In this book Bradley approaches the major tragedies of Shakespeare through an extended study of the characters, who were presented as personalities independent of their place in the plays. Though his approach has been questioned since the 1930s, the work is considered a classical masterpiece and is still widely read.
The book studies in detail four tragedies of Shakespeare, namely, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. But much that is said on the main preliminary subjects holds good, within certain limits, of other dramas of Shakespeare. Of course, it will apply to these other works only in part, and to some of them more fully than to others.
Bradley, Andrew Cecil was born in 1851 in Cheltenham. He was the son of a clergyman and the younger brother of the philosopher F.H. Bradley. He received his education at Cheltenham College and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he became a fellow in 1874, lecturing in Philosophy and English. In 1882 Bradley became the first Professor of Literature and History at Liverpool, and later on Professor of English Language and Literature at Glasgow from 1890, and Professor of Poetry at Oxford from 1901 until 1906, when he retired from academic life.