We've ranked the best shakespeare books using expert recommendations, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.
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Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine Ph.D.
5.0
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud.
In this death-filled setting, the movement from love at first sight to the lovers’ final union in death seems almost inevitable. And yet, this play set in an extraordinary world has become the quintessential story of young love. In part because of its exquisite language, it is easy to respond as if it were about all young lovers.
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Hamlet
William Shakespeare
5.0
No Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of Hamlet on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right.
"Hamlet" is the story of the Prince of Denmark who learns of the death of his father at the hands of his uncle, Claudius. Claudius murders Hamlet's father, his own brother, to take the throne of Denmark and to marry Hamlet's widowed mother. Hamlet is sunk into a state of great despair as a result of discovering the murder of his father and the infidelity of his mother. Hamlet is torn between his great sadness and his desire for the revenge of his father's murder.
Philosophy runs through this play–all sorts of great lines. There are gems like “..for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” which I used in my last book and “Beware of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, bear it, that the opposed may beware of thee.” was a favorite of Sherman. [source]
Tim Lott
I love the speech when Hamlet’s uncle Claudius admits to being inflicted with the primal eldest curse for killing his brother, and begs on his knees for forgiveness for this ultimate violation of the law of nature. [source]
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Macbeth
William Shakespeare, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine Ph.D.
5.0
One night on the heath, the brave and respected general Macbeth encounters three witches who foretell that he will become king of Scotland. At first sceptical, he’s urged on by the ruthless, single-minded ambitions of Lady Macbeth, who suffers none of her husband’s doubt. But seeing the prophecy through to the bloody end leads them both spiralling into paranoia, tyranny, madness, and murder.
This shocking tragedy - a violent caution to those seeking power for its own sake - is, to this day, one of Shakespeare’s most popular and influential masterpieces.
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
William Shakespeare, John Gilbert, Ned Halley
4.9
A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the best loved of Shakespeare's plays. It brings together aristocrats, workers, and fairies in a wood outside Athens, and from there the magic begins. A young woman flees Athens with her lover, only to be pursued by her would-be husband and by her best friend. Unwittingly, all four find themselves in an enchanted forest where fairies and sprites soon take an interest in human affairs, dispensing magical love potions and casting mischievous spells. In this dazzling comedy, confusion ends in harmony, as love is transformed, misplaced, and - ultimately - restored.
Illustrated throughout by Sir John Gilbert (1817-1897), famous for his depictions of historical scenes. As well as Shakespeare, he illustrated works of Sir Walter Scott, Cervantes, Wilkie Collins and Wordsworth.
With an Introduction by Ned Halley.
Designed to appeal to the book lover, Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound hardback gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
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Othello
William Shakespeare
4.8
Othello by William Shakespeare. One of the greatest classics of literary fiction, now available in high quality.
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King Lear
William Shakespeare
4.8
In King Lear, one of Shakespeare's greatest and most enduring plays, an aging father's demand that his daughters publicly declare their love for him triggers a reaction that involves nations and brings suffering and death to his entire family. The play takes ordinary jealousies, demands for love, sibling rivalries, desires for money and power, and petty cruelties to the extreme. In this play, we see ourselves and our small vices magnified to gigantic proportions; also, through the character of Lear, we see the end of our lives, with old age portrayed in all its vulnerability, helplessness, pride, and finally, perhaps, wisdom. THE NEW FOLGER LIBRARY SHAKESPEARE Designed to make Shakespeare's great plays available to all readers, the New Folger Library edition of Shakespeare's plays provides accurate texts in modern spelling and punctuation, as well as scene-by-scene action summaries, full explanatory notes, many pictures clarifying Shakespeare's language, and notes recording all significant departures from the early printed versions. Each play is prefaced by a brief introduction, by a guide to reading Shakespeare's language, and by accounts of his life and theater. Each play is followed by an annotated list of further readings and by a Modern Perspective written by an expert on that particular play.
