Shakespeare Books

This is an utterly lovely book. The text itself shows the various versions printed at different times while the notations switch between well thought out historical and linguistic commentary and the sweet and hesitant questions of a fellow reader. If one must read Hamlet alone this book makes a wonderful companion.

This is a real gem. MacDonald challenges traditional assumptions about Hamlet, and leaves us with a better understanding of himself, of the Poet, and of ourselves.

The characters are what make this play so wonderful. The play was originally written to be performed for a Christmas progam. The play is a glorious irony in that it is so joyful, but that is played off the terrible sadness of the principal characters. Shakesepeare also reinforces this plot with some glorious poetry. Shakespeare also makes use of identical twins in this one. This would be a wonderful play to use as an introduction to the genius that is Shakespeare

As a tutor and retired teacher with thirty years experience, I have found this series particularly helpful. The students that I tutor, on thewhole, have problems such as learning difficulties or a distaste for reading in general. In our school system, grades nine to twelve must take English whether it is Academic or Applied. Each year, one Shakespear play is required on the curriculum. As you can imagine, their can be quite the antipathy for him. The chore of reading his plays in Rennaisance English is "boring" or "too hard". Having the modern English translation beside the original, immediately breaks these barriers. The students soon get hooked on the plot. They do not have to resort to many of the commercial notes which do not include the texts, therefore, cannot convey the feel of the original. Once that is accomplished, they can then enjoy the language of the bard, his expressions, the humour or powerful emotions as the case might be. The series, and this case, Twelfth Night ic a valuable teaching tool. I hope Barrons continues to add to this series.

Arden, in general, has the definitive series for those studying or teaching Shakespeare. The footnotes are very valuable resources for the language, history, and even staging of the plays. If you only have room or money for one set of Shakepeare's plays, make Arden your choice.

To call this a good natured comedy would be true as far as that goes, but would work against convincing you about its many delights. It is indeed full of many preposterous situations, which are tied into a converging and almost insane plot.

Let me give the broad strokes of the plot. Duke Osrino is infatuated by Countess Olivia who wants nothing to do with him. Viola and Sebastian are twins who are separated in a shipwreck that has happened before the play began. Both are alive, but think the other dead. Viola sees the Duke and is attracted to him and wants to win him over, but cannot approach him as a woman from her station in life. So, she dresses as a man, Cesario, and offers her (his) services to the Duke. He is taken with this young man and uses him as a go between to help him win Olivia's heart.

When Cesario (Viola) approaches Countess Olivia, she dismisses the Duke's entreaties, but is taken with Cesario. She finds reasons to have Cesario return several times without furthering the Duke's intentions.

Malvolio, one of the Countess's stewards, is taken with her and flatters himself that she is interested in him despite his lowly station. Others in the Countess's entourage note this and forge a letter from Countess Olivia that expresses interest and asks him to dress in cross-gartered yellow stockings (which was, apparently, a ridiculous form of dress in the time of the play). He does and becomes the object of even more ridicule.

Viola's twin-brother, Sebastian, comes to town with the sea captain who had saved him, Antonio. In one of the several duels or near duels in the play, Viola as Cesario is being put upon by one of the play's foolish characters. Antonio steps in to save Sebastian, but it is really Viola as Cesario. In the meantime Sebastian has met Countess Olivia who takes him for Cesario. She is so smitten she makes a direct proposal of marriage to Sebastian (assuming he is Cesario). He, for some reason unknown to us, is so smitten upon meeting Olivia he accepts and they make an agreement to marry in front of a Priest.

Anyway, you get the idea and can assume that all is finally revealed and there is a happy ending for everyone, except poor Malvolio. And this summary says nothing of the delightful Clown, Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Fabian, or Maria.

This wonderful edition also has a wonderful opening essay (half the book), on the play's origins, textual problems, performance history, and performance issues. The appendices also include the likely source story for the play and the music for the songs sung in the play. There are also the usually wonderful textual helps and notes.

Fine edition of a wonderful play.

I have only seen this book once, when I borrowed it from a high school student to read. It was part of his high school AP lit class, where they were required to read the "real" Shakespeare. This was just to keep the class lively! It was an amazing book for anyone familiar with Shakespeare's work. Absolutely hilerious! I don't know why it's not still in print. A great read!

