Adelman's most prominent works include book-length critiques of William Shakespeare’s plays presenting new psychoanalytic and feminist readings of ''Antony and Cleopatra'' and ''The Merchant of Venice'' in "The Common Liar: An Essay on 'Antony & Cleopatra'" (1973) and ''Blood Relations: Christian and Jew in 'The Merchant of Venice''' (2008), respectively.
Adelman authored another book, ''Suffocating Mothers: Fantasies of Maternal Origins in Shakespeare's Plays, Hamlet to the Tempest'', (1992) that discusses maternal characters over many of Shakespeare's works.