Chronology -- To the reader -- Shakespeare's universalism -- I. The early comedies. 1. The comedy of errors -- 2. The taming of the shrew -- 3. The two gentlemen of Verona -- II. The first histories. 4. Henry VI -- 5. King John -- 6. Richard III -- III. The apprentice tragedies. 7. Titus Andronicus -- 8. Romeo and Juliet -- 9. Julius Caesar -- IV. The high comedies. 10. Love's labour's lost -- 11. A midsummer night's dream -- 12. The merchant of Venice -- 13. Much ado about nothing -- 14. As you like it -- 15. Twelfth night -- V. The major histories. 16. Richard II --- 17. Henry IV -- 18. The merry wives of Windsor -- 19. Henry V -- VI. The "problem plays." 20. Troilus and Cressida -- 21. All's well that ends well -- 22. Measure for measure -- VII. The great tragedies. 23. Hamlet -- 24. Othello -- 25. King Lear -- 26. Macbeth -- 27. Antony and Cleopatra -- VIII. Tragic epilogue. 28. Coriolanus -- 29. Timon of Athens -- IX. The late romances. 30. Pericles -- 31. Cymbeline -- 32. The winter's tale -- 33. The tempest -- 34. Henry VIII -- 35. The two noble kinsmen -- Coda : the Shakespearean difference -- A word at the end : foregrounding

Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human is an analysis of the central work of the Western canon, and of the playwright who not only invented the English language, but also, as Bloom argues, created human nature as we know it today. Before Shakespeare there was characterization; after Shakespeare, there were characters, men and women capable of change, with highly individual personalities. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human is a companion to Shakespeare's work, and just as much an inquiry into what it means to be human. It explains why Shakespeare has remained our most popular and universal dramatist for more than four centuries, and in helping us to better understand ourselves through Shakespeare, it restores the role of the literary critic to one of central importance in our culture

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