Jobs told Walter Isaacson, the author of his biography, that he “loved King Lear”, which isn’t surprising. [source]
Kathleen Taylor
Lear is about all sorts of things but one of the things it’s about is people getting old and not ceding what their kids think they should to them and the kids trying to bully them. [source]
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Much Ado About Nothing
William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine
4.8
In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare includes two quite different stories of romantic love. Hero and Claudio fall in love almost at first sight, but an outsider, Don John, strikes out at their happiness. Beatrice and Benedick are kept apart by pride and mutual antagonism until others decide to play Cupid.
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The Tempest
William Shakespeare
4.8
Performed variously as escapist fantasy, celebratory fiction, and political allegory, The Tempest is one of the plays in which Shakespeare's genius as a poetic dramatist found its fullest expression. Significantly, it was placed first when published in the First Folio of 1623, and is now generally seen as the playwright's most penetrating statement about his art.
Stephen Orgel's wide-ranging introduction examines changing attitudes to The Tempest, and reassesses the evidence behind the various readings. He focuses on key characters and their roles and relationships, as well as on the dramatic, historical, and political context, finding the play to be both more open and more historically determined than traditional views have allowed.
ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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Recommended by Peter Atkins.
Peter Atkins
There is a kind of allegory about scientific endeavour in The Tempest which I enjoy. It’s magical, and it is an allegory of human knowledge. [source]
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Twelfth Night
William Shakespeare, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine Ph.D.
4.8
Named for the twelfth night after Christmas, the end of the Christmas season, Twelfth Night plays with love and power. The Countess Olivia, a woman with her own household, attracts Duke (or Count) Orsino. Two other would-be suitors are her pretentious steward, Malvolio, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek.
Onto this scene arrive the twins Viola and Sebastian; caught in a shipwreck, each thinks the other has drowned. Viola disguises herself as a male page and enters Orsino’s service. Orsino sends her as his envoy to Olivia—only to have Olivia fall in love with the messenger. The play complicates, then wonderfully untangles, these relationships.
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Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine Ph.D.
4.7
Shakespeare may have written Julius Caesar as the first of his plays to be performed at the Globe, in 1599. For it, he turned to a key event in Roman history: Caesar’s death at the hands of friends and fellow politicians. Renaissance writers disagreed over the assassination, seeing Brutus, a leading conspirator, as either hero or villain. Shakespeare’s play keeps this debate alive.
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The Merchant of Venice
William Shakespeare, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine Ph.D.
4.7
In this lively comedy of love and money in sixteenth-century Venice, Bassanio wants to impress the wealthy heiress Portia but lacks the necessary funds. He turns to his merchant friend, Antonio, who is forced to borrow from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. When Antonio's business falters, repayment becomes impossible--and by the terms of the loan agreement, Shylock is able to demand a pound of Antonio's flesh. Portia cleverly intervenes, and all ends well (except of course for Shylock).
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The Taming of the Shrew
William Shakespeare, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine Ph.D.
4.7
Renowned as Shakespeare's most boisterous comedy, The Taming of the Shrew is the tale of two young men, the hopeful Lucentio and the worldly Petruchio, and the two sisters they meet in Padua. Lucentio falls in love with Bianca, the apparently ideal younger daughter of the wealthy Baptista Minola. But before they can marry, Bianca's formidable elder sister, Katherine, must be wed. Petruchio, interested only in the huge dowry, arranges to marry Katherine -against her will- and enters into a battle of the sexes that has endured as one of Shakespeare's most enjoyable works.
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Shakespeare's Sonnets
William Shakespeare
4.7
The secret of their identities has fueled debate for hundreds of years: Who are the nameless nobleman and the dark-haired mistress? And what did they do to inspire the creation of more than 150 deeply intimate poems?
