Customer Reviews (1)

Bravo!
As the table of contents, disguised as a playbill, informs the reader, "The Globe Theatre is proud to present a new season of Mr. William Shakespeare's plays."So come one, come all and take your seats as author, Marcia Williams, presents seven famous plays, As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra, Richard III, Twelfth Night, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing, in comic book format.Each "performance" is broken down into three parts:Shakespeare's actual words, spoken by the actors on stage, the plot of the story told in crisp, clear and uncomplicated text beneath the pictures and the often amusing and sometimes important remarks made by the audience as they watch.The illustrations of each play are colorful, easy to follow and packed with marvelous detail that catches the readers' eye and propels the story forward.Bravo, Mr William Shakespeare is a wonderful and enjoyable introduction to the Bard's plays that takes you back to their original setting at the Globe, in the mid-1500s and is an evocative experience that's sure to whet the appetite of young readers."The audience is asked to refrain from throwing hard objects at the performers.Rotten fruit only, please.Beware of pickpockets!"Read, learn and enjoy! ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
The beloved plays of Shakespeare are still produced everywhere, yet the life of the world's most famous playwright remains largely a mystery. Young Will left the town of Stratford to pursue theater in London, where his work eventually thrived and made him a famous and wealthy man. With black-and-white illustrations that include a diagram of the famous Globe theater, Celeste Davidson Mannis puts together the pieces of Shakespeare's life and work for young readers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Nice Book
While it's just a short collection of Shakesphere related to the movie, it's an easy read for people that aren't that well read with poetry. And it makes a great way to say I love you to someone. May be for Chritsmas or Valentines Day. I used it as a nice reference to place quotes in wedding cards.

Buy it for the pictures, not the poetry.
I've seen many books that excerpt Will's love sonnets and dialogues, and this one is no different--except for one thing. It includes wonderful pictures from the movie--mostly of Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow. If you're a fan of the movie Shakespeare in Love (I am!!!!), you'll definitely love this book; however, if you're looking for a more complete verion of the Bard's work, you'd be better investing in an anthology.

good intro to Shakespeare and love
As a tie-in with the movie, this is a pretty great book.As a book of Shakespeare's sonnets and love poetry, it's not the best.It's a good book to own if you really enjoyed the movie or are just getting introduced toShakespeare.

Some omissions, but nice tie-in with the movie
There are better collections of Shakespeare's works.The main sellint point here is obviously the tie-in with the movie, but it's still a very nice book.

If you liked the movie and want to read more romantic wordsfrom Shakespeare, you can hardly go wrong with this.

An Expensive Book!
I expect much more than only a selection of Shakespeare's sonnets, and a few quotes from his plays in this book.Perhaps I am too greedy, but I expected all the 154 sonnets of Shakespeare in this book.

But the photosfrom the movie are beautiful.The movie's fans will enjoy looking at them. ... Read more

Book Description
Shakespeare made accessible for young readers!

Come wend your way along London’s Thames River to the Globe Theatre, where seven favorite Shakespearean plays are being performed! Marcia Williams brings to life ROMEO AND JULIET, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, JULIUS CAESAR, HAMLET, MACBETH, THE WINTER'S TALE, and THE TEMPESTt, making liberal use of Shakespeare’s rich dialogue. With the help of her signature comic-strip style, the Bard’s 400-year-old masterworks become as relevant to young readers today as they were to theatergoers way back then. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

High/mixed
The pages are very, very busy.Perhaps too distracting for children.But they are beautifully illustrated and retain the original feel for the language.Best for 4th-6th grades.

Introduce your child to Shakespeare!
My eight-year old daughter and I delighted in reading these seven plays together!Marcia Williams has created a colorful, imaginative, fun way to present these wonderful plays so that the young reader gains an appreciation for Shakespeare's works and an insight into the historical period in which he presented them on stage.Each page contains whimsical illustrations, in strip style, wherein the characters speak lines from the plays, as well as a clearly written storyline.My daughter expecially chuckled over the humorous but often droll comments of scampering Globe audience memberas, framing the text of every page.You'll find Will himself is there, too!The events of the plays are not suger coated, though, so the tragedies do rack up a body count and the reader encounters the famous scenes of poisonings and revenge sought by the sword.

