Shakespeare
Hamlet, King Lear, the sonnets
The invention of the human, as Harold Bloom put it. No writer has created more characters who feel fully alive, or explored the range of human consciousness — from Falstaff's wit to Lear's madness to Prospero's renunciation — with such depth and such music.
Key works
- Hamlet~1601— Consciousness examining itself
- King Lear~1606— The bleakest and greatest of the tragedies
- The Tempest~1611— Art, power, and forgiveness
- Sonnets1609— 154 poems on love, time, beauty