Shakespeare Books

Verdi's two Comedies philosophically, and emotionally, frame his long career. While writing Il Giorno di Regno, his first comedy, and only his second opera, the rather naive young Verdi lost his first wife and their children in a fire. Needless to say, the opera wasn't very funny, and the audience booed it off the stage. Verdi quit Opera...he thought for good. However, his self-imposed exile didn't last long, and Verdi eventually wrote several of Opera's greatest masterpieces. He also loved Giuseppina, first as his paramour, eventually as his second wife, became one of Europe's most generous philanthropists, and admired his great rival Richard Wagner, who referred to Verdi simply as "pig." Arrigo Boito, a genius in his own right (if you don't believe it, get a good recording of Mefistofele), testified in Italian newspapers that Verdi's "old ways" of writing Opera were permanently invalidated by Wagner. Yet one day, eight years after Verdi had retired for the second time, Boito, the great Verdi hater, came to Sant' Agata, hat in hand, to ask Verdi to compose music for two Shakespearean music dramas he had written. The second of those music dramas, Falstaff, was to be Verdi's second comedy, and his last opera. Falstaff is a towering monument to artistic collaboration. In it, Verdi, Boito, and Shakespeare tell us that life is a great cosmic joke, and, since we cannot escape being its brunt, we might as well laugh along. Dover republished an early Ricordi edition of Falstaff. Ricordi is, simply put, the most useful publisher of late romantic Italian opera, especially of Verdi and Puccini. The scholarship is top notch, making this Dover edition quite a useful volume. The book itself is, as always, well crafted and easy to read. The score may be too large, and the book too small, to make this volume useful for the podium, but at home, in front of the stereo, it's invaluable. Falstaff is one of the west's great example's of existentialism expressed in artistic form. If you are not familiar with this opera, I strongly recommend you buy this score, and a good recording to go with it, and knock yourself out.

I entertain my minivan-bound children with books on tape/CD. The best are the Harry Potter series. There are many other good ones. And this is a good non-fiction title for children.

Kids need heroes, and this tape provides my 5 and 7 year old boys with some impressive ones. The heroes come from the worlds of politics, science, literature, religion... This tape is one of my 7 year old son's favorites. It has a very positive message for him. He gets ideas of what he could be.

Volume 2 (the one I have) tells the stories of some historical figures, emphasizing all the positive and heroic qualities of each: Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Ludwig van Beethoven, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Mahatma Gandhi, and George Washington.

As an adult accustomed to having his heroes routinely discredited, I find these idealized portraits naive, but kind of refreshing. If you have kids you know that they have a purpose: to introduce you to the world again, and show you its wonder. These portraits of heroes are simplified and abstracted in a way that highlights their abilities. No jaded cynicism here. These scientists, thinkers, statesmen, musicians, were all leaders. My young leader could do worse than to select a role model from one of these larger than life heroes.

Two other notes.
1. The tapes are abridged, while the CDs are not. Buy the CD.
2. Amazon has one description for both volume 1 and 2. Misleading. They contain different people.

Vol 1 - Queen Elizabeth I, Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Columbus, Horatio Nelson, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Vol 2 - Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Ludwig van Beethoven, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Mahatma Gandhi, George Washington (This is the one I am reviewing)

Our school recently started performing this play at our school and I think it is absolutely funny. I have never read the book, but I am sure it is just as funny as the play was.

Alfred Hitchcock wrote to the author about the first edition (1976) of this book: "I...find it extremely clever in the analyses of the filmmaker and the audience."

The following abstract appeared on p. 304 of the February 1977 issue of Psychological Abstracts published by the American Psychological Association: "Presents a theory of audience reaction to film and the psychological processes which make screen events look like real happenings. Definitions of suspense and views of how it is generated are also examined."

Charles Derry who devoted almost a whole chapter to this book in his 1951 book The Suspense Thriller: Films in the Shadow of Alfred Hitchcock wrote: "Because this fascinating book is almost impossible to obtain, I will take this opportunity to outline Loker's rather complex position in some detail."