Whether William Shakespeare’s sonnets are pure fiction or the lingering echo of an autobiographical account, this exquisitely written collection defied traditional love poem conventions to explore the many layers of romance, the dangers of lust, and the nuances of beauty. Since their publication, Shakespeare’s poems have served as touchstones, providing readers from all walks of life with the opportunity to articulate the inscrutable feelings of the heart.
AmazonClassics brings you timeless works from the masters of storytelling. Ideal for anyone who wants to read a great work for the first time or rediscover an old favorite, these new editions open the door to literature’s most unforgettable characters and beloved worlds.
Revised edition: Previously published as Shakespeare's Sonnets, this edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.
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Henry V
William Shakespeare, Gary Taylor
4.6
The introduction includes an examination of the Quarto and texts, and of the relationship between them; a critical discussion of the play's historical and literary sources; an examination of conflicting critical attitudes to the play, and of its fluctuating theatrical fortunes; and a demonstration of the range and variety of Shakespeare's characterization.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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Recommended by Jacob Weisberg.
Jacob Weisberg
Well, they have always been my favourite Shakespeare plays and they are about a family dynasty and the son of the king who is considered too irresponsible to rule but he, Hal, turns it around and becomes king himself and reverses everyone’s low expectations of him. Like Prince Hal, Bush did go from nothing, from having been written off by his family, to doing what nobody in the family thought he was capable of. But then in Henry V, when he is king, he is the most militaristic and the most religious king of all Shakespeare’s kings. It is a patriotic play and he is a triumphant leader but he drains the country’s resources with war. In reality Henry V was a much less successful king than he is Shakespeare’s play. There is a wonderful scene in Henry IV Part I where Hal picks up his father’s crown and is contemplating it. The whole sequence is full of incredible resonances. I suppose the plays are about the problems of dynastic power. [source]
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As You Like It
William Shakespeare, Paul Werstine Ph.D., et al.
4.6
Readers and audiences have long greeted As You Like It with delight. Its characters are brilliant conversationalists, including the princesses Rosalind and Celia and their Fool, Touchstone. Soon after Rosalind and Orlando meet and fall in love, the princesses and Touchstone go into exile in the Forest of Arden, where they find new conversational partners. Duke Frederick, younger brother to Duke Senior, has overthrown his brother and forced him to live homeless in the forest with his courtiers, including the cynical Jaques. Orlando, whose older brother Oliver plotted his death, has fled there, too.
Recent scholars have also grounded the play in the issues of its time. These include primogeniture, passing property from a father to his oldest son. As You Like It depicts intense conflict between brothers, exposing the human suffering that primogeniture entails. Another perspective concerns cross-dressing. Most of Orlando’s courtship of Rosalind takes place while Rosalind is disguised as a man, “Ganymede.” At her urging, Orlando pretends that Ganymede is his beloved Rosalind. But as the epilogue reveals, the sixteenth-century actor playing Rosalind was male, following the practice of the time. In other words, a boy played a girl playing a boy pretending to be a girl.
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The Complete Works
William Shakespeare
4.6
Tempest Two Gentlemen of Verona Merry Wives of Windsor Measure for Measure Comedy of Errors Much Ado About Nothing Love's Labour's Lost Midsummer Night's Dream Merchant of Venice As You Like It Taming of the Shrew All's Well That Ends Well Twelfth Night Winter's Tale King John King Richard II King Henry IV. Part 1 King Henry IV. Part 2 King Henry V King Henry VI. Part 1 King Henry VI. Part 2 King Henry VI. Part 3 King Richard III King Henry VIII Troilus and Cressida Coriolanus Titus Andronicus Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Julius Caesar Macbeth Hamlet King Lear Othello Anthony and Cleopatra Cymbeline Pericles Venus and Adonis Rape of Lucrece Sonnets Lover's Complaint Passionate Pilgrim Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music Phoenix and the Turtle
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Richard III
William Shakespeare
4.5
Each edition includes:
Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play Scene-by-scene plot summaries A key to famous lines and phrases An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books Essay by Phyllis Rackin The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit www.folger.edu.
