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Stephen Greenblatt

Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics Paperback – May 14, 2019

by Stephen Greenblatt (Author)

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"Brilliant, beautifully organized, exceedingly readable." ―Philip Roth

World-renowned Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt explores the playwright’s insight into bad (and often mad) rulers.

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.

Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

May 14, 2019
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.7 x 8.3 inches
ISBN-10

0393356973
ISBN-13

978-0393356977
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"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

"Rarely have these blood-soaked creatures seemed so recognizably human and so contemporary."
― John Lithgow

"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)

About the Author

Stephen Greenblatt (Ph.D. Yale) is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. Also General Editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature, he is the author of eleven books, including Tyrant, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve: The Story that Created Us,The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (winner of the 2011 National Book Award and the 2012 Pulitzer Prize); Shakespeare's Freedom; Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare; Hamlet in Purgatory; Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World; Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture; and Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare. He has edited seven collections of criticism, including Cultural Mobility: A Manifesto, and is a founding coeditor of the journal Representations. His honors include the MLA’s James Russell Lowell Prize, for both Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England and The Swerve, the Sapegno Prize, the Distinguished Humanist Award from the Mellon Foundation, the Wilbur Cross Medal from the Yale University Graduate School, the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre, the Erasmus Institute Prize, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of California, Berkeley. He was president of the Modern Language Association of America and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (May 14, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393356973
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393356977
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #111,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #93 in Fascism (Books)
- #580 in Literary Movements & Periods
- #858 in Dramas & Plays (Books)

Customer Reviews:
386 ratings

About the author

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Stephen Greenblatt

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Stephen Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. General Editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and The Norton Shakespeare, he is also the author of thirteen books, including The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve; The Swerve: How the World Became Modern; Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare; Hamlet in Purgatory; Practicing New Historicism; Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World; and Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture. He has edited six collections of criticism, is the co-author (with Charles Mee) of a play, Cardenio, and is a founding coeditor of the journal Representations. He was named the 2016 Holberg Prize Laureate. Additional honors include the MLA's James Russell Lowell Prize, for Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England, the Distinguished Humanist Award from the Mellon Foundation, and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of California, Berkeley. He was president of the Modern Language Association of America and has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Philosophical Society.

Customer reviews

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3 star		7%
2 star		2%
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Top reviews from the United States

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Thomas H Kloecker

The content is excellent, which is the same in both

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

Just so you know, Tyrant: Shakespeare on Power is the same book as Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics. The one with Power in the title is published in the UK (and ships from the UK) and the one with Politics in the title is published by W.W. Norton in the USA. They have different ISBN numbers. But the ONLY difference in the two is the one word in the title of the book. Amazon does not make it clear that the two are the same book, and you'd be forgiven if you ordered both thinking you'd be getting two different books. The content is excellent, which is the same in both, though.

70 people found this helpful

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Amy

Great Examination of Shakespeare's Tyrants

Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2018

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Tyrant is an examination of Shakespeare's exploration of government, society, and tyrannical figures throughout his plays. Chapters are sorted by topic (the influence of party politics on the rise of tyrants, the abuse for populism for political gain, the types and importance of enablers, the influence of personality and mental illness on tyrannical behavior, etcetera) and tend to examine one or two plays/characters at a time, complete with helpful quotations citing act, scene, and line. I only vaguely remember reading Hamlet and Macbeth in highschool, and was pleasantly surprised with how much I learned about the plays themselves over the course of Tyrant. I was also thankful that Greenblatt included so much information regarding the historical context of elizabethan England; it added a lot to my appreciation of the playwright's angled exploration of issues of power, something that weighed on everyone's mind, though it was something that could not be openly spoken of for fear of treason accusations. When a work is removed from its historical context, a vital part necessary for understanding the text is lost. The political landscape of near omnipotent kings and queens and the shifting tides of power between royal houses is an extremely important part of Shakespeare's plays that is only seen in its historical context, and that is something that most people do not stop to consider.

Some other reviews complain that Tyrant is a thinly veiled criticism of Trump and the Trump administration, but that is not because Greenblatt wrote a criticism of Trump and called an examination of Shakespeare. It is because Greenblatt wrote about Shakespeare's criticism of tyrants. If you don't think Trump is a budding tyrant but still see the parallels to tyrannical characters, perhaps you should think about that connection more.

All in all, Tyrant is a very well written work on Shakespeare's characters, plays, and the playwright's exploration of political power and I would recommend it.

52 people found this helpful

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Daniel Burton

The most enjoyable way to learn about tyranny

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2019

Verified Purchase

Rarely have I enjoyed a piece of political commentary as much as I did Stephen Greenblatt’s Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics.

