Cleopatra

I Am Fire and Air

Harold Bloom

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781501164187
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism in Drama
• Index: Literature

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—in "a masterfully perceptive reading of this seductive play's endless wonders" ( Kirkus Review s ). 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, "Bloom brings considerable expertise and his own unique voice to this book" ( Publishers Weekly ), delivering exhilarating clarity and inviting 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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Author’s Note
• 1. To Cool a Gipsy’s Lust
• 2. No Single Thing Abides but All Things Flow
• 3. O’erflows the Measure
• 4. Oh, My Oblivion Is a Very Antony
• 5. Antony and Octavia: A Sacrifice to Roman Power
• 6. I That Do Bring the News Made Not the Match
• 7. In the East My Pleasure Lies
• 8. You Will Be Whipped
• 9. The God Hercules Withdraws
• 10. This Foul Egyptian Hath Betrayed Me
• 11. I Am Dying, Egypt, Dying
• 12. The Round World / Should Have Shook Lions into Civil Streets
• 13. He Words Me, Girls, He Words Me
• 14. Some Squeaking Cleopatra Boy My Greatness
• 15. I Wish You All Joy of the Worm
• 16. I Am Fire and Air
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Copyright