Shakespeare Books

Writing a "book" review on a play that one has not read may seem a bit presumptuous. However, my wife and I saw the US premier of this play at Houston's Stages Theater a few weeks ago and can attest that it is some of the finest entertainment we have seen in many a day. I hope that many people will read it, that college English classes will study it, and, most importantly, that numerous theater groups will stage it.

Historical. Hilarious. Poignant. An exhaustive list of appropriate adjectives would exceed Amazon's page limitations.

The play has a large cast of memorable characters including a semi-blind theater seamstress and a bear. The scene is a barn in England in 1601, and Queen Elizabeth seeks diversion from the impending beheading of her lover in the company of William Shakespeare and his band of actors. The dialogue is both scholarly and witty, with many echoes from Shakespeare's plays.

But the driving force for the drama is the point/counterpoint exchanges between "King" Elizabeth, who feels compelled to shirk her womanly feelings for the good of her country and the actor Ned, a 17th century drag-Queen. More than that I will not tell.

See it if you can, but, until it plays in your area, read the book.

In 1601, Queen Elizabeth I was forced by duty to condemn to death a man widely believed to be her former lover. On the night before the execution, she demanded that William Shakespeare's acting troup, The Lord Chamberlain's Men, perform a play to distract her from the heartbreak that would occur in the morning. This much is truth. Timothy Findley takes these historical facts, blends in a few "what if's?" and creates a powerhouse play about men, women, fantasy, death, and ultimately, love.

After a performance of Much Ado About Nothing, Queen Elizabeth goes backstage to talk with the actors, and finds them all mourning the iminent death of the Beatrice of the evening, their terminally ill leading "lady," Ned. Ned has lived all his life as a woman, and does not know how to face his upcoming death with the courage of a man. Elizabeth, by contrast, has had to destroy her feminine side in order to rule England successfully. Realising this, the two strike a bargain: Ned will teach Elizabeth how to be a woman, if she can teach him how to be a man. What follows is a heartbreaking journey of self-discovery in which Elizabeth learns how to mourn, Ned learns how to die with grace and how to live with love, and William Shakespeare finds the greatest play never written.

This is an excellent choice for any Shakespeare fan, and for any lover of theatre. Powerful, enlightening, heartbreaking and uplifting, Elizabeth Rex is an exquisite journey for the heart, with beautiful dialogue, strong characters, and fascinating arguments. A must-read.

One thing that any fan of Sherlock Holmes knows is that the solution is in the details, and that attention to the details is of vital importance. One thing the Conan Doyle would do in his short stories and novels featuring Holmes would be to overload on details, rather like a magician redirecting attention away; the task for the reader, as indeed it was for Holmes, was to identify which details were meaningful, and which could be safely discarded. Holmes would keep nothing useless in mind, being mindful of clutter - he purported (A Study in Scarlet) not to even be aware that the earth went round the sun, rather than vice versa, as it was not relevant to his work. One assumes that he was pulling the good Dr. Watson's leg, as there are times when such information might be relevant, and as such, Holmes would know it.

There are several versions of the canonical stories available, and various commentaries on these tales published. There is also an ever-growing body of apocryphal tales put out by modern writers. However, there aren't many reference books on Holmes available. Therefore, the 'Encyclopedia Sherlockiana' by Jack Tracy is a welcome volume for any Holmes fan. It is a great companion volume to any serious reader (and many the casual reader) of the canonical tales.

Just as any reader of Holmes tales will need to have a care for detail, so too does Tracy have a great eye for the details in the stories. Arranged rather in the fashion of an encyclopedic dictionary more so than as an encyclopedia proper, this one-volume text cover the A-to-Zed of the stories, the people, the places, the objects, the weapons, and other minutiae of the tales.

For example, it is well known that Holmes' arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty, won acclaim by a treatise upon the Binomial Theorem. But what is the Binomial Theorem? You will find out the basics here - alas, it is one of those bits of trivia that Holmes himself might have tried hard to forget, having no direct relevance to the case. Or did it?

Entries for each of the stories, each of the heroes, innocents and villains, each of the places visited or referenced, and major plot devices are carefully explained. Other entries, such as streets mentioned in passing, peripheral historical characters or details, or general linguistic and cultural details, are explained with short but useful definitions situating them in their greater context for the story.

There is a generous supply of maps, line-art drawings, and photographs throughout the dictionary. The first maps are of London, close up and further out (back when there still was a Middlesex), as they were in Holmes' late Victorian time. Most of the entries look to the time period from 1890 to 1910; Holmes tales extended beyond these times, but the baseline is set for this period.