Great Book
I thought this was a great book.I love anything by Marcia Williams.The illustrations are great and there are hillarious comments from the audience throughout the book.This is a great book for kids to enjoy and they alsoget the basic story line of seven of Shakespeare's most poupular plays. Butmost of all this book is just fun.

Great book!
I really loved this book.It was really funny and I think it is a great book for all ages. The Illustrations were great.I recommend reading all of the books by Marcia Williams. I have only read three, Joseph and theMagnificent Coat of Many Colors, The Amazing story of Noah's ark and thisone, but we just ordered the one about Jonah and the whale.Buy it rightnow! You will love it!

Great book!
I really loved this book.It was really funny and I think it is a great book for all ages. The Illustrations were great.I recommend reading all of the books by Marcia Williams. I have only read three, Joseph and theMagnificent Coat of Many Colors, The Amazing story of Noah's ark and thisone, but we just ordered the one about Jonah and the whale.Buy it rightnow! You will love it! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Good, but incomplete
While the Harper-Collins edition is nicely laid out and a comfortable size, it is incorrectly called a "complete" collection. It is based on the 1951 Alexander text, which does not include either Edward III or The Two Noble Kinsmen. This edition contains the orthodox canon of yesteryear. With a limited selection of support material included, the reader will have to choose whether it's not worth spending the extra for a more comprehensive edition with expanded notes, glossary and supporting descriptions.

Best portable complete Shakespeare collection
I needed to get a book of complete works of Shakespeare, and portability was of key importance.So I went to a theater bookstore where I compared several different collections, including ones by Arden, Stratford, Pelican, and Gramercy.And this collection by Harper-Collins was hands-down the best in terms of readability and portability (and affordability).

The Arden and Pelican ones are the most comprehensive in terms of glossary, essays, and other scholarly stuff, but they also are the heaviest and the priciest.The Illustrated Stratford Shakespeare is surprisingly light (especially for a hard cover), but presumably to save page space, it abbreviates the characters' names before their lines (which I hate), and its font is pretty horrible in legibility.Gramercy's "William Shakespeare - The Complete Works" is the worst, being quite heavy while being extremely hard to read (abbreviated names and no indentation).

Harper-Collins' "Complete Works of William Shakespeare: The Alexander Text" is one of the best in terms of readability, with its good paper, font choice, fully spelled character names, and appropriate indentations to help legibility.It also has a decent glossary in the back for hard-to-understand words.I would have loved to have footnotes at the bottom of each pages instead, but hey, you can't have everything, I suppose.In terms of portability, this one is the second lightest of the five books (Stratford is the lightest).And the price is certainly right.

If you need complete Shakespeare on the go, this is the one to pick.

The Portable Bard
This is an edition of the complete works of Shakespeare that I keep next to my bed. No heavier than a large fashion magazine and absolutely readable, it is my favorite. The glossary is useful, the commentary is brief, and the cover folds back for comfortable beach reading. This edition brings Shakespeare into focus as an intimate whose work and life and suffering are not in any way distant from ours. Given the genius of the work, this particular edition encourages an easier relationship because the book itself is so easy to use.(When no one's around, pull it out and read a speech or two aloud) An excellent any-occasion gift that will be used and appreciated, especially by students, because it is so very convenient! ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Book Description
This remarkable edition features a newly edited text of The Tempest based on the earliest printed text of the play, along with detailed notes and performance annotations. An integrated audio CD showcases the deeper understanding and enjoyment from the power of performance.&
&
Hear&Read&See:&
-- Hear recordings of great contemporary and historical performances of key scenes from the play.&
-- Read about a modern production, from the director&'s point of view.&
-- See production notes and photos alongside the text that takes you inside the stage experience.&
-- See photos from contemporary stage productions and movie adaptations.&
-- Read and see how a modern cast approaches the play, from interviews with the actors.&
-- Hear and read about how a legendary voice coach (previously from the RSC) approaches the text and works with actors on &Speaking Shakespeare.&&
... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

How does the rash yet serene Hamlet of act 5 arise from the passive and grief-stricken Hamlet of act 1? What path leads him from sickened thoughts of birth and incest to the certainty that thoughtfulness itself must be escaped through bold action? The roles of Senecan avenger and patient Christian may seem worlds apart, observes William Kerrigan, but Shakespeare fused them in a character that has fascinated the world for centuries.

