This collection of lectures by A.C. Bradley was published in 1904. It was based on talks he gave to students and has been reprinted as a Penguin Classic.
There are eight lectures total, I think. They establish the definition of tragedy that Bradley uses and the history of the plays as they were then knows. Each tragedy that he discusses gets 2 lectures apiece: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. The lectures range from discussion of the individuals at the heart of these tragedies to larger themes that WS addresses, sometimes with conclusions, and sometimes without.
They are informed, informative and delightful.
So, I'm in this Shakespeare Festival Reading Group, and we decided to read this book for our January meeting. We are not always super thoughtful about how much time these books will take to read, but here's the thing - we read them.
I loved this book. It is dense. It is insistent. It repays close attention. It is funny. The lectures are mind-blowing and also - they are incredibly well-organized. You could, with a little bit of time and effort, turn one of them into an interesting twitter thread or tumblr post. The points are succinct and related and flow one from the other. I think that might be a cool way to get into them, actually - to pull out the main ideas and connect them via supporting claims, etc. Ah, social media, how you can inspire closer thought!
Also we're reading Hamlet for November, so I'm totally dipping back into this. There is something very grounding in the experience of thinking through his thoughts on the character of Hamlet - it can help when, as a not-an-actor, I'm faced with words meant to be spoken by someone who knows how.
I think that anyone looking to understand how to craft a good argument about literature should add this book to their list. Along with Playing in the Dark by Toni Morrison.
#40days40books list
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