Ive not read a lot of formal literary criticism outside of educational settings, so it was an interesting endeavour to read this after Macbeth. Bloom is famously a Shakespeare authority, but this little book was both very approachable and also insightful, for the more casual reader. It shows Bloom's quality both as an academic, but also as a teacher that he can make his thoughts this accessible to the layman.

There might not be much in here for the English lit post-grads/doctorates etc, but for you and I, this book had some excellent talking points and additions that go beyond the notes in the Norton Critical Edition of Macbeth that I read. I realize this isn't for everyone, but I'm glad I have the Cleopatra volume, and will probably dive into that sometime soon also.

In reality a large portion of the book is reproductions of the play, and maybe only like 45% of the book is Bloom's writing. Some will find that a waste of money, but I appreciated being able to follow that journey without having both books open. Having read this book, it felt like I had sat in a lecture with bloom going over the play at a good level of detail, but with lots of opportunities or nuggets laid out for me to dive into in my own time with further reading.