In this lively study, Kerrigan celebrates both Hamlet's perfectionthe character's creation of new ideals out of an inheritance of disillusionment--and Hamlet 's perfection--the play's brilliance as Shakespeare's greatest tragedy. Kerrigan's approach reflects his interests in literary formalism, historical scholarship, intellectual history, and psychoanalysis.

Customer Reviews (3)

Extraordinary!
Like everything Professor Kerrigan writes, Hamlet's Perfection is a joy to read and a source of profound literary insight. Kerrigan writes with sharp, elegant prose that supports Harold Bloom's claim that literary criticism is itself a humble genre of literature: literary criticism worth readingtwice! Kerrigan is an author worthy of his subject and that is a highcompliment when the subject is Shakespeare! Those within and without thewalls of Academia will enjoy this book.

Extraordinary!
Like everything Professor Kerrigan writes, Hamlet's Perfection is a joy to read and a source of profound literary insight. Kerrigan writes with sharp, elegant prose that supports Harold Bloom's claim that literary criticism is itself a humble genre of literature: literary criticism worth readingtwice! Kerrigan is an author worthy of his subject and that is a highcompliment when the subject is Shakespeare! Those within and without thewalls of Academia will enjoy this book.

Perfection in Hamlet's Perfection
I must admit that this is the first Hamlet criticism I've ever read, but I was very impressed. The author is deep and thought-provoking and almost humerous at times while considering this work. The book is a bit dense attimes, and tends to make references to other critics that only make senseif you have read them, but that does not damage the book beyond repair. Theauthor bringgs up interesting ideas and interpretations, such as thevirgin/whore split in men and Hamlet, that I had never considered before.This book is worth the time it takes to weed through it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (33)

Fun Fun Fun!
Read this book, and a couple more.The Truth Will Out, by Brenda James - who claims that Sir Henry Neville wrote the plays, and Oxford: Son of Queen Elizabeth I by Paul Streitz.

Then ponder this.Elizabeth was highly sexed - had an extraordinary upbringing - for example her father publicly killed her mother - and lived in extraordinary times, when neither she nor her advisors wanted her to marry.It was in EVERYBODY's interest in England that she did not marry - which in those days would mean staying a virgin. The state at that time had extraordinary powers, and censorship was a basic part of the control of the state.

Did she have children?I think so.Three of her children were probably Oxford - born 1549?, Neville (Shakespeare) born 1563? and Southampton born 1573.All three had red or auburn hair as far as I know - curly too!Like Elizabeth and Henry VIII. All three children are strongly connected to Nevilles, and to Cecil - who controlled everything - Oxford married Cecil's daughter.All three were really well educated, and Oxford and Neville did the European tour. Neville spent four years on the continent with Sir Henry Saville, top Oxford Scholar, visiting all the places mentioned in the plays. Neville was really fat in middle age, like Henry VIII.His friends called him Falstaff.The first line of Ben Jonsons two page dedicatory poem to him in the first folio of Shakespeare's works that he put together in 1623 is "To draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name"To Draw No Envy?No NV.Ne Ville - get it?Neville sometimes signed himself Ne Ville.

Early in 1601 Neville and Southampton were put in the Tower of London for the part they played in the Essex plot to depose Elizabeth.Four plotters were executed with Essex - but not Neville and Southampton, who had been sentenced to death.They stayed in the Tower until Elizabeth died two years later.Hamlet was written while they were in the Tower.There is a fantastic portrait of Southampton in the Tower with his cat - one of my all time favorites.You will find it on Google images.

Why did Elizabeth let them live?Because they were her children? Cecil 2 (son of Cecil 1) got the sentences changed to life imprisonment.

