Characters of Shakespeare's Plays

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By Listen TheBook Posted on May 31, 2023

In Category - Literary Criticism, Essays

Authors: William Hazlitt In Year : 1916

Book Language: English

Audiobook: Characters of Shakespeare's Plays

Introduction
Preface
Cymbeline
Macbeth
Julius Caesar
Othello
Timon of Athens
Coriolanus
Troilus and Cressida
Antony and Cleopatra
Hamlet
The Tempest
The Midsummer Night's Dream
Romeo and Juliet
Lear
Richard II
Henry IV in Two Parts
Henry V
Henry VI in Three Parts
Richard III
Henry VIII
King John
Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Merchant of Venice
The Winter's Tale
All's Well That Ends Well
Love's Labour's Lost
Much Ado About Nothing
As You Like It
The Taming of the Shrew
Measure for Measure
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Comedy of Errors
Doubtful Plays of Shakespeare
Poems and Sonnets

This famous Shakespearean exploration illuminates its plays through the frame of character, while also weighing theme, mood, structure and poetics. In it, 19th-century critic William Hazlitt unveils Shakespeare's genius in creating and infusing characters with a life-likeness that often challenges, if not overshadows, more material human nature -- in both inner and outer worlds. As he writes: "The characters breathe, move, and live, ... think and speak and act just as they might do, if left entirely to themselves." The first printing sold out in weeks, and the second sold briskly, until a harsh and antagonistic appraisal in The Quarterly Review quelled sales altogether -- and unraveled Hazlitt's critical cachet in the eyes of the general public. Not until the mid-twentieth century were Hazlitt and his works re-evaluated, when he was finally recognized as one of Shakespeare's foremost critics of all time. In literary criticism, the renowned Harold Bloom ranks Hazlitt second only to Dr. Johnson. - Summary by Nemo