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Antony and Cleopatra
William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine
4.5
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King Richard II
William Shakespeare
4.5
This richly annotated edition takes a fresh look at the first part of Shakespeare's second tetralogy of history plays, showing how it relates to the other plays in the sequence. Forker places the play in its political context, discussing its relation to competing theories of monarchy, how it faced censorship because of possible comparisons between Richard II and Elizabeth I, and how Bolingbroke's rebellion could be compared to the Essex rising of the time. This edition also reconsiders Shakespeare's use of sources, asking why he chose to emphasize one approach over another. Forker also looks at the play's rich afterlife, and the many interpretations that actors and directors have taken. Finally, the edition looks closely at the aesthetic relationship between language, character, structure, and political import. A textual analysis of the play's eight early editions, a doubling chart for casting, and geneological tables are included as appendices.
The Arden Shakespeare has developed a reputation as the pre-eminent critical edition of Shakespeare for its exceptional scholarship, reflected in the thoroughness of each volume. An introduction comprehensively contextualizes the play, chronicling the history and culture that surrounded and influenced Shakespeare at the time of its writing and performance, and closely surveying critical approaches to the work. Detailed appendices address problems like dating and casting, and analyze the differing Quarto and Folio sources. A full commentary by one or more of the play's foremost contemporary scholars illuminates the text, glossing unfamiliar terms and drawing from an abundance of research and expertise to explain allusions and significant background information. Highly informative and accessible, Arden offers the fullest experience of Shakespeare available to a reader.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
General Editors' Preface
Preface
Introduction
Politics
Historical Context and the Issue of Topicality
The Connection with Essex
Ideology: Competing Conceptions of Monarchy
Characterization: Attitudes towards Richard and Bolingbroke
Politics in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth- Century Stagings
Language
Style
Imagery, Major Themes, Symbolism, Patterns of Allusion
Rhetoric
Afterlife
The Date
The Relation to Edward II and Woodstock
Richard II and the Second Tetralogy
Probable Venues of Early Performance
Sources
Holinshed
Hall
The Mirror for Magistrates
Daniel
Woodstock
Froissart; Creton; Traison
Edward II
Minor Sources
Text
THE TRAGEDY OF KING RICHARD THE SECOND
Longer Notes
Appendices
1 Textual Analysis
2 Doubling Chart
3 Genealogical Tables
Abbreviations and references
Abbreviations used in notes
Works by and partly by Shakespeare
Editions of Shakespeare collated or referred to
Other works
Modern stage and television productions cited
Index
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Measure for Measure
William Shakespeare
4.5
Measure for Measure is among the most passionately discussed of Shakespeare’s plays. In it, a duke temporarily removes himself from governing his city-state, deputizing a member of his administration, Angelo, to enforce the laws more rigorously. Angelo chooses as his first victim Claudio, condemning him to death because he impregnated Juliet before their marriage.
Claudio’s sister Isabella, who is entering a convent, pleads for her brother’s life. Angelo attempts to extort sex from her, but Isabella preserves her chastity. The duke, in disguise, eavesdrops as she tells her brother about Angelo’s behavior, then offers to ally himself with her against Angelo.
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Henry IV, Part I
William Shakespeare, David Bevington
4.5
During Shakespeare's lifetime, Henry IV was his most popular play. Today, Sir John Falstaff still towers above Shakespeare's other comic inventions. This edition considers the play in the context of various critical approaches, offers a history of the play in performance from Shakespeare's time to ours, and provides useful information on its historical background. Readers will also find detailed commentary on individual words and phrases, and selections from Shakespeare's sources.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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Recommended by Meg Rosoff.