A note about the Cecils.If William Cecil found homes for Elizabeths children it is no surprise that she became her top man when she became queen - and stayed in that position until he died - or that his son took over his position, until she died.He was in charge of spying, and state security.

It is interesting to note that she made Cecil a Baron when his daughter married Oxford - her first son.

Look up the 46th Psalm in the King James Bible.The 46th word from the top is "Shake".The 46th word from the bottom is "Spear"That does not happen in the other 18 translations I searched on the internet.

Neville played an important part in the setting up of the Second London Virginia Company.That became America.Look it up - there were more than 600 subscribers - one of the first great "capitalist shareholder" ventures.Oliver Cromwell's uncle is two names down the list from Sir Henry Neville!He set up the first humanitarian business to bring clean water into London.Under James he tried, with his cousin Bacon, to get the finances of the King brought under the control of Parliament.They failed. Neville was one of the first "party" parliamentarians, and an MP all his life.

In short - Neville was not just the writer of the plays - but a key pivot in the last 1000 years of Anglo Saxon History - related to most of the Kings of the previous 500 years - directly related to a chap that was murdered by Macbeth - you can look it up on thepeerage.com - and partially responsible for the King James Bible, for the USA, for modern parliamentary democracy, and for modern shareholder capitalism.

It is what you might hope and expect from someone with the breadth of knowledge that the plays demonstrate.Will Shakespeare from Stratford did not even bother to make sure that his own daughter could read.But he played his part - or he would have lost everything, including his head, as a great number did in the 16th century.

With Cecil orchestrating everything, and considering the importance of the (national) secret,it is not surprising that very little evidence survives.We need to dig the bones up, and do the dna analysis!Everything I have written could be pure fantasy!There you are - ideas for a 1000 phd studies.Go go go.

This is a Question that Matters!
I keep hearing people drone on about how the authorship question doesn't matter....but it DOES matter. The fact that so many in academia defend the Stratford man's position as author shows what hypocrites they are. If it doesn't matter, then declare de Vere author and move on, eh?? Why can't they do it? Because they prefer propoganda.

This book reads like a detective novel! I went to it as a Stratfordian with a degree in English literature. I took every Shakespeare class I could in college. I came out the other end convinced that, regardless of who it might be, it ISN'T the Stratford man.
I keep buying copies of this for friends and family and am grateful for Amazon.combecause it beats doing book searches the OLD way!!!

I gave up a long time ago expecting the mainstream to tell the truth about anything. This is just another instance of laziness in academia (like we needed one more). Colleges and Universities and badly educated high school English teachers will continue selling the Stratford man propoganda to students because it beats having to do any research or learn a new thing. In the meantime, people who want to know things have to find them out for themselves.

This book is an opportunity to open up your mind. Whether you agree or not with the conclusion, you will at least realize that it is a much more complexhistorical question than what any English teacher you ever had has led you to believe.

Not Scholarly? I Beg to Differ
It's funny that this book would be described as non-scholarly, when in fact the Foreward is written by one of the great living history scholars, David McCullough, who wrote the best sellers JOHN ADAMS, TRUMAN, and GREAT BRIDGE. And what is McCullough's verdict on this book?

"[T]his brilliant, powerful book is a major event for everyone who cares about Shakespeare. The scholarship is surpassing--brave, orginal, full of surprise--and in the hands of so gifted a writer it fairly lights of the sky."

That is a real scholar's judgment on the scholarship in this book. Enjoy. It is one of the best and addictive mysteries ever written.

Not Worth The Paper It's Printed On
This is not a 'scholarly work.'It is a considerable and exhaustive supply of sound and fury, all of it signifying nothing.If one simply takes time to closely examine the host of Elizabethan records and books concerning Shakespeare and Oxford, the merits of Ogburn's brazen conjectures plummet like a stone.

I will not delve too deeply into the debate here (for that, see instead my review of Alan Nelson's "Monstrous Adversary: the Life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford"), but I will poke a few holes in Ogburn's research:

1. Contrary to Ogburn's claim that the name "Shake-speare" is unique in its hyphenation and thus must be a pseudonym, many English surnames--including such mundane ones as Campbell and Waldgrave--were often hyphenated.