This book is a must read for all those who've read Shakespeare. One word of caution though: Unless you've read and understood the bard's plays vis a vis Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet etc, you won't understand the humor that comes through in Armour's witty dialogues. It helps if you knew a bit of Shakespeare's life/background as well. Chuckles at every few lines are inevitable, so get ready for some curious glances if you read this in public. Altoough Armour gives a comical interpretation to shakespeare's plays, its obvious that he's "not come to bury Shakespeare but to honor him." :-)

My mom bought this one for me when I was about eight years old. I'm nineteen now and I still love it. :) The pictures are exquisite... awesome illustrations bring Shakespeare to life so much it will be familiar to even little kids years later. These pictures are really buried deep in my memory and I'm glad. :)

I checked this book out of the library...hoping the beautiful pictures would captivate my 3 and 5yr old and they would then listen to Shakespeare. It WORKED!!! So I knew it was worth purchasing. The book contains only small selections from Shakespeare's work...but a great way to introduce your child to the beauty of his words. Wonderful Illustrations!!!

His novel was really good: action adventure with a literary twist. This short is more literary with a comedy twist. I liked it a lot. It's about the character of Antonio from The Master of Verona and his adventures at a wedding. Good action, interesting characters... like his novel, I really liked it.

I read Blixt's The Master of Verona when it first came out this past summer-- and I absolutely loved it. It was smart, fun, fascinating... everything you want in really good historical fiction. And the thought that the sequel won't be out for more than a year (I read that on Blixt's blog) was just heartbreaking. And then I found that he had written Varnished Faces-- what a great way to start tiding me over until his next novel. Varnished Faces is the rollicking tale of the wedding of Lucentio and Bianca from The Taming of the Shrew. Full of characters we've met and loved from Master of Verona (and, of course, Shakespeare) I had a great time with this short. I highly recommend it-- what a very good read.

The book arrived safely and in good time. Excellent condition.

Reknowned civil war historian Shelby Foote has been eloquent in bemoaning the diffulties of the "lock picks" of biography.

So much more so for William Shakespeare who, though he wrote so voluminously on the human condition managed to conceal so much about himself personally. Using basically tax and legal records relating to Shakespeare, his father John and mother Mary and Shakespeare's own considerable catalogue of writing, Greenblatt essentially tried to let Shakespeare tell his own story.

In this way, Greenblatt's choice was a couregeous one on so many levels. As a writer, interspersing quotes from perhaps the pre eminent writer of all time is couregeous for the natural comparisons it invites between the prose of the bard and that of the writer quoting him. In this way, quoting Shakespeare demonstrates the same enviable chutzpah as entering a painting contest with Van Gogh or a sculpting competition with Michelangelo.

And therein lies the rub, because Greenblatt's next measure of couregeousness is attempting to harness Shakespeare's loftly words that illuminate the human condition generally to illuminate but one human's condition...that of the bard himself.

And what does the art in the end reveal of the artist himself? Certainly one need not look far from his printed words to see the horror and loss of Edgar Allen Poe, but what of Stephen King? Aren't his demons in the end more the product of his imagination than his biography.

Perhaps it's even couregeous to think that biography itself even can explain genius. Perhaps in the end, our "lock picks" are frustrated by the implied method they employ.

Maybe after all, the wonder of the artist, his ultimate biography (or at least the only one that matters) is to be found in the treasures he has bequeathed to us. In this way, mere mortals we can simply best enjoy by untethering ourselves from the unanswerable why.

This children's book is a must for Shakespeare lovers. It is the story of Willoughby Waddle, a country goose who wants to see the world and travels to "Londontown." While waddling through the busy streets, he experiences a typical day in Elizabethan London. Students of Shakespeare will recongnize many of the items and activities seen by Willoughby on his awe-inspiring and sometimes fearful trip. He eventually meets another "Will," and in true "Forrest Gump" or "Shakespeare in Love" fashion profoundly affects the fate of literary history! This is an adorable book filled with historically accurate allusions, Elizabethan language, and beautiful pictures on every page.

