From Harold Bloom, the greatest Shakespeare scholar of our time, comes a portrait of Macbeth, one of William Shakespeares most complex and compelling anti-heroesthe final volume in a series of five short books about the great playwrights most significant personalities: Falstaff, Cleopatra, Lear, Iago, and Macbeth.

From the ambitious and mad titular character to his devilish wife Lady Macbeth to the mysterious Three Witches, Macbeth is one of William Shakespeares more brilliantly populated plays and remains among the most widely read. Macbeth is a distinguished warrior hero, who over the course of the play, transforms into a brutal, murderous villain and pays an extraordinary price for committing an evil act. A man consumed with ambition and self-doubt, Macbeth is one of Shakespeares most vital meditations on the dangerous corners of the human imagination.

Award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom investigates Macbeths unthinkable actions with razor-sharp insight, agility, and compassion. He also writes about his shifting understandingover the course of his own lifetimeof this endlessly compelling figure.

Acclaimed critic Bloom once again plumbs the depths of a Shakespeare play to reveal new insights [that]will shift the readers perceptions of a literary classic (Publishers Weekly). A lingering and deeply curious, even troubled, look at the titular character in the legendary playthis clear, concise, empathetic (Kirkus Reviews) volume delivers that kind of exhilarating intimacy and clarity in Macbeth, the final book in an essential series.