'These beautiful essays on Shakespeare, lucid, complicated, and deeply moving, are unique … for the conversation they forge between philosophy and literature. Unified by the twin themes of knowledge and acknowledgment, and thus by the relationship between scientific understanding and human understanding, the volume brings together some of the most remarkable literary essays in modern scholarship. Tp his now famous readings of six plays of Shakespeare, Cavell now adds a stunning … piece on Macbeth, containing complicated meditations about gender, sexuality and humanity.' Martha Nussbaum, author of Upheavals of Thought

• Preface and acknowledgements; Preface to the updated edition; 1. Introduction; 2. The avoidance of love: a reading of King Lear; 3. Othello and the stake of the other; 4. Coriolanus and interpretation of politics; 5. Hamlet's burden of proof; 6. Recounting gains, showing losses: reading The Winter's Tale; 7. Macbeth appalled; Index of names and titles.

'These beautiful essays on Shakespeare, lucid, complicated, and deeply moving, are unique … for the conversation they forge between philosophy and literature. Unified by the twin themes of knowledge and acknowledgment, and thus by the relationship between scientific understanding and human understanding, the volume brings together some of the most remarkable literary essays in modern scholarship. Tp his now famous readings of six plays of Shakespeare, Cavell now adds a stunning … piece on Macbeth, containing complicated meditations about gender, sexuality and humanity.' Martha Nussbaum, author of Upheavals of Thought

• Preface and acknowledgements; Preface to the updated edition; 1. Introduction; 2. The avoidance of love: a reading of King Lear; 3. Othello and the stake of the other; 4. Coriolanus and interpretation of politics; 5. Hamlet's burden of proof; 6. Recounting gains, showing losses: reading The Winter's Tale; 7. Macbeth appalled; Index of names and titles.

'These beautiful essays on Shakespeare, lucid, complicated, and deeply moving, are unique … for the conversation they forge between philosophy and literature. Unified by the twin themes of knowledge and acknowledgment, and thus by the relationship between scientific understanding and human understanding, the volume brings together some of the most remarkable literary essays in modern scholarship. Tp his now famous readings of six plays of Shakespeare, Cavell now adds a stunning … piece on Macbeth, containing complicated meditations about gender, sexuality and humanity.' Martha Nussbaum, author of Upheavals of Thought

• Preface and acknowledgements; Preface to the updated edition; 1. Introduction; 2. The avoidance of love: a reading of King Lear; 3. Othello and the stake of the other; 4. Coriolanus and interpretation of politics; 5. Hamlet's burden of proof; 6. Recounting gains, showing losses: reading The Winter's Tale; 7. Macbeth appalled; Index of names and titles.