Shakespeare Books

The story line was a little silly; however, if this is a college requirment, then I highly recommend this book. It was so easy to read.

As has been stated, this format, original text on the left page, modern text on the right, is extremely helpful, the best of both worlds. The beauty and lyricism of the original text and the quick, easy to read and understand modern text on the right...read this editon, saw the play the next night and appreciated it more than ever before. Scholars may not like this format, but to the public and to the casual, but interested reader, this format can't be beaten.

This is a very simple review to write. The book does what it promises. Left hand page is the text of the play, to the right what each character says is given the literary equivalent of subtitles in colloquial english.

For example, a character says about men in a shipwreck: "Not a hair perished. On their sustaining garments not a blemish, but fresher than before."

Confused? Look to the translation on the opposing page: "Nobody was hurt in the slightest. Even their clothes were unstained, and look fresher than before the storm."

Works better than a mere glossary because it puts the meaning of the characters' statements into 21st century English. And Shakespeare is much more enjoyable and comprehensible when you know what is going on.

I teach Shakespeare classes to middle- and high-school aged students and have come to rely on the great series of No Fear Shakespeare texts. They truly do take away the "fear" that keeps people of all ages from enjoying Shakespeare's plays.

So many people, when they hear the very word "Shakespeare" immediately think, "Oh, that's not for me. There's no way I can understand what those characters are talking about."

With No Fear Shakespeare, they can. The plays are presented in their original Elizabethan English on the left hand page with the modern English version on the facing page. Incidentally, I also use The Taming of the Shrew (Cliffs Notes) with my students, teaching them to read the summary of each act before reading in their texts. The final step is watching the play on DVD -- there's lots of good Shakespeare on DVD at Amazon.com, both in the regular DVD store and in the Marketplace. Check out this great commedia dell'arte version by the American Conservatory Theater: The Taming of the Shrew (Broadway Theatre Archive)

As a professional educator, I really feel that a student can't go wrong with these handy books.

No Fear Shakespeare is absolutely the best series for teachers, directors and students of Shakespeare!

I would highly recommend any of the books from the "No Fear Shakespeare" series. As someone who has never quite understood what Shakespeare was trying to say, having both his version and a "normal speak" version of the play side by side was very beneficial. Great for any student! A word of advice though - don't let your teacher know you have them. Any teacher teaching Shakepeare will likely frown upon them, though in my experience my peers rushed to by them as well. What's the point of reading Shakespeare if you can't understand him?

We all know about Shakespeare, so a review of his writing is not required. However, I would like to say that the Everyman's Library series are worth getting. Unlike omnibus editions (such as the Riverside Shakespeare), these are actually portable so you don't need a table to hold them up while you are reading. The Everyman's Library series have good hardbindings, are conveniently sized to carry around, and have illuminating and extensive introductions. The typeface used is old, but the letters are large and easily readable (something that is a concern with some other editions).

Tragedies, Volume 2 contains: Titus Andronicus; Troilus and Cressida; Julius Ceaser; Anthony and Cleopatra; Timon of Athens; Coriolanus

We all know about Shakespeare, so a review of his writing is not required. However, I would like to say that the Everyman's Library series are worth getting. Unlike omnibus editions (such as the Riverside Shakespeare), these are actually portable so you don't need a table to hold them up while you are reading. The Everyman's Library series have good hardbindings, are conveniently sized to carry around, and have illuminating and extensive introductions. The typeface used is old, but the letters are large and easily readable (something that is a concern with some other editions).

Tragedies, Volume 1 contains: Hamlet; Othello; King Lear; Machbeth

I appreciated reading all the tragedies together like this. There were some that I had read many times before, but others that I had barely read. The Tragedies are what Shakespeare is most noted for, and with good reason. Each of these plays is a masterpiece in its own right, and each of them provides such a wide variety of quotes that we all have heard over and over. That is the most enduring thing about Shakespeare - his mastery of the English language was so great that his words are still remembered today (almost four centuries since his death). Shakespeare has written thirteen tragedies, and I will do individual reviews of three of my particular favourites. The ones that I will further review are "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark", "The Tragedy of Macbeth" and "The Tragedy of King Lear". As much as I enjoy each of these the other ten should not be ignored either. Shakespeare could not keep some comedy out of his famous tragedies, and sometimes it is these comedic scenes that we remember the most. Who can forget the drunken porter in "Macbeth"? It is very difficult for me to pick a favourite out of these thirteen masterpieces, but I think if asked I'd have to admit to Macbeth. But read them all, they are well worth the time.

This is a collection of Shakespeare's tragedies, of which these four are but a portion:

--Hamlet--
This play, of course, is perhaps the best known in all of English literature. Taking it's inspiration from lesser plays and tales of the same name, Shakespeare crafted the characters, dialogue and plot into a timeless tale of betrayal, the quest for justice, and ultimately a hollow victory. This play, in short, is a downer.
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.

