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Book Cover for: Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics, Stephen Greenblatt

Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics

Stephen Greenblatt

Paperback
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Critic Reviews

Good

Based on 11 reviews on

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Finalist:National Book Critics Circle Award -Criticism (2018)

Examining the psyche--and psychoses--of the likes of Richard III, Macbeth, Lear, and Coriolanus, Greenblatt illuminates the ways in which William Shakespeare delved into the lust for absolute power and the disasters visited upon the societies over which these characters rule. Tyrant shows that Shakespeare's work remains vitally relevant today, not least in its probing of the unquenchable, narcissistic appetites of demagogues and the self-destructive willingness of collaborators who indulge their appetites.

Book Details

  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
  • Publish Date: May 14th, 2019
  • Pages: 224
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.10in - 5.40in - 0.60in - 0.40lb
  • EAN: 9780393356977
  • Categories: • Shakespeare• Political Ideologies - Fascism & Totalitarianism• Shakespeare

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About the Author

Greenblatt, Stephen: - Stephen Greenblatt, PhD, is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University and general editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature. He is author of the Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning The Swerve.

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What people are saying

Mentioner image for: Michiko Kakutani
Michiko Kakutani
@michikokakutani
6 years

Michiko Kakutani is a book critic.

In his compelling new book "Tyrant," Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt describes Richard III as a "pathologically narcissistic" ruler who hates the rule of law because "it gets in his way and because it stands for a notion of the public good that he holds in contempt."

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Mentioner image for: Robert Viking O'Brien
Robert Viking O'Brien
@ShakespeareFlix
4 years

Professor Emeritus of English Literature at California State University, Chico. #amreading #shakespeare #amwriting #booktwitter

I can't imagine a more relevant book of #Shakespeare scholarship than Stephen Greenblatt's Tyrant. Don't miss this one, #Bardophiles. #BookRecommendation, #AmReading. https://t.co/ucg46YGVFn

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Mentioner image for: Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️
Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️
@tribelaw
1 year

“We are living through a revolt against the future. The future will prevail.” — Anand Giridharadas

“Russian readers have found much that is resonant in the book.” Just as Elizabethan era readers found much that was resonant in Hamlet’s “something that is rotten in the state of Denmark.” See Stephen Greenblatt’s great book,TYRANT: SHAKESPEARE ON POWER https://t.co/uLOu9yKdEc

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Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

Rarely have these blood-soaked creatures seemed so recognizably human and so contemporary.--John Lithgow
Greenblatt is especially fine on the mechanisms of tyranny, its ecology, so to speak, leaving one deeply moved all over again by Shakespeare's profound and direct understanding of what it is to be human--which includes, alas, being a tyrant.--Simon Callow "New York Times Book Review"
Elegant and deftly written.--Eliot A. Cohen "Washington Post"
Greenblatt shows us not only that Shakespeare's writings can serve as a brilliant guide to the mess of our current politics but also that he--Greenblatt, that is--is perfectly well able to give us an account of them.-- "Los Angeles Review of Books"
Shakespeare lived five centuries ago, yet Greenblatt's book has the feel of a series of urgent and very contemporary dispatches.-- "Christian Science Monitor"
Mr. Greenblatt breaks with the traditional assumption that Shakespeare must have been an uncritical admirer of monarchy. The Shakespeare that this book reveals is not only able to tell a bad king from a good but willing to raise serious doubts about monarchy as a regime.-- "Wall Street Journal"
An engaging study of some of the most eloquent despots on stage.-- "Guardian"
In Tyrant, Greenblatt demonstrates the enduring relevance of Shakespeare's outlook as much as providing a commentary...Shakespeare's voice rings down the ages, and, as with innumerable other human matters, we would do well to listen to it.-- "Independent"
[Tyrant] is valuable less for what it has to say about Shakespeare's plays than for how it applies the wisdom it has acquired through careful study of these works to the crisis roiling American democracy.-- "Los Angeles Times"
Shakespeare's fascination with the tyrannical impulse, in domestic as well as political settings, is undeniable and is acutely observed by Greenblatt. The overlap between the private and public spheres is always catastrophic, as is the tyrant's blind, psychotic fury at resistance when pure obedience is expected, an emotion the plays release and explore compulsively.-- "Literary Review (UK)"

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