Cleopatra is among the most well-known ladies in history-and thanks to Shakespeare, perhaps one of the most intriguing personalities in books. She is the fan of Marc Antony, defender of Egypt, and, perhaps most enduringly, a champion of life. Cleopatra is usually supremely vexing, tragic, and complicated. She has fascinated readers and audiences for centuries and continues to be played by the greatest actresses of their own time, from Elizabeth Taylor to Vivien Leigh to Janet Suzman to Judi Dench.

Award-winning writer on the subject of Cleopatra: I Am Fire and Air and much loved professor Harold Bloom writes about Cleopatra with wisdom, joy, exuberance, and compassion. He also explores his own personal relationship to the type: Just like we encounter one Anna Karenina or Jay Gatsby when we are in high school and college and another whenever we are adults, Bloom explains his moving knowledge of Cleopatra during the period of his own lifetime. The book turns into an extraordinarily shifting argument for literature as a path to and a way of measuring our own humanity.

Bloom is mesmerizing in the class, wrestling with the often tragic choices Shakespeare’s characters help to make. With Cleopatra, he delivers exhilarating clarity and invites us to look at this character as a flawed individual who may be living in the world. The result is an invaluable resource from our biggest literary critic.