Profoundly Entertaining

offers the general reader a chance to think about Shakespeare's artistry in a sustained way. Entertaining as Shakespeare's plays are, that quality by itself wouldn't justify the effort required to overcome the difficulty their language poses.

Their enduring popularity suggests that, to varying degrees, their audiences sense their profundity even if they cannot confidently articulate their experience. Without any overarching argument to make—merely with admiration for the most intelligent, honest, courageous, and sustained confrontation of human life of which we have written record—the book invites its readers to accompany Shakespeare on his journey of exploration into the human condition unobscured by prevailing orthodoxies and comforting illusions.