Falstaff

Give Me Life

By: Harold Bloom

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Falstaff is both a comic and tragic central protagonist in Shakespeare's three Henry plays: Henry IV; Henry IV, Part One and Henry IV, Part Two; and Henry V. He is companion to Prince Hal (the future Henry V), who loves him, goads him, teases him, indulges his vast appetites, and commits all sorts of mischief with him - some innocent, some cruel. Falstaff can be lewd, funny, careless of others, a bad creditor, an unreliable friend, and in the end, devastatingly reckless in his presumption of loyalty from the new king.

Award-winning author and esteemed professor Harold Bloom examines Falstaff with the deepest compassion and sympathy and also with unerring wisdom. He uses the relationship between Falstaff and Hal to explore the devastation of severed bonds and the heartbreak of betrayal. Just as we encounter one type of Anna Karenina or Jay Gatsby when we are young adults and another when we are middle-aged, Bloom examines his own shifting understanding of Falstaff over the course of his lifetime. Ultimately we come away with a deeper appreciation of this profoundly complex character, and this "poignant work" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) as a whole becomes an extraordinarily moving argument for literature as a path to and a measure of our humanity.

©2017 Harold Bloom (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Falstaff brooks no rebuttal.

"Falstaff brooks no rebuttal. His cascade of language blooms into a glowing radiance. He is the custodian of Shakespeare's word hoard."
- Harold Bloom, Falstaff

I know there are those that criticize Bloom’s approach to Shakespeare. He inserts himself too much into his text. He approaches Shakespeare as a poet and not necessarily as a scholar. He is no dramatist. He sees things that aren’t there and builds labyrinthine castles about Shakespeare from small, ambiguous clues.

I agree with much of it. But I love Bloom’s love for both Shakespeare and Falstaff. His book may not be perfect, but his love for Sir John is. I also love Bloom’s creativity. He might be just spinning webs and dancing with himself, but it feels like literary Jazz. If it ain’t your tune, well life is imperfect and short, so dance, watch, or drink some sack.

Narrative choices at odds with text

I felt that the narrative choices made didn't match the critical analysis of the text.