Meg Rosoff
Shakespeare’s version of a coming of age story. [source]
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The Comedy of Errors
William Shakespeare
4.5
Two sets of twins are separated at birth by a storm at sea: a pair of masters (both named Antipholus) and a pair of servants (both named Dromio). Years later, the Antipholus-and- Dromio pair raised in Syracuse happen to visit Ephesus, where the respective twins reside — providing the basis for ongoing incidents of mistaken identity, within a lively plot of quarrels, arrests, and a grand courtroom denouement. Based on a pair of comic dramas from ancient Rome, The Comedy of Errors presents a spectacle of pure farce in the spirit of utmost fun and — as the title suggests — hilarious confusion. One of Shakespeare's earliest dramatic efforts, the play abounds in his trademark conceits, puns, and other forms of fanciful wordplay. It also foreshadows his later and greatest comedies, offering students and scholars a valuable key to the playwright's development.
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Henry IV, Part 2
William Shakespeare
4.4
Henry IV, Part 2 is the only Shakespeare play that is a “sequel,” in the modern sense, to an earlier play of his. Like most sequels, it repeats many elements from the previous work, Henry IV, Part 1. This play again puts on stage Henry IV’s son, Prince Hal, who continues to conceal his potential greatness by consorting with tavern dwellers, including the witty Sir John Falstaff.
As in Part 1, Prince Hal and Falstaff seek to best each other in conversation, while Falstaff tries to ingratiate himself with Hal and Hal disdains him. Part 2 adds some fresh characters, the rural justices Shallow and Silence and Shallow’s household. Political rebellion, while important to the plot, does not loom as large as in Part 1. There are no glorious champions; combat is replaced by deception, cunning, and treachery.
The authoritative edition of Henry IV, Part 2 from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes:
-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play -Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play -Scene-by-scene plot summaries -A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases -An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play -Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books -An annotated guide to further reading
Essay by A. R. Braunmuller
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.
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The Winter's Tale
William Shakespeare, Susan Snyder, Deborah T. Curren-Aquino
4.4
You can find an alternative cover for this ISBN here.
The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems and an extensive introduction. The Winter's Tale is one of Shakespeare's most varied, theatrically self-conscious, and emotionally wide-ranging plays. Much of the play's copiousness inheres in its generic intermingling of tragedy, comedy, romance, pastoral, and the history play. In addition to dates and sources, the introduction attends to iterative patterns, the nature and cause of Leontes' jealousy, the staging and meaning of the bear episode, and the thematic and structural implications of the figure of Time. Special attention is paid to the ending and its tempered happiness. Performance history is integrated throughout the introduction and commentary. Appendices include the theatrical practice of doubling.
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Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
Stephen Greenblatt
4.4
A young man from a small provincial town moves to London in the late 1580s and, in a remarkably short time, becomes the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time. How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained? Stephen Greenblatt brings us down to earth to see, hear, and feel how an acutely sensitive and talented boy, surrounded by the rich tapestry of Elizabethan life, could have become the world’s greatest playwright.
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Shakespeare: The World as Stage
Bill Bryson
4.4
At first glance, Bill Bryson seems an odd choice to write this addition to the Eminent Lives series.
The author of 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' isn't, after all, a Shakespeare scholar, a playwright, or even a biographer.
Reading 'Shakespeare The World As Stage', however, one gets the sense that this eclectic Iowan is exactly the type of person the Bard himself would have selected for the task.
The man who gave us 'The Mother Tongue' and 'A Walk in the Woods' approaches Shakespeare with the same freedom of spirit and curiosity that made those books such reader favorites. A refreshing take on an elusive literary master.
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Henry VI, Part 3
William Shakespeare
4.4
Each edition includes:
Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play Scene-by-scene plot summaries A key to famous lines and phrases An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books
Essay by Nina Levine
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit www.folger.edu.
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Henry VI, Part 1
William Shakespeare, William Montgomery, Janis Lull
4.4
Henry VI, Part 1 is an uncompromising celebration of early English nationalism that contrasts the English with the French, portrayed here as effeminate and scheming.
