This is an enjoyable and challenging book. Speziale-Bagliacca takes several well-known literary characters who have traditionally been viewed as innocent or loyal and suggests that their malignant qualities have been overlooked. He sees their destructiveness as stemming from unacknowledged infantile feelings. Charles Bovary, traditionally viewed as the betrayed (albeit dull and irritating) husband is here seen as a sado-masochist, provoking Emma to infidelity, madness and suicide. Cordelia, familiar to us as the upright and honourable daughter, is seen as motivated by rivalry with her sisters, while the noble and ingenuous Kent is described as a scheming fraud, governed by the desire to be Lear's favourite. The Fool, angry about the departure of Cordelia, is viewed as driving Lear away from the possibility of remorse towards madness and despair.