Of course, it really thrilled the audiences, who, lacking the primetime violence of today, enjoyed seeing the blood, the gore, the violence, the swordplay. Those with a more subtle bent were very satisfied with the wonderful dialogues, full of double and self-reflexive meanings. So many of the monologues have become common parlance in our language.

A hit, a very palpable hit.

The 'on one foot' synopsis: Hamlet, prince of Denmark, is suspicious that his step-father killed his father and usurped the throne and his mother's bedchamber; he plots to get revenge; in the meantime his love-interest Ophelia dies; in a duel to the death at the end the mother dies, the step-father dies, the duel contender dies, and Hamlet dies. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

The rest is silence.

--Othello--
Rude I am in speech,
And little blessed with the soft phrase of peace

Surely Shakespeare was not speaking of himself here. Even his poorly-spoken characters cannot help to have an elegance and subtlety all their own. Othello is another tragedy, this one driven by jealousy. The exact cause of the jealousy can vary; Iago can be jealous of Othello, of his love for Desdemona, of Desdemona herself, or several other possibilities. The emphasis often lies in the performance, and Shakespeare's play is written broadly enough to allow for any of these to be correct interpretations.

But men are men; the best sometimes forget.

Othello satisfied the need for violence, for passion, and for intrigue. 'On one foot', Iago, servant and friend of Othello, who also hates Othello, plants the seeds of suspicion that Desdemona has been unfaithful, leading Othello down a treacherous path that leads in his ultimate murder of Desdemona.

Take note, take note, O world!
To be direct and honest is not safe.

During one performance in the American Old West, an audience member became so entranced and enraged with the actor's portrayal of Iago that he took out his pistol and shot him. The tombstone of the actor reads 'Here lies the greatest actor'.

--King Lear--
The prince of darkness is a gentleman.

This most difficult of Shakespeare plays, both for performing and for studying, is one of the true masterpieces of English (or any) literature, and yet is underperformed and underappreciated due to the power of its complexity and of its tragedy. Indeed, often the tragedy at the end has been softened by having Cordelia survive victorious. Beware these kinds of performances--they not Shakespeare's intent, however much we wish.

Lear begins with folly, and ends in tragedy, while treachery and evil seems to creep like a vine choking off first this person, then that. The fool is the only wise one; the insane are the only protected, and the nobles increasingly lose nobility of intent and action as the events progress. Gloucester and Lear are both deceived by wicked children turned against their better offspring; all ends in tragedy for most of the lot.

Lear addresses sibling rivalries, parent/child relationships, poverty and insanity, and any number of other readily accessible issues, but all interwoven so tightly that they cannot be unravelled easily, yet all the while the world for the characters are unravelling thread by thread before our very eyes. Lear points out the folly of human planning and agency. Lear was banned from performance, actually, during 1788-1820 when George III was considered insane, and the connexion between stage and royalty would be too blurred for official comfort.

Howl, howl, howl, howl! O! you are men of stones!

--Macbeth--
The witches, the blood-stained hands, the play whose name must not be mentioned in a theatre lest bad luck befall the actor or production. Macbeth is all of these, and more. Loosely based upon a real historical character, the tragedy here is one of ambition.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air

Did Macbeth really see the ghost of Banquo at the banquet, or was it indigestion because of the haggis? Macbeth can be played with or without a conscience, which makes for differing character development, but both options are available in Shakespeare's flexible playwriting.

Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell

Macbeth is driven by his ambition, but also by the ambition of his wife, Lady Macbeth, as treacherous a villain in many respects as any male character in Shakespeare. Macbeth has an overgrown sense of invincibility, convinced by prophecies that his course will be successful, and ordinarily it is (until it all goes awry); it is a successful struggle to the throne, but never secure, and in the end, all is lost.

Macbeth may be the bloodiest of Shakespeare's plays, a thrill for Elizabethan audiences, and a wonder to behold as the scenes get ever more desperate and darker.

This edition
There are so many editions of Shakespeare available, and many have merits. This particular volume of the thirteen major tragic plays provides notes and readable text, but not much by way of commentary; it lets the plays stand on their own merit. Not short by any means (over 1200 pages), this will nonetheless give a good edition of the tragedies for any library.

This is an extremely useful volume. Brings together all thirteen of Shakespeare's tragedies, more readable than the bulky "collected works" volumes with tiny type; includes fifty pages of text notes and a fifty page glossary of unfamiliar usages.

The tragedy of Titus Andronicus is my favourite work by Billy Shakes (high school kids thought that one up and I like it, shows affection). When we think of Shakespearean Tragedy we constantly drag the same tired old Lear, Hamlet & MacBeth in and prop them up on the carpet. Complete Works will also bring to your acquaintance Coriolanus and the Andronici. Maybe it is me, but I have never considered Romeo & Juliet a tragedy, I see it as more of a Romance, a bad one, but a Romance just the same. My advice is to buy the book NOW and only read the sections that you are unfamilliar with. Save the others for cold nights with warm fires both of which are the optimum mediums for becoming re-acquainted with old friends.