A boy king, Henry VI, is on the English throne, and the indomitable Talbot leads the English cause in France. Joan La Pucelle (Joan of Arc), who becomes captain of the French, claims to be chosen by the Virgin Mary to liberate France. The English, however, consider her a sensual witch.
Many of the English nobility remain, quarreling, at home. Once in France, some seek permission to fight each other there. Talbot and his son cannot prevail; the English defeat themselves by preying on each other.
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Love Poems and Sonnets
William Shakespeare, Vera Bock
4.4
The greatest sonnets ever written, by the greatest poet and playwright in the English language -- now in a handsome edition featuring exquisite color illustrations.
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Cymbeline
William Shakespeare, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine
4.4
Cymbeline tells the story of a British king, Cymbeline, and his three children, presented as though they are in a fairy tale. The secret marriage of Cymbeline’s daughter, Imogen, triggers much of the action, which includes villainous slander, homicidal jealousy, cross-gender disguise, a deathlike trance, and the appearance of Jupiter in a vision.
Cymbeline displays unusually powerful emotions with a tremendous charge. Like some of Shakespeare’s other late work—especially The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest—it is an improbable story lifted into a nearly mythic realm.
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Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
Harold Bloom
4.3
"Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human" is the culmination of Harold Bloom's life's work in reading, writing about, and teaching Shakespeare. It is his passionate and convincing analysis of the way in which Shakespeare not merely represented human nature as we know it today, but actually created it: before Shakespeare, there was characterization; after Shakespeare, there was character, men and women with highly individual personalities -- Hamlet, Falstaff, Iago, Cleopatra, Macbeth, Rosalind, and Lear, among them. In making his argument, Bloom leads us through a brilliant and comprehensive reading of every one of Shakespeare's plays. According to a "New York Times" report on Shakespeare last year, "more people are watching him, reading him, and studying him than ever before." "Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human" is a landmark contribution, a book that will be celebrated and read for many years to come. It explains why Shakespeare has remained our most popular playwright for more than four hundred years, and in helping us to understand ourselves through literature, it restores the role of critic to one of central importance to our culture.
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Recommended by Winston Ma.
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Shakespeare After All
Marjorie Garber
4.3
A brilliant and companionable tour through all thirty-eight plays, Shakespeare After All is the perfect introduction to the bard by one of the country's foremost authorities on his life and work. Drawing on her hugely popular lecture courses at Yale and Harvard over the past thirty years, Marjorie Garber offers passionate and revealing readings of the plays in chronological sequence, from The Two Gentlemen of Verona to The Two Noble Kinsmen. Supremely readable and engaging, and complete with a comprehensive introduction to Shakespeare's life and times and an extensive bibliography, this magisterial work is an ever-replenishing fount of insight on the most celebrated writer of all time.
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Pericles
William Shakespeare, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine Ph.D.
4.3
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Letters from a Stoic
Seneca
4.3
I feel, my dear Lucilius, that I am being not only reformed, but transformed. I do not yet, however, assure myself, or indulge the hope, that there are no elements left in me which need to be changed. Of course there are many that should be made more compact, or made thinner, or be brought into greater prominence. And indeed this very fact is proof that my spirit is altered into something better, - that it can see its own faults, of which it was previously ignorant. In certain cases sick men are congratulated because they themselves have perceived that they are sick.
This is a letter from Stoic heavyweight Seneca the Younger — who lived a mere 2,000 years or so ago — to his friend Lucilius. It’s from a collection of letters that comprise, effectively, my favorite book of all time. I’ve read it dozens of times, and I loved it so much that I turned it into The Tao of Seneca, a three-volume set of audiobooks. [source]
After Marcus Aurelius, this is one of my favorite books. While Marcus wrote mainly for himself, Seneca had no trouble advising and aiding others. In fact, that was his job—he was Nero’s tutor, tasked with reducing the terrible impulses of a terrible man. His advice on grief, on wealth, on power, on religion, and on life are always there when you need them. [source]
Jerzy Gregorek
From this book, I learned self-mastery: to constantly improve myself so I would be ready for any possible disaster. I also learned that when disaster happens, it means that something is being asked of me. I need to improve. [source]
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Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel, Vincent Chong
4.3
Set in the days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.