Tracy engages in what he calls the 'high-camp intellectual joke' of the 'reality' of Holmes and Watson; in entries where the line between fact and fiction has been blurred (if not erased entirely), Tracy gives fair warning by marking such entries with an asterisk. Likewise, Tracy gives historical-development information in the introduction, from which the reader will learn that the quintessential Holmesian pipe, the curved meerschaum, originated with the actor William Gillette rather than with Conan Doyle, and that despite the near-universal belief to the contrary, Holmes never said, 'Elementary, my dear Watson' even once in all the stories (Basil Rathbone's film made it a ubiquitous phrase).

There are more than 3500 primary entries, 8000 story references (remarkable, considering there are 56 short stories and 4 novels), and 200 illustrations. Tracy did the majority of his research in the library system of Indiana University (which possesses an excellent Victorian Studies collection) but gives due attention to other Sherlockian scholars. He provides a wonderful bibliography at the conclusion of the text.

This is a great gift for any Sherlock Holmes fan, and a must for any serious Sherlockian devotee.

To those of us who love and value the smallest of details in Doyle's stories, Jack Tracy's "The Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana" has remained a valued resource for over thirty years now. If you are new to the canon, please do yourself a favor and get yourself a copy of this volume. I also recommend it as an excellent companion piece to both Leslie Klinger's "New Annotated Sherlock Holmes" and William S. Baring-Gould's earlier "Annotated Sherlock Holmes."

Spawning forth from the new breed of cloned critics, Peter Holland IS William Shakespeare. Working alongside the man who gave the world Dolly the Sheep, Holland has altered his genetic code to that of Shakespeare, gleaned from the first folio of one Shakey's toenails. Holland (hereafter known as Shax90) tours around various theatre bars and gives the definitive account of what it is like to be the reborn Bard in fin-de-siecle Nineties Britain. Foreword by Tony Blair.

OK, so he has a bad hairstyle much like Shakespeare's. But man he can write -- this book contains some of the best prose about live Shakespeare since Ken Tynan took his last spanking. A rich, appreciative book that shows why Shakespeare still matters and how his plays are best used, and a priceless document of theatre history.

As a 3rd Year English Student, I highly reccomend this collection. While I already own the Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works, this book I find offers a unique way of reading Shakespeare. Ted Hughes offers a brilliant introduction in which he relates how Shakespeare can be read on two very unique levels. Plays in their entirety, and the way that this book offers selections, exerpted speeches and soliloquies. Taken out of context, the various collected tid-bits stand on their own and allow the reader to absord the text and poetry without being constrained by characterization and plot development, a more abstract quality is given to the works and the texts stand by themselves in a distinct way. Worth picking up, cheers.

This is great entertainment in the car. Shakespeare is a nice break from the standard audiobook. If it has been a while since you last saw some of these plays performed, these scenes will bring it all back to you. The introductions are very nice in setting up the scene.

I found the 1976 edition of this book in a flea market and I am dying to get my hands on additional copies to give as gifts.

This is an AWESOME book! Blew me away. The wonderful stories of Shakespeare, summarized in kid-friendly (but NEVER condescending) text, with colorful, fantastical illustrations that really do invite you to linger over them.

As a former English major, I am surprised and, even, kinda thrilled to read these stories in a new way. Plays are meant to be performed, not read, but who has time seek out Shakespeare on a regular basis? I'd forgotten a lot of the details of these stories over time, and it was way cool to return to them in narrative form.

If I were a kid, I'd be all over this book. There's romance, intrigue, sword fights, mistaken identies, ghosts, witches... good stuff, the author really picked good plays. Even as a 37 year old crone, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was sorry there wasn't more.

If you find this book, BUY IT!! I hope maybe it'll come into print again, so more people can enjoy it.

My 27 year old son just picked up this book from my desk and said, "Wow, this is the book that got me interested in Shakespeare when I was six! It was my favorite book for years."
This is Shakespeare for children and for parents who may not even like Shakespeare. We wore out one copy and I had to buy another. The illustrations are wonderful and contribute to discussion about the plays. All three of my children credit reading this book with their comfort with Shakespeare in high school. One become an English major. I am very sad to see that
it is out of print. I have grandchildren coming up!

This book is undoubtedly one of the best exposures to Shakespeare for children. My eight year old daughter loved it so much she brought it to school and shared it with the class. Her teacher found a copy and made it part of his curriculum. Parents were delighted and tried to find their own copies. I must say this was back in 1978! I have recommended this book over the years to numerous young parents who cannot find this wonderful book. Very sad. To not have this book would be like missing "Pat The Bunny" or "Good Night Moon".

This book and its amazing illustrations will expose your children (and yourself) to the wonderful world of Shakespeare. Several of Shakespeares best known plays are retold as stories, without the complicated language. Bernard Miles is able to weave these tales so well that you get completely drawn into the characters and the time. Reading these as a kid (the stories are long, probably best for 12 and up) gave me an interest in Shakespeare and help me to understand them when I read or saw them as plays. Don't miss an opportunity to get a copy of this book!

