TYRANT; Shakespeare on Politics

New York London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011. First Edition, First Printing. Cloth. Very Fine/Very Fine. 8vo (8 1/2" x 5 3/4"), red cloth with black lettering ; archival polyester-protected pictorial dust jacket (unclipped) with a small image of a theatrical king; 212 pages. As an aging, tenacious Elizabeth I clung to power, a talented playwright probed the social causes, the psychological roots, and the twisted consequences of tyranny. In exploring the psyche (and psychoses) of the likes of Richard III, Macbeth, Lear, Coriolanus, and the societies they rule over, Stephen Greenblatt illuminates the ways in which William Shakespeare delved into the lust for absolute power and the catastrophic consequences of its execution."--flap<br/> <br/> Stephen Greenblatt (born 1943) is a prominent American Shakespearean, literary historian, Harvard professor, and author. His most popular work is Will in the World, a biography of Shakespeare that was on The New York Times Best Seller list. He won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 2012, and the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2011 for The Swerve: How the World Became Modern.<br/> <br/> As New overall condition. No previous owner's or remainder markings.