as it beckons all attend defense into a darkening world where truth has fled with virtuous light. Forgive me, Will.
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