Harold Bloom, the doyen of American literary critics and author of The Western Canon, has spent a professional lifetime reading, writing about and teaching Shakespeare. In this magisterial interpretation, Bloom explains Shakespeare's genius in a radical and provocative re-reading of the plays.[...]

This series provides comprehensive reading and study guides for some of the world's most important literary masterpieces.[...]

"The Crucible" still has permanence and relevance a half century after its initial publication. This powerful political drama set amidst the Salem witch trials is commonly understood as Arthur Miller's poignant response to McCarthyism. Filled with fresh essays about the play, the new edition of this[...]

Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" is not simply a critique of colonialism in the Congo, but it is an examination of the human tendency toward self-endangering corruptibility. In this updated collection of critical essays, master literary scholar Harold Bloom suggests that this resonant work has ta[...]

With the publication in 1989 of her first novel, "The Joy Luck Club", Amy Tan was immediately recognized as a major contemporary novelist. Her work explores the lives of the women in four Chinese-American families and the daughters who struggle to fulfill or reject the cultural and familial expectat[...]