Written by actress, writer, and teacher Beth Kaplan, Finding the Jewish Shakespeare: The Life and Legacy of Jacob Gordin is the biography of her great-grandfather, playwright extraordinaire Jacob Gordin. Chapters recount Gordin's emigration from Russia to America, the Golden Age and the colorful characters of Yiddish theater from 1891 to 1910, the birth of Gordin's outstanding masterworks such as "Mirele Efros" and "The Jewish King Lear", and much more. An especial treat for theater history buffs, Finding the Jewish Shakespeare is rich with nuanced detail. A bibliography, index, and partial list of Gordin's plays with original titles round out this enduring tribute to a gifted playwright.

This booklet was produced to accompany an exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC in 1991. The author, Peter W. M. Blayney, is one of the leading experts on printing in Shakespeare's time and approaches this subject, the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, with perhaps unparalleled authority. Blayney wrote an astoundingly detailed study of the first printing of King Lear (1608), and also wrote the new introduction to the revised Norton facsimile edition of the First Folio edited by Charlton Hinman. In this exhibit Blayney used the Folger collection of about 80 copies of the First Folio, approximately one-third of all known copies, to illustrate the trade of book making in early 17th century London and to demonstrate the advantages of having so many copies of a much sought-after book in one collection. In addition to 13 complete copies of the First Folio, the Folger collection includes copies that are missing pages, usually at the front or back--books were typically sold without covers and purchasers then took them to a binder if they could afford the expense and thought it worthwhile (plays were less well regarded at the time than, say, sermons). The collection also includes a number of loose pages from copies that were cannibalized for pages missing from other copies. A few pages in the collection contain editorial marks by print shop proof-readers.

This catalogue describes Henry Folger's collecting and his conviction that multiple copies would yield insights into printing practices of Shakespeare's time as well as evidence that might help scholars get closer to the original words Shakespeare wrote. The First Folio is the sole authority for half of Shakespeare's plays. Blayney's catalogue runs to 46 pages with text aimed at the general educated reader and many illustrations showing how scholars use forensic evidence to reconstruct the making of this most famous of English books after the 1611 King James Bible. Blayney recounts the progress of scholars in determining how many compositors (type-setters) worked on the large book (each page measured approximately 9 x 14 inches before binding and trimming); what degree of proof-reading was done; how the printer's type was "composed" on a stick by hand choosing letters from the upper and lower type cases to spell out, one letter at a time, the words in whatever copy, whether print or manuscript, was in front of them; and the resulting problems of typos, misreadings, and missing words and lines that have bedeviled Shakespeare's editors ever since.

Blayney also explains how printers worked at the time, often interrupting work on one book to do more routine presswork like circulars, proclamations, and forms for customers. Scholars like Blayney have learned by examining copies of books for damaged letters and printer's ornaments that the print shop that produced the First Folio worked on other books during the same period it was printing the First Folio. Occasionally the type-setters over- or under-estimated the amount of space a section of one of the plays would occupy when set in print, resulting in more or less "white space" on a page and some incredibly crowded pages of print. Blayney's text and illustrations make these points about the practical challenges of the printing business extremely well. This book is well worth acquiring if you are interested in how we got the text of Shakespeare plays that are now found everywhere and are translated into many other languages around the world. Although Amazon.com is sometimes out of stock on this book, you can order it directly from the Folger Shakespeare Library website at the list price plus postage and handling.

The First Folio of 1623, our most important single source for Shakespeare's plays, is now available in this attractive volume at a price that individuals can afford. Doug Moston has written a fine and informative introduction to this reprint, mainly from the vantage point of the needs of today's actors. But scholars and Shakespeare lovers will want to have this book, too, since the First Folio is of major importance for the establishment of Shakespeare's texts, and for checking the conjectures of generations of editors who have tried to "fix" readings in the text that they thought were misprints. This is an essential reference and a fun book to browse, too

An excellent collection of Shakespeare's works, this book holds the bard's works as they were first printed in the first folio. In edition to keeping (in my opinion) the purest and best form of his work available in this edition, it includes lovely illustrations and prints throughout, adding to the already beautiful text. This Collected Work is something any Shakespeare lover (or a lover of drama or poetry) would be delighted to own.

