AUDIO

Cleopatra: I Am Fire and Air

by Harold Bloom
3 CDs. HighBridge Audio. Nov. 2018. 3 hrs. ISBN 9781684416783. $24.99. digital download. LIT
COPY ISBN
The play Antony and Cleopatra is one of the more dazzling jewels in the Shakespearian treasure trove. It teems with tension, pathos, and larger-than-life characters. There may be no greater sex symbol in all antiquity than Cleopatra. Bloom's (Iago: The Strategies of Evil) work, originally published in 2017, is an enlightening critique of this justifiably famous tragedy. Would someone who has never read or seen the play enjoy Bloom's book? Absolutely. Bloom not only explains the play, he also relates it to his own life and maturation. His powers of discernment are at their best in this work. As a narrator, Simon Vance was made for work like this. His reading of both Shakespeare's distinctive vocabulary and Bloom's excellent analysis is superlative.
VERDICT Cleopatra is the classical world's beguiling superstar and is well worth getting to know through a Shakespearian lens. ["Recommended for Shakespeare enthusiasts and readers seeking a deeper understanding of one of his greatest creations": LJ 8/17 review of the Scribner hc.]
Reviewed by Denis Frias, Mississauga Lib. Syst., Ont. , Mar 01, 2019
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