This is - without question - the essential edit of Q1 Hamlet. Ms. Irace presents in the clearest way to date the several arguments for origin, being careful not to tip her hand in any one particular direction. The introduction is a revelation, the annotations are superb and unmatched, and the modernisation of the language is most unobtrusive. This is the kind of work that will inspire and invigorate the artistic and academic masses to accept Q1 not as "the bad quarto," but as an elemental part of the Hamlet legacy...

...Yep, that's how the line goes in this early, pirated, "bad quarto" edition of the greatest masterwork in the history of English drama, assembled and published on the sly in 1603, probably from the memories of actors who had appeared in the original production of the show. This edition is a cause for non-academic Shakespeare geeks everywhere to rejoice--it's a general-reader's version, highly affordable, copiously annotated, with an intelligent introduction. While no one will ever suggest that this text is on a level with the magnificent First Folio "Hamlet," it still has theatrical merits all its own--a quicker pace, a simpler, less dilatory structure, and, at times, a fiercer, more pungent sense of language: "Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I" here becomes "Why, what a dunghill idiot slave am I." Reading it gives a fascinating new perspective on the most towering achievement of English-language tragedy.

The author finds a role for about everyone in Shakespeare's life: Anne Hathaway, his three children, the Earl of Southampton, the Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth, and the dark lady of the sonnets among others. Hamlet's play-within-the-play, the hints of homosexuality in the sonnets and Essex's attempted coup all appear. Bardolaters can compare the way they see Shakespeare with the author's view.

In Stratford upon Avon, though she is several years older than Will Shakespeare, who works in his father's Glover shop, he courts and marries Anne Hathaway. Over the next few years, they seem happy together though Will who studied law was bored. When he had an opportunity to join a traveling troupe, he leaves his spouse and children behind though he sends money and visits infrequently.

Will's fame as a writer begins to grow, but on one of his trips home, his boyhood pal, the odious arrogant Richard Quiney, who even tried to boorishly seduce his friend's wife Anne, is murdered. The corpse is found in the Shakespeare garden. The constable assumes Will, being cuckold, killed the man in a crime of passion. Anne believes otherwise and is determined to prove her spouse is innocent. As the list of those with motives to kill the loathsome Richard seems to grow, almost as if the entire town and surrounding villagers had a reason to murder him, the killer watches Anne to insure she does not get to close to the truth.

MURDER IN STRATFORD is as much an amateur sleuth tale as it is a historical fiction novel. The story line is told from the perspective of Anne but not just about the who-done-it but her life even before Will courts her. This enables the audience to obtain a full picture of her and much insight into the Bard. Her investigation is fun to follow but takes a back seat to her life's story so much so that Shakespeare lovers and the Elizabethan crowd will appreciate this fine tale more so than those who prefer a pure mystery.

Harriet Klausner

We are using this book right now in a book club I'm in, and we love it! The back of the book says it's for readers from 9 to 99, and we have kids from 9 to 12 in our book club, and they all like it. The author is funny and knows just what confuses younger readers and what we like, too. I love the Harry Potter books, and this book helps me see how they are really literature. I never thought Shakespeare and Harry Potter had much in common until I started reading this book! There are book lists in the back so you can use what you learn with other books you read.

This book explains literary terms used in college literature classes and book clubs in a clear and understandable way that non-experts can understand. By using Shakespeare and Harry Potter as familiar examples, the author takes young and old on a journey of discovery through the basics of literature. The author's tone is not intimidating at all; in fact, just the opposite and with good use of humor. I found that I understood literary analysis more clearly after reading this book than I have after taking several college English classes.

The book not only discusses fiction, poetry, and drama, but it also addresses life writing forms such as memoirs and biographies, as well as songs, screenplays, and speeches. I was fully convinced by the end of the book that literature is all around us and is an artform that is for all of us to enjoy--not something stuffy to be locked away in libraries and understood only by an elite few.

My whole family enjoyed Getting to Know William Shakespeare. We loved the music, the analysis of his plays, and the interesting facts about his life. The professors on the CD make Shakespeare very accessable to all of us with funny stories and interesting historical background. If you don't know anything about him, you will find this great to listen to. And if you have read his plays, you will also learn something about his craft. The CD is very entertaining. I highly recommend it.

This cd is a great way for families to make good use of downtime spent in cars. It combines biographical detail (kids will be fascinated by such everyday Elizabethan images as traitors' heads on spikes on London's Tower Bridge) with fascinating literary and cultural analysis (rap-weary parents will be intellectually intrigued). Quotations from premier academic authorities are interspersed with appropriate period music and short excerpts from the Bard himself. It flows like an NPR report, and you may find yourself sitting in the car to finish it even after you've reached your destination!