"Henry V" and "Richard III" seem to be Shakespeare's most popular and famous history plays. But I myself have always leaned towards this one. The play starts with the wedding of King Henry VI and Queen Margaret. At this point in the game, France has gained the upper hand. But England still controls Calais, Anjou, Maine, Normady, and some areas around Bordeaux. Well, th virtuous Gloucester (and only remaining son of King Henry IV) is shocked along with some others that Anjou and Maine will have to be returned to France as well. This angers York and he thinks Henry VI's questionable marriage amongst other things is just cause to aim for the crown. (In history, Richard was actually VERY loyal to King Henry VI, even when situations practically invited him to seize the crown. Eventually, he was forced somewhat by Margaret's actions to take up arms.) Later, we see that Gloucester's wife has her eyes on the crown as well. Meanwhile, Margaret is growing weary of King Henry VI, and her affair with Suffolk is becoming more prevalent. Act one ends with a dramatic scene of Pagan Prophecies and Lady Gloucester's arrest. Act 2 begins with the comical scene of someone claiming a false miracle. Though the comedy breaks when Gloucester learns of his wife's treason. York gathers his allies Salisbury and Warwick and plans his move to seize the crown. In one of his stronger moments, King Henry VI orders the execution of those who plotted against him. Though he is smart and knows that the virtuous Gloucester's wife must be treated a bit more gently. So he makes her do public penance and banishes her. Gloucester bids a sorrowful farewell to his banished wife, and must stand trial himself. We also learn that all of England's French territory is lost. (Though this is not 100 % true. England still held Calais, and would continue to do so through the reigns of Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III, Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Edward VI.) Moving on, York, Somerset, the Cardinal, Suffolk, and Queen Margaret all work to bring Gloucester down. He defends himself with dignity, but is arrested. Soon afterwards, Glouceter is pronounced dead. True King Henry VI is often rebuked for fainting here, but he actually displays one of his finer moments. He banishes the vile Suffolk for the murder and does not back down even when Margaret in a deceptive manner says Suffolk is innocent. Perhaps one of the greatest scenes is 3.3 where the Cardinal goes insane (quite possibly guilt over Gloucester). In this brief scene, the cardinal's insanity fills us with horror, and the scene where Henry VI forgives him is actually very touching: 'Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all.' Act 4 is dominated mostly by the rebel Jack Cade. He has launched an uprising against the king, and he is actually quite theatrical and offers some comical moments. Well, he gets quite far, but is finally defeated by Buckingham and Clifford. Cade tries to escape, but is killed by Iden. Onto the final act. having left for Ireland, York returns in arms, but decides to back off for the time being, when Buckingham insists that Henry VI has met York's demand and imprisoned Somerset. This proves not to be, and Yort takes up arms. His sons (the eventual King Edward IV and King Richard III) appear and the war begins. York does gain the advantage here, but things are far from over. King Henry VI and Margaret escape, and the scene where Young Clifford discovers his father (killed By York) and gives his soliloquy of revenge is a scene that combines sorrow, rage, hate, and beauty ever so well.

I recently purchased this book, and can highly recommend it. I particularly enjoy it for traveling entertainment, because I can usually complete the puzzles without aid from a crossword puzzle dictionary, or help from the internet. That makes this ideal for keeping my load light! There are two sized puzzles in this book: 15 squares to the side (the size of a daily crossword in the newspaper) and 17 squares to the side (a little more challenging). The puzzles aren't too easy, but they aren't so difficult that they're frustrating--just hard enough to keep one interested!