Children's book author/illustrator Don Freeman is beloved by many for his Corduroy books, Dandelion, Manuelo the Playing Mantis, and others. His death in 1978 left a void in his chosen genre. Thus, it is with great pleasure that one finds a reprint of one of his outstanding works.

Luminously illustrated in the trademark Freeman style Will's Quill is the story of a friendship between a goose, Willoughby Waddle, and William Shakespeare. It seems that Willoughby was curious to see the bustling city of London, so he set off from his country home. However, the people, the ruckus, the stone streets were all too much for this farm bred goose.
The one person in the city who was kind to Willoughby was Shakespeare.

So, Willoughby followed Shakespeare to the Globe Theatre. Once there, Willoughby squeezes between people's legs to see a stage on which his new friend is dueling. Of course, a goose has no idea what a play is so he attempts to rescue Shakespeare. What a sight!

But, as they say, all's well that ends well, and later that night Willoughby is finally able to really help his friend.

Will's Quill is a story that deserves a place on every young reader's library shelf.

- Gail Cooke

William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion

Though billed as a companion to "The Norton Shakespeare, Based on the Oxford Edition," "William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion" is a superb reference for any reader of Shakespeare's plays. The book gives the editorial principles and the explanations of editorial decisions made by the editors of the Oxford Shakespeare. The Textual Companion deals with the plays and poems is a systematic basis. This book will deepen anyone's appricaition for the Oxford editors' solutions to textual problems. The real value of this book goes is that it goes beyond just being an explanation of one edition. This book offers a comprehensive overview of the textual problem that any reader of Shakespeare should be aware of.

An example good editing comes from "The Merry Wives of Windsor" 1.4.88-9. The line appears "Ile doe yoe your/ Master what good I can:" in the 1623 folio. John Jowett who edited the play says that the "yoe" is suspicious and goes on the give his reasons. He belives it is a miscorrection. "Yoe" was intended for correction, but instead the compositor inserted "your" and left the "yoe" as is. The line printed in the Oxford edition is "I'll do your master what good/I can". I agree with Jowett's reasons and his correction.

Even though this book goes a long way in presenting textual problems and editorial solutions there are some editorial problems which have not been resolved. For example in "The Tempest" 4.1.123 we read this "So rare a wondered father and a wise". Tthe Oxford edition has "wise" but in the note to this line on page 616 they follow Jeanne Addison Roberts' 1978 article and say the word was "wife" in the first folio. Whether the word was "wife" or "wise" is not yet a settled question. Blayney in his introduction to the Norton Facsimile 2nd Edition (p. xxxi) takes issue with Roberts's conclusions, and for now this does remain an open question.

This book is one of the great books of Shakespearian scholarship. Though I do not agree in every detail, I can say that my appriciation and admiration for the Oxford edition of Shakespeare has increased because of this book. No critical reader of Shakespeare should go without this book.

This book accompanies the ground-breaking Oxford Complete Works of Shakespeare (1986) and explains the choices made by the editors in their selection of early printed texts and in their correction of errors in the earliest editions. Additionally, this provides the most recent thorough examination of the problems of editing Shakespeare, of establishing which plays he wrote and the order in which he wrote them, and the relation between the solitary reading experience and the social theatrical experience. If you need answers to questions like "how many quartos of Hamlet were published in Shakespeare's lifetime?" and "which one best represents the play as performed?", this book is the place to look for a thorough scholarly exploration of these topics. If you want criticism about Shakespeare's plays and their meaning, this book is not for you.

I was at the same reading as Richard Pepperman and Louis Phillips and I heard Louis' story too and it was excellent! He is a great writer; his THE AUDIENCE BOOK OF THEATRE QUOTATIONS (that my press published, WORLD AUDIENCE) is nothing short of extraordinary, and it sells well, by the way. This book of stories -- KING LEAR -- is another one to buy. Mike Strozier

I'll say it at the outset. I'm a friend of Louis Phillips. I spend lots of time with him. I'm lucky. You're not...yet! I went to his book signing yesterday and bought a copy. Then I sat and listened to Louis read from "Lee Harvey Oswald's Can Opener." A grand treat. Then I started reading other stories on my train ride home. More superb time with Louis. And! Now I'm buying two more copies for other friends. Bet they'll be lucky quicker than you??!!!