2. George Puttenham did call Oxford "the best for comedy among us."He also listed several other obscure names under this same category, and only a few lines later, mentions an entirely separate author named Shakespeare as the best for both tragedy and comedy.

3. The Stratford Monument always depicted a writer and was never dedicated to a grain merchant.Poems as early as Leonard Digges' 1623 tribute to the Bard call him a poet and friend and reference "thy Straford moniment."The only source for Ogburn's erroneous claims about the Monument is William Dugdale's illustration of the bust, drawn in 1656, over 30 years after Digges' poem.Dugdale was even commended by others for depicting the monument of the great poet Shakespeare, and it is worth noting that many of the monuments he transcribed are done so inaccurately.

5. Augustine Phillips, in the spring of 1605, bequeathed a sum of gold to one "William Shakespeare," never mind that Oxford was a year dead by then and never knew Phillips, nor did the Earl know either Heminges or Condell, the two actors named in Shakespeare's will who later edited the First Folio.

6. When Ogburn mentioned the "Operation Clean Sweep" needed to conceal Oxford's authorship, I went into convulsive fits of laughter.Ogburn thinks that conspirators erected the Stratford Monument, published the First Folio, and even succeeded in destroying fictional letters related to Oxford's literary interests (thus leaving us only with a host of the Earl's letters, 1/4 of which are laborious discussion of the tin-mining industry).Furthermore, if any reader is familiar with Stephen May's "Renaissance Papers," they will know that the 'stigma of print' that was the alleged motivation behind Oxford's concealment is a fictional creation crafted by those who know little about Elizabethan politics and poetry.

7. Ogburn says that the death of Shakespeare in 1616 "went entirely unremarked."It was, save for a considerable number of poetic tributes (including one by William Basses that includes the line "William Shakespeare, he died in April 1616"), the erection of the Stratford Monument, and the rapid assembly and publication of the First Folio.Oxford's death, on the other hand, DID go entirely unremarked.No will, no eulogies, no monument, nothing.

8. Ogburn weaves many blatant myths, which incorporate strands such as William Cecil's nickname "Polus" (for which there is no evidence; Oxfordians obviously have not read much of Gabriel Harvey), and a "contemporary" account of Edmund Spenser's funeral that does not even exist.

9. Ogburn, an amateur historian, ridicules super-scholar E.K. Chambers for his interpretation of Chettle's "Kind-Harts Dreame," which is vigorously researched and involuntarily harmful to Oxford's candidacy.

10. Ogburn desperately tries to paint William of Stratford as a man of no learning, never mind his almost-certain attendance at the rigorous King's New School in Stratford.If one reads Alan Nelson's "Monstrous Adversary" biography, they will discover that Oxford--so frequently referenced by Ogburn as a man of tremendous learning--was never a dedicated student, and all of his degrees are honorary.His spelling habits and clumsy grammar reflect a wholesale lack of learning on the Earl's part.

In short, Ogburn's book is an arrogant, misinformed attempt to alter the authorship of Shakespeare.He offers not a shred of solid evidence, and often contrives things to better support his weak case.To turn one of his own arguments against him: Oxfordianism is like Creationism, built upon fantasy and absurdity; Stratfordianism is like Science, well-researched, flexible, and entirely believable.

Who done it? Oxford done it!
Long, well-written, scholarly, informative, but is it definitive? Nah. But it comes close. And it asks all the right questions, and answers a slew of 'em. Shine forth, thou star of poets. ... Read more

Book Description
The shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies, Macbeth is compressed, complex and ambiguous and has been interpreted in various ways.This Introduction describes major productions and performers that include David Garrick, Sarah Siddons, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry and Laurence Olivier.A detailed commentary accompanying the play's text describes how specific episodes and passages have been interpreted in the theater. ... Read more

