Shakespeare and the Problem of Meaning

"Rabkin selectsThe Merchant of Venice, Henry V, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Richard III, Macbeth, Coriolanus, The Winter's Tale, andThe Tempestas the plays on which to build his argument, and he teaches us a great deal about these plays. . . . To convince the unbelievingthat that the plays domean, but that the meaning is coterminous with the experience of the plays themselves, Rabkin finds a strategy more subtle than thesis and rational argument, a strategy designed to make us see for ourselves why thematic descriptions are inadequate, see for ourselves tath the plays mean more than and statement about them can ever suggest." Barbara A. Mowat, Auburn University "Norman Rabkin's new book is a very different kind of good book. Elegantly spare, sharp, undogmatic. . . . The relationship between the perception of unity and the perception of artistic achievement is a basic conundrum, and it is one that Mr. Rabkin has courageously placed at the center of his discussion." G. K. Hunter,Sewanee Review "Rabkin's book is brilliant, taut, concise, beautifully argued, and sensitively responsive to the individuality of particular Shakespeare plays." Anne Barton,New York Review of BooksRabkin, Norman is the author of 'Shakespeare and the Problem of Meaning', published 1982 under ISBN 9780226701783 and ISBN 0226701786.