Sylvan Barnet is an American literary critic and Shakespearean scholar. He is a Fletcher Professor of English Emeritus at Tufts University. Barnet is the author of numerous books and articles on Shakespeare. He is the general editor of the Signet Classics Shakespeare, the author of A Short Guide to Shakespeare, and has written many textbooks.
He is the co-author with William Burto of occasional essays on aspects of Japanese art. He has also written books about the art of writing.