In William Shakespeare’s day, it wasn’t safe to disagree with power. Unlike today’s America, with the protections of the First Amendment, his world was governed by the near-absolute power of the monarch, the aging Queen Elizabeth. And speaking ill of the queen led to swift and often deadly punishment. Instead, the Bard through his plays would examine the ways and means of tyranny, delving into the past and into foreign lands to create his voices that could say what could not be said frankly (“Greenblatt is the Harvard Shakespeare expert who co-founded new historicism, the lit-crit practice that seeks to place works in their historical context.”)

In the vein of speaking obliquely, this is Greenblatt’s commentary on Donald Trump, though the president is not named in its pages. Instead, the Tyrant focuses on several of the same that appear in Shakespeare's plays, examining them in their foibles for the causes and results of their tyranny. The book is rooted in an article that Greenblatt wrote for the New York Times in 2016. At a friend’s encouragement, he expanded it to a full book. He focuses his examination on Macbeth, Richard III, Lear, Coriolanus and Leontes from A Winter’s Tale (notably leaving out Claudius, perhaps because he is more well-known than most).

While it is ostensibly a commentary on politics, it does not read like just another piece of political punditry or tribal drivel. On the contrary, Greenblatt makes Shakespeare accessible and, well, interesting, as well as providing principles that can be read and interpreted to apply to almost any power selfish politicians or businessman. Reading it is as enjoyable as watching Shakespeare performed well. As Constance Grady puts it in her review of the book, “There is a certain pleasure to watching Shakespeare’s tyrants work, to watching Richard III brazenly woo Lady Anne over the body of a man he killed or listening to Macbeth’s mournful, poetic speeches.”

Perhaps the biggest observation for me, and where the book most departs from other books that more directly take on Trump, is that Tyrant leaves the reader to make his own observations and conclusions. Here is what a tyrant does; is this what we are living through?

25 people found this helpful

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Thomas H Kloecker

Excellent read. For your information

Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2018

Verified Purchase

Excellent read. For your information, Amazon also sells the same book but with a different ISBN number and different title. The only difference is one word in the title: Tyrant: Shakespeare on POWER is published in the UK and ships from there. Tyrant: Shakespeare on POLITICS is published by W.W. Norton in the States. Both are identical except for the one word in the title. If you order both books thinking they are different, you will receive, for all purposes, the same book.

39 people found this helpful

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Paul M.

Brilliant look at two worlds on the same path.

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

Spot on in so many ways. An excellent Shakespeare read as well, and perhaps more importantly, a stunning look at the US today, its "leader" on the way to becoming its "tyrant" and, more subtly, an examination of the underpinnings of the society that not only tolerates it, but seems to delight in it. "It" being the unraveling of what was once the world's supreme democracy.
A good if chilling look at how deeply Shakespeare could look into the soul of ANY country and its people.

13 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Ms Louise Wilford

Very interesting but too short

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

Great book - extremely interesting and well-written without requiring any in-depth academic knowledge of Shakespeare beyond being a general Shakespeare fan. Greenblat draws subtle (and not so subtle) parallels with modern-day tyrants. It is an interesting and entertaining book for people like me who did Eng Lit at university and who now and again goes to see a Shakespeare play. Mid-brow rather than high-brow. My only criticism was that it is too short. The kindle edition ended at 79% - the rest was footnotes and acknowledgements. But the 79% passed far too quickly - it is simply a short book. It discusses the following Shakespearian 'tyrants': Richard III, King Lear, Macbeth, Coriolanus - there must be more that I've forgotten! Sorry. Overall, I enjoyed it while it lasted but I expected more.

3 people found this helpful

Chloe

Timely

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 29, 2018

Verified Purchase

A wonderful read. Shakespeare seen through the eyes of one tuned into the dilemmas of our own times. In this perspective Greenblatt gives sharp focus and insights into the plays that feature tyranny, and at the same time throws a light on the ebb and flow of current political life. I'm not sure it is comforting to be reminded that 'politics was ever thus' but I thoroughly enjoyed the terrific skill of Greenblatt's telling.

4 people found this helpful

von Nichthoven

The best book about Trump

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 27, 2019

Verified Purchase

Without ever mentioning the chap, this book demolished him and his enablers, flaw by flaw, while analysing Shakespeare’s own obsessions with tyranny.

2 people found this helpful

Geek Goddess

Interesting take on Shakespeare

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 28, 2019

Verified Purchase

Interesting if heavy handed book drawing parallels between Trump and Shakespeare's villains.

3 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

A very interesting and easily engaging book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 31, 2019

Verified Purchase

Greenblatt gets to the heart of Shakespeare's political musings, which as he states still feel completely relevent in today's political climate. A very engaging read.

One person found this helpful

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