Second Chances

“A lively and provocative book.”—Alexander Leggatt, New York Review of Books

“A compellingly readable and intelligent book. . . . Both authors write with impressive energy.”—Rowan Williams, New Statesman

“In this scintillating collaboration between our leading Shakespearean and our most trenchant interpreter of Freud, the concept of the second chance keeps gathering momentum and reach. Second Chances is intellectually nimble and emotionally wise.”—Christopher Benfey, author of A Summer of Hummingbirds

“A fearless book. Greenblatt and Phillips speak to each other, and to us, with unflinching candor, wisdom, and tenderness about the possibility of renewing or remaking our lives. Second Chances stages a grand reckoning with fate and free will, fantasy and reality, and, above all, with the excitement and the terror of suddenly finding ourselves in a strange story, in a brave new world.”—Merve Emre, Wesleyan University

“This co-authored blend of candor and scholarship illuminates the faults and regrets, even the stupidities, of any life— along with the gift of redemption.”—Robert Pinsky, author of Proverbs of Limbo

“In the theme of the second chance, Stephen Greenblatt and Adam Phillips have discovered a marvelous entryway to both Shakespeare and Freud. This wonderful book is written clearly, with humanity and gusto.”—Mark Edmundson, University of Virginia

“In this endlessly surprising and revelatory book, Stephen Greenblatt and Adam Phillips show that thinking seriously about a ‘second chance’ is what could actually give us a second chance: a second chance at Shakespeare; a second chance at psychoanalysis; a second chance at love; even a second chance at life itself.”—Devorah Baum, author of On Marriage



“A lively and provocative book.”—Alexander Leggatt, New York Review of Books

“A compellingly readable and intelligent book. . . . Both authors write with impressive energy.”—Rowan Williams, New Statesman

“In this scintillating collaboration between our leading Shakespearean and our most trenchant interpreter of Freud, the concept of the second chance keeps gathering momentum and reach. Second Chances is intellectually nimble and emotionally wise.”—Christopher Benfey, author of A Summer of Hummingbirds

“A fearless book. Greenblatt and Phillips speak to each other, and to us, with unflinching candor, wisdom, and tenderness about the possibility of renewing or remaking our lives. Second Chances stages a grand reckoning with fate and free will, fantasy and reality, and, above all, with the excitement and the terror of suddenly finding ourselves in a strange story, in a brave new world.”—Merve Emre, Wesleyan University

“This co-authored blend of candor and scholarship illuminates the faults and regrets, even the stupidities, of any life— along with the gift of redemption.”—Robert Pinsky, author of Proverbs of Limbo

“In the theme of the second chance, Stephen Greenblatt and Adam Phillips have discovered a marvelous entryway to both Shakespeare and Freud. This wonderful book is written clearly, with humanity and gusto.”—Mark Edmundson, University of Virginia

“In this endlessly surprising and revelatory book, Stephen Greenblatt and Adam Phillips show that thinking seriously about a ‘second chance’ is what could actually give us a second chance: a second chance at Shakespeare; a second chance at psychoanalysis; a second chance at love; even a second chance at life itself.”—Devorah Baum, author of On Marriage



Stephen Greenblatt is the John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. His numerous books include The Swerve: How the World Became Modern , which won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. He is also the general editor of The Norton Shakespeare . He lives in Cambridge, MA. Adam Phillips , a psychoanalyst and essayist, is visiting professor of English at the University of York. He is general editor of the new Penguin Modern Classics translations of Sigmund Freud and the author of numerous books, including On Kindness ; Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived Life ; and Becoming Freud . He lives in London, UK.