Product Description
Shakespeare's sonnets have an intensity of both feeling and meaning unmatched in English sonnet form. They divide into two parts; the first 126 sonnets are addressed to a fair youth for whom the poet has an obsessive love and the second chronicles his love for the notorious 'Dark Lady'. In addition to the sonnets, this volume includes Shakespeare's two lengthy narrative poems on classical themes, 'The Rape of Lucrece' which looks forward to the dark imagery of Macbeth, and 'Venus and Adonis' which mixes ribaldry and tragedy in unique Shakespearean manner. 'The Phoenix and the Turtle' is a beautiful metaphysical and allegorical short elegy, and takes its place with Shakespeare's better-known poetry. ... Read more

Book Description
If there ever has been a groundbreaking edition that likewise returns the reader to the original Shakespeare text, it will be the Applause Folio Texts. If there has ever been an accessible version of the Folio, it is this edition, set for the first time in modern fonts. The Folio is the source of all other editions. The Folio text forces us to re-examine the assumptions and prejudices which have encumbered over four hundred years of scholarship and performance. Notes refer the reader to subsequent editorial interventions, and offer the reader a multiplicity of interpretations. Notes also advise the reader on variations between Folios and Quartos. The heavy mascara of four centuries of Shakespearean glossing has by now glossed over the original countenance of Shakespeare's work. Never has there been a Folio available in modern reading fonts. While other complete Folio editions continue to trade simply on the facsimile appearance of the Elizabethan "look," none of them is easily and practically utilized in general Shakespeare studies or performances.Download Description
Hero. Good Margaret runne thee to the parlour, There shalt thou finde my Cosin Beatrice, Proposing with the Prince and Claudio, Whisper her eare, and tell her I and Vrsula, Walke in the Orchard, and our whole discourse Is all of her, say that thou ouer-heardst. ... Read more

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"Every man finds his mind more strongly seized by the tragedies of Shakespeare than of any other writer.' -Samuel Johnson " ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Tragedy!
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.

Excellent collection if you are like me & love the tragedies
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.

Very Useful
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 anda fifty page glossary of unfamiliar usages. ... Read more

Product Description
The question may be met with chagrin by traditionalists, but the identity of the Bard is not definitely decided. During the 20th century, Edward de Vere, the most flamboyant of the courtier poets, a man of the theater and literary patron, became the leading candidate for an alternative Shakespeare.

This text presents the controversial argument for de Vere's authorship of the plays and poems attributed to Shakespeare, offering the available historical evidence and moreover the literary evidence to be found within the works. Divided into sections on the comedies and romances, the histories and the tragedies and poems, this fresh study closely analyzes each of the 39 plays and the sonnets in light of the Oxfordian authorship theory. The vagaries surrounding Shakespeare, including the lack of information about him during his lifetime, especially relating to the "lost years" of 1585-1592, are also analyzed, to further the question of Shakespeare's true identity and the theory of de Vere as the real Bard. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Who is Shakespeare?
I had the pleasure of meeting the author on September 18, 2006 at Davis Kidd in Memphis. Although I have not read the book yet, I know it will be intellectual treat.
I have been a Shakespeare lover for years but never really gave too much concern as to his true identity. Now that I have met the author and had a chance to hear what he thought of the whole matter, I will admit that it does deserve some looking into.
I know that there are people out there who could care less about Shakespeare's true identity (we have his work, isn't that enough?) Their point is valid but still the revealing of the Bard's true identity would give us more of an insight into the mind of a literary genius.

Fascinating and comprehensive
William Farina covers all of Shakespeare's generally acknowledged plays (except The Two Noble Kinsmen), as well as his two major narrative poems and the Sonnets, in this extensively researched, consistently illuminating book. He draws innumerable connections between Edward de Vere and the source materials of Shakespeare's works, and shows the clear parallels between de Vere's life and the lives of Shakespeare's most autobiographical protagonists.

Although I've read most of the principal Oxfordian works, I still found myself learning something new on almost every page. The author has synthesized a vast amount of material in a brisk, readable form. Discussion of each play is more or less self-contained, allowing one to read the book selectively.

Naturally, even Oxfordian readers will take issue with some of Farina's interpretations. I disagree with his analysis of the Sonnets, for instance. To me, a more compelling theory is the one put forward in Hank Whittemore's recently published book, The Monument (which also has implications for Venus and Adonis). But this is a quibble.

