A Short History of Shakespearean Criticism

“Mr. Eastman’s book is to be welcomed on at least two counts. It makes for substantial and inviting reading on its own, and it serves as a guide to a fearfully bewildering subject. . . . The commentary in these pages is wide, learned, ingenious and full of penetrating and striking insights. . . . Mr. Eastman’s clarity, fairness and enthusiasm make his book an example of what a scholarly book should be.” ―The New York Times

The Shakespeare industry, one reviewer has remarked, seems to be one in which there is no unemployment. Each year new interpretations are put forth as hundreds of books and articles are added to the list of critical studies of Shakespeare. Now Arthur M. Eastman’s A Short History of Shakespearean Criticism, a descriptive and analytical survey, fills the needs for an authoritative introduction to the major criticism of Shakespeare from his own time to the present.