19 h 26 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 19 h 26 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Why does Shakespeare’s darkest suffering leave us with wonder as well as pain?
In Shakespearean Tragedy, A. C. Bradley takes you deep into Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. He begins with plain questions: what makes a tragedy, and how does Shakespeare build one? His lectures trace the shape of the plays while keeping their people in view: their choices, their moods, and the conflicts that lead them toward disaster.
Why does Hamlet delay? What makes Othello vulnerable to Iago? How do Lear’s suffering and Macbeth’s imagination shape their tragedies? Bradley reads scene by scene, treating characters as people whose motives deserve careful thought. His account connects the tragic hero’s inner life with the movement of the play, giving you a way to examine both character and dramatic structure.
What you’ll discover
- The shape of tragedy Explore Bradley’s account of a great person’s fall, and the questions that disaster leaves behind.
- Hamlet’s troubled delay Consider why Bradley places melancholy, rather than thought itself, at the heart of Hamlet’s difficulty.
- Othello and Iago Follow Bradley’s reading of an open nature exposed to a villain’s craving for power.
- Lear among the storms Enter a world of kings and wild heaths, where suffering reveals what Lear misses.
- Macbeth’s guilty imagination See how Bradley links Macbeth’s imagination with guilt and attends to the play’s atmosphere.
Who will love it
This is for readers who love Shakespeare's tragedies and want to see why the characters act as they do. It suits theatregoers, students, actors and the curious.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Analyse a play only to feel it better
- Tragic heroes fall from high places into suffering
- Deeds that grow from character cause the catastrophe
- The hero's greatness and his flaw are one thing
- The ruling power is neither blind fate nor justice
- Know how a tragedy is built to follow it
- Hamlet delays because melancholy has crushed his will
- Iago succeeds because Othello trusts completely
- King Lear overflows the stage but fills the imagination
- Macbeth is a storm of darkness, imagination and guilt
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La tragedia de Shakespeare: conferencias sobre Hamlet, Otelo, El rey Lear y Macbeth
by A. C. Bradley · 1904
Hamlet cannot strike his uncle, Othello trusts the wrong friend, Lear splits a kingdom, Macbeth hears a prophecy.
Challenging10–20 hours to readEspañol
Learn a language with challenging classicsEspañolFrancésAlemánItalianoJaponésPortuguésInglésHow we measure levels
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In short
What stops a prince from killing the man who murdered his father? Why does a general who has faced cannon fire believe a whisper about his wife?
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Analyse a play only to feel it better
Bradley limits his task. He will not discuss Shakespeare's life, his sources or even his verse. He wants only what he calls dramatic appreciation, a truer grasp of the action and the people.
His model reader is the actor. An actor studies every part and must know why a character speaks these words at this moment. Bradley says many unscholarly lovers of Shakespeare do this better than learned scholars.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1904
- Language
- Español
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/shakespearean-tragedy-lectures-on-hamlet-othello-king-lear-macbeth.
Bradley, A. C. (2026). Shakespearean tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/shakespearean-tragedy-lectures-on-hamlet-othello-king-lear-macbeth (Original work published 1904)
Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/shakespearean-tragedy-lectures-on-hamlet-othello-king-lear-macbeth.
@book{bradley2026shakespearean,
author = {Bradley, A. C.},
title = {Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/shakespearean-tragedy-lectures-on-hamlet-othello-king-lear-macbeth},
note = {First published 1904}
}
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What is Shakespearean Tragedy by A. C. Bradley about?
It is a set of lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. Bradley explains what a Shakespearean tragedy is, how it is built, and how to understand the main characters by following their deeds and inner struggles.
What does Bradley say is Shakespeare's tragic conception?
Bradley says the tragedies show a person of high rank whose own deeds, rooted in character, bring calamity and death. The central feeling is waste, because greatness is destroyed, and the ruling power seems both moral and self-wounding.
Why does Hamlet delay, according to Bradley?
Bradley rejects outside obstacles, moral scruple and overthinking as the main cause. He points to melancholy brought on by his mother's marriage and his father's death, which drains his will and turns his thinking into excuses.
The author
A. C. Bradley
1851–1935 · British literary scholar
Andrew Cecil Bradley (1851–1935) was a British literary scholar born in Cheltenham, England. He taught at universities in Liverpool, Glasgow, and Oxford. He was Oxford’s professor of poetry from 1901 to 1906. His books include Shakespearean Tragedy, published in 1904, and Oxford Lectures on Poetry, published in 1909.
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