Harold Bloom’s Take Arms Against a Sea of Troubles is a powerful final meditation on poetry’s ability to confront death and despair. Through Shakespeare, Milton, and Stevens, Bloom argues that great literature empowers the reader’s mind to resist mortality with imagination and meaning.

Marjorie Garber’s Character: The History of a Cultural Obsession explores how the concept of “character” evolved from moral essence to cultural performance. Drawing from literature, psychology, and politics, Garber reveals why our obsession with character tells us more than it solves.

Shakespeare and Modern Culture is not a conventional work of literary criticism. It is a sweeping cultural study that repositions Shakespeare not as a monument to be revered, but as a force still shaping how we think and live. For readers willing to engage deeply, it offers dazzling insights into why Shakespeare remains uncannily contemporary.