What can account for the unprecedented popularity of Joanne K. Rowling's Harry Potter books? Frans Lutters takes us through a journey if investigation, compassion and understanding by the end of the book. His insights tempt us to believe that Harry Potter is still alive on our world and that he accomplished a great deal in the archetypal battle between light and darkness, good and evil. Young people recognized this before grownups could decide whether they liked the books or not. Lutters uses his enormous understanding of classical literature to draw very fine analogies with other warriors of...

The undisputed virtuosity of William Shakespeare's theatrical works-and their perennial relationship to the experience of being human-assures their continued importance in the cultural life of the twenty-first century. But Shakespeare is a subject of interest not only in the theater; his life and work remain among the foremost themes of literary and historical scholarship. However, virtually every scholarly commentary on Shakespeare's dramas remains, on a deeper level, unsatisfying. This is because the profound depths of these plays are not, in fact, accessible to a strictly intellectual...