One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time—from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains—this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.
“What sets Station Eleven apart from so many other recent dystopian novels is the warmness of @EmilyMandel's writing, the lived-in details of each of these characters’ lives… It’s the kind of book that stays with you.” —@TomiObaro https://t.co/tWakW2L6Tq [source]
Holly Brockwell
@nmsonline @katebevan Great book though 🤷♀️ [source]
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To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee, Sissy Spacek, et al
4.3
The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.
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Recommended by Adam Lawrence, Antonio Villaraigosa, Clive Stafford Smith, and 6 others.
Even though I know we’ve made great strides in America, and have come from the reality of Maycomb, we still suffer today from the lingering effects of the bigotry of that era. At the same time, it’s a lesson in standing tall in the face of tremendously hostile circumstances. [source]
Clive Stafford Smith
The book touches on so many issues and deals with so many prejudices – prejudices towards the mentally ill, racial stuff. It’s a book that was way ahead of its time in many ways. It’s also a wonderfully written book – a joy to read. [source]
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Hag-Seed
Margaret Atwood
4.3
When Felix is deposed as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival by his devious assistant and longtime enemy, his production of The Tempest is canceled and he is heartbroken. Reduced to a life of exile in rural southern Ontario—accompanied only by his fantasy daughter, Miranda, who died twelve years ago—Felix devises a plan for retribution.
Eventually he takes a job teaching Literacy Through Theatre to the prisoners at the nearby Burgess Correctional Institution, and is making a modest success of it when an auspicious star places his enemies within his reach. With the help of their own interpretations, digital effects, and the talents of a professional actress and choreographer, the Burgess Correctional Players prepare to video their Tempest. Not surprisingly, they view Caliban as the character with whom they have the most in common. However, Felix has another twist in mind, and his enemies are about to find themselves taking part in an interactive and illusion-ridden version of The Tempest that will change their lives forever. But how will Felix deal with his invisible Miranda’s decision to take a part in the play?
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Shakespeare: The Biography
Peter Ackroyd
4.3
Drawing on an exceptional combination of skills as literary biographer, novelist, and chronicler of London history, Peter Ackroyd surely re-creates the world that shaped Shakespeare--and brings the playwright himself into unusually vivid focus. With characteristic narrative panache, Ackroyd immerses us in sixteenth-century Stratford and the rural landscape–the industry, the animals, even the flowers–that would appear in Shakespeare’s plays. He takes us through Shakespeare’s London neighborhood and the fertile, competitive theater world where he worked as actor and writer. He shows us Shakespeare as a businessman, and as a constant reviser of his writing. In joining these intimate details with profound intuitions about the playwright and his work, Ackroyd has produced an altogether engaging masterpiece.
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The Riverside Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
4.3
The Second Edition of this complete collection of Shakespeare's plays and poems features two essays on recent criticism and productions, fully updated textual notes, a photographic insert of recent productions, and two works recently attributed to Shakespeare. The authors of the essays on recent criticism and productions are Heather DuBrow, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and William Liston, Ball State University, respectively.
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40
Fool
Christopher Moore
4.2
"Hilarious, always inventive, this is a book for all, especially uptight English teachers, bardolaters, and ministerial students." --Dallas Morning News
Fool--the bawdy and outrageous New York Times bestseller from the unstoppable Christopher Moore--is a hilarious new take on William Shakespeare's King Lear...as seen through the eyes of the foolish liege's clownish jester, Pocket. A rousing tale of "gratuitous shagging, murder, spanking, maiming, treason, and heretofore unexplored heights of vulgarity and profanity," Fool joins Moore's own Lamb, Fluke, The Stupidest Angel, and You Suck! as modern masterworks of satiric wit and sublimely twisted genius, prompting Carl Hiassen to declare Christopher Moore "a very sick man, in the very best sense of the word."