Sam Zebba has set himself a monumental challenge, and has carried it off with sagacity and scholarship. Comparatively viewed table by table, the 39 steps in each of the plays examined spring to life with startling accuracy. Although admitting that we often search for rules only to discard them in the name of creative freedom, Zebba asserts, correctly, that a work of art following a set of rules is not necessarily inferior to one that does not.

Dr Sam Zebba is a brilliant literary anatomist. Investigating five plays and a film, he lays bare the bones of great drama with deft precision.
It's the actual predictability of the 39 steps that makes it so exciting, being able to apply it so widely. In Hamlet, Zebba's theory appear at first to contradict the accepted sequence of scenes - until you realise that this is exactly how Shakespeare originally intended his action to unfold.
39 steps won't normally get you much beyond your front door, but with Zebba's 39 you're equipped for a whole journey of discovery.

Very classic, humourous veiw of shakespeare

This book contains the four "best" comedies of Shakespeare, along with an excellent foreword by Joseph Papp. For each play, it contains a very well written introduction (one that is not only on the play, but links each of them together), Shakespeare's original source material (example: "A Merry Jest of a Shrewd and Curst Wife Lapped in Morel's Skin" for "the Taming of the Shrew"), and well commented textual notes. I found this collection particularly useful for an "upper-level" look at these four plays.

I am the founder of The Haven Theatre Company in Los Angeles - and we are in the middle of performing our first production, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" using Diane Timmerman's spectacular script. We have to perform the play in one act -- and I was relieved to find a Midsummer script already edited to serve this purpose.

Our show has received much praise since our opening -- people have said of the script that it is a brilliant cut. It retains all of the major plotlines and most of the characters -- but boils it down to plot and what is most relevant today. In fact, I think it's perfect for our modern audiences. One friend who saw the show, who is a producer at ABC television, said, he "didn't feel like was watching Shakespeare. -- It flew by, had terrific flow, and was very entertaining."

I plan to use all of Diane Timmerman's scripts over the next few years!!! I couldn't encourage the use of her "A Midsummer Night's Dream" more.. it is fabulous.

Sincerely,
Ashley Ward

I just finished staging a production of Midsummer with high school students. I had already started making my cuts when I came across Ms. Timmerman's text. I went back and compared--there was no comparison. What she gives is a clean, clear, plot-thrust version of the play. It made it a lot easier for me to see what I wanted to do with my production. I pray she continues.

The book, The Age of Shakespeare, takes my breath away! The many color prints and illustrations add beauty to a informative book. This is a well thought out book about Shakespeare and his times. I really enjoy reading it.

This is a great little book. Reading it won't give you a master's degree in Shakespearean studies, but it will give you a quick and interesting overview of many different subjects. The chapters are brief and topical: a discussion of Shakespeare's origins in Stratford, life and politics in Elizabethan England and London's theatres offer a fascinating glimpse into Shakespeare's world and works. The second section of the book, "Documents", looks at some of the primary sources for our understanding of Shakespeare, both documents from Shakespeare's life (a contract, his will, the First Folio), but also writings by those who saw the original plays, discussions of theatrical productions through the ages, and criticism by centuries of academics from John Dryden's 17th century analysis to modern feminist approaches.

The Age of Shakespeare is the perfect weekend read for those who want a bit of context about the plays and their origins. It is informative without being heavy. The dozens of color plates and illustrations are gorgeous, and the writing is intelligent and clear. A wonderful sampler

Besides Dr. Harold Bloom who I consider a mad literary genius there is Dr. Maurice Charney who is quite the expert on William Shakespeare and has written numerous books about him as well. This book does help break down the plays, characters and plots without overburdening the reader with too much information. If you need to know more about Shakespeare or the Bard as he is called, Dr. Charney is a great alternative to Bloom.

I think it was a great book. It really brings the real Shakespeare to life. It is one of the few books I can read again and again.

This book is attractive, sturdy and is formatted well. That being said, the content is equally stellar. The author knows a lot about each piece, and provides the background you need to make the character come alive at an audition, or just in your mind for reading. There are footnotes to the language that are useful, and the speeches themselves are constructed nicely and are good choices for any level of Shakespeare performer. MY only complaint, which isn't that important, is that the characters are not studied with as much depth as you would like if you were reading this book for literary pleasure. But it does give this book as an actors guide a sense of poetic freedom and freedom of creativity. Also good is the next volume "MORE Alternative Shakespeare Auditions for Women." Don't expect Juliet scenes or Beatrice monologues--- the "alternative" characters and speeches of Shakespeare get their 15 minutes! Recommended for anyone who has every wanted to be a Shakespeare "snob" at auditions and freshen up your Bard inventory. :O)

I found this book indispencable as an actress. Many auditions call for alternative shakespearian monologues and this book has many good monologues combined with essential study notes.