William Shakespeare Books

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.

This is a very funny play by Shakespeare. It's very complicated, but the plot is sound. In the play, a shipwrecked woman pretends to be a man and falls in love with the Duke, for whom she is working. Her name is Viola. The Duke is madly in love with Count Olivia. He sends Viola to try to woo her in his name. Instead, Olivia falls in love with Viola, thinking she is a man. The plot thickens when Sebastion, Viola's twin brother, steps in. It is hilarious and has a fantastic ending, not to mention the Clown and other minor characters.

It's like reading the play anew. Even if you're looking to perform or teach the fuller version of R&J get this book. Never has the tragedy sounded so clear--no insult to the bard intended. Lines I never noticed before ring clear, true and beautiful. In fact since using Professor Timmerman's 90-Minute Midsummer Night's Dream for a production, and reading this Romeo and Juliet, I have gained an even greater appreciation for what Shakespeare's audiences reveled in and what great, glorious entertainment he created. So while these 90-Minute Shakespeares are an aid to production at any level, I'm finding them a contribution to scholarship and teaching.

This book provides the reader/actor with a combination that unlocks the Bard's English. It focuses on how the Elizabethan schoolboy was trained in the subject of "loudspeaking," and thus, how theatrical speech was understood in Renaissance England. By revealing the underlying rhetorical structure to Shakespeare's schoolboy training, it leads the actor down the corridors of figures of speech, the powers of persuasion, and the passion and rhythm inherant in the language. It draws clear connections between Shakepeare's lines and rhetoric primers of the 1560's. ACTING SHAKEPEARE provides chapters on specific forms of figures of speech, tropes and figures of sentence, speaking the "score" of the poetry, and bringing it into the body. The book is a clever tool to help the American actor pass from the unknown to the familiar simply, easily and logically. It is not the only such tool, but it is perhaps one of the very best. I have found it especially useful for actors just beginning their work on verse plays. Because it teaches skills learned by Elizabethan primary-school-aged youth, I have felt comfortable using it for actors as young as 7th grade, and no less effectively with experienced adult actors. The process has been remarkably rewarding and successful.

Author is good at explaining visuals in Shakespeare and their connection to language.
Book contents have extensive reference notes and index, but no illustrations or diagrams.
Ch1: Visual Interpretation: Text and Context
Ch2: The Language of Costume and Hand Properties
Ch3: The Language of Gesture and Expression
Ch4: The Language of Theatrical Space
Ch5: The Language of Ceremony
Ch6: "Maimed Rites": Violated Ceremony in Hamlet
Ch7: Epilogue

My 6th grade theater class was completely mesmerized by this book. It brought to life all of the questions they had about some of the origins of theater. Thank you so much!

This book is a great over view of shakespeares work. The book has colorful pictures, and the book is writen in colligraphy. The colligraphy adds a touch of the olden days.

I thought that this book was excellent resource for a number of different reasons. First, Mr. Dunmore, a director himself, provides a list of monologues which are far too frequently used (I found this list invaluable). It not only has some of the monologues you would expect to see on a list of this type (Hamlet, Hal/Henry V, Iago etc.), but also some other characters you wouldn't think would be used that frequently: Clarence, Aaron, Launcelot Gobbo and others. Also, I think that Dunmore provides a nice introduction for actors who are new to Shakespeare with a resource guide in the beginning of the book discussing some of the inricacies of speaking Shakespeare. Lastly, I thought all of the monologues (which I thought might have been edited a little more precisely; I didn't like some of the punctuation) were well laid out and gave a nice (but brief) insight into the characters and some of them give suggested age ranges (though I would have loved to have seen this throughout the book). A terrific resource, nonetheless, for any aspiring classical actor who doesn't want to be the hundredth actor to do Puck at an audition.

An Anatomy Of The Marprelate Controversy 1588-1596 is an amazing study by historian and biographer Elizabeth Appleton of a famous controversy in history concerning a Puritan writer who called himself Martin Marprelate. Marprelate used words to attack the episcopacy and the Anglican divines. Writing from a secret press and sparing no effort to criticize, Marprelate incited such uproar that he had to disappear; two writers took his place and continued to attack the Anglican bishops verbally. Then others entered the fray, creating a singularly spectacular war of words. An Anatomy Of The Marprelate Controversy 1588-1596 deftly recounts events of history, their interrelation with the classic works of Shakespeare, and the indelible imprint they left upon political events for future generations. An Anatomy Of The Marprelate Controversy 1588-1596 is a very highly recommended, meticulously presented, informed and informative scholarly analysis.