Overall, De Vere as Shakespeare is an excellent resource, recommended for anyone interested in the authorship question.
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Product Description
Within his own lifetime, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was praised and revered as a writer of genius. By the late 1590s he had already reached a high point of his brilliant literary career in London and was considered to be in every way the equal of great classical figures shuch as Nestor, Socrates, or Virgil. Almost everyone had heard of Shakespeare. Many more had seen him on stage and knew what he looked like. Indeed, students at Oxford and Cambridge were fascinated by Shakespeare's works and hung his image on their walls. However, in the decades that followed, much of this visual knowledge was lost, not least as a result of the turmoil of the English Civil War in the seventeenth century. Uncertainty developed about the poset's physical appearance which has persisted to this day.Now Professor Hildegard Hammerschmidt-hummel conclusively dispels this uncertainty and reveals the true face of William Shakespeare. By combining exhaustive academic research with the latest technology, and collaborating over many years with specialists from the most varied disciplines (including forensic experts from the German Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation, doctors, physicists, 3D imaging engineers, archivists, and experts on art and literature), she has been able to prove the authenticity of the Darmstadt Shakespeare death mask and the Flower and Chandos portraits, as well as that of another, extraordinarily expressive image of Shakespeare: the Davenant bust (whose provenance can now be traced back to the early seventeenth century).In this groundbreaking book Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel offers a convincing solution to the centuries-old problem of the appearance and identity of William Shakespeare. She also answers previously open questions concerning the diseases the poet suffered from, why he abandoned his celebrated literary career prematurely, and what very probably caused his untimely death.The True Face of William Shakespeare will fundamentally change ou ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fascinating!
The professor makes a convincing...and very well supported...case for her major premise.Briefly, she establishes the authenticity of the Flower and Chandos portraits of William Shakespeare and the Davenant Bust as the work of people who saw or even knew William Shakespeare.Most importantly, she makes a convincing case for the authenticity of the Darmstadt death mask, which means it probably was taken from a plaster mold of Shakespeare's face made the day after he died.

Why is it important to know what Shakespeare looked like?Mostly for the sake of natural human curiosity.But also because the authenticity of these four items helps to prove that Shakespeare was a well known and important person in his own time, not simply an obscure nobody from a small town, as claimed by those who favor alternative authorship of the canon. ... Read more

Book Description
The tragedy remains popular with readers of all ages.

The title, William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, part of Chelsea House Publishers' Modern Critical Interpretations series, presents the most important 20th-century criticism on William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet through extracts of critical essays by well-known literary critics.This collection of criticism also features a short biography on William Shakespeare, a chronology of the author's life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University. ... Read more

Book Description
Series Editors: Kinley E. Roby, Northeastern University; Herbert Sussman, Northeastern University; Joseph Bartolomeo, University of Massachusetts; George Economou, University of Oklahoma; Arthur F. Kinney, University of Massachusetts

Twayne's United States Authors, English Authors, and World Authors Series present concise critical introductions to great writers and their works.

Devoted to critical interpretation and discussion of an author's work, each study takes account of major literary trends and important scholarly contributions and provides new critical insights with an original point of view. An Authors Series volume addresses readers ranging from advanced high school students to university professors. The book suggests to the informed reader new ways of considering a writer's work. A reader new to the work under examination will, after reading the Authors Series, be compelled to turn to the originals, bringing to the reading a basic knowledge and fresh critical perspectives. Each volume features:

• A critical, interpretive study and explication of the author's works
• A brief biography of the author
• An accessible chronology outlining the life, work, and relevant historical background of the author
• Aids for further study -- complete notes and references, a selected annotated bibliography, and an index
• A readable style presented in a manageable length

Customer Reviews (1)

Shakespeare's sonnets
This book includes all of Shakespeare's sonnets.They are perhaps the best poems ever written, since Shakespeare had great skill with words and manipulated them well.This is a book that everyone should own, and a must have for all Shakespeare lovers. ... Read more