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Timon of Athens
William Shakespeare, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, et al.
4.2
FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY
Each edition includes: Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play Scene-by-scene plot summaries A key to famous lines and phrases An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books
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42
William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back (William Shakespeare's Star Wars, #5)
Ian Doescher
4.2
Hot on the heels of the New York Times best seller William Shakespeare’s Star Wars comes the next two installments of the original trilogy: William Shakespeare’s The Empire StrikethBack and William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return. Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter. Illustrated with beautiful black-and-white Elizabethan-style artwork, these two plays offer essential reading for all ages. Something Wookiee this way comes!
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43
The Shakespeare Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained
DK
4.2
The Shakespeare Book brings the work of William Shakespeare to life with full-color photography, images, idea webs, timelines, and quotes that help you understand the context of Shakespeare's plays and poems.
From Shakespeare's most-famous plays, such as Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, to less-frequently performed works such as King John and Henry VIII, every play of the Shakespearean canon is collected in this comprehensive guide, along with his major poems and best-loved sonnets.
In The Shakespeare Book each play includes an at-a-glance guide to story chronology, so you can easily get back on track if you get lost in Shakespeare's language. Character guides provide a handy reference for casual readers and an invaluable resource for playgoers, and students writing reports on Shakespeare.
Packed with infographics and explanations of plots and including an introduction to Shakespeare's life and times, The Shakespeare Book is the ultimate guide to understanding the work of William Shakespeare.
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44
The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606
James Shapiro
4.2
Preeminent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro shows how the tumultuous events in England in 1606 affected Shakespeare and shaped the three great tragedies he wrote that year—King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra.
In the years leading up to 1606, since the death of Queen Elizabeth and the arrival in England of her successor, King James of Scotland, Shakespeare’s great productivity had ebbed, and it may have seemed to some that his prolific genius was a thing of the past. But that year, at age forty-two, he found his footing again, finishing a play he had begun the previous autumn—King Lear—then writing two other great tragedies, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra.
It was a memorable year in England as well—and a grim one, in the aftermath of a terrorist plot conceived by a small group of Catholic gentry that had been uncovered at the last hour. The foiled Gunpowder Plot would have blown up the king and royal family along with the nation’s political and religious leadership. The aborted plot renewed anti-Catholic sentiment and laid bare divisions in the kingdom.
It was against this background that Shakespeare finished Lear, a play about a divided kingdom, then wrote a tragedy that turned on the murder of a Scottish king, Macbeth. He ended this astonishing year with a third masterpiece no less steeped in current events and concerns: Antony and Cleopatra.
The Year of Lear sheds light on these three great tragedies by placing them in the context of their times, while also allowing us greater insight into how Shakespeare was personally touched by such events as a terrible outbreak of plague and growing religious divisions. For anyone interested in Shakespeare, this is an indispensable book.
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45
Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companion
David Crystal
4.2
A vital resource for scholars, students and actors, this book contains glosses and quotes for over 14,000 words that could be misunderstood by or are unknown to a modern audience. Displayed panels look at such areas of Shakespeare's language as greetings, swear-words and terms of address. Plot summaries are included for all Shakespeare's plays and on the facing page is a unique diagramatic representation of the relationships within each play.
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46
The Wednesday Wars
Gary D. Schmidt
4.2
In this Newbery Honor-winning novel, Gary D. Schmidt offers an unforgettable antihero. The Wednesday Wars is a wonderfully witty and compelling story about a teenage boy’s mishaps and adventures over the course of the 1967–68 school year in Long Island, New York.
Meet Holling Hoodhood, a seventh-grader at Camillo Junior High, who must spend Wednesday afternoons with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, while the rest of the class has religious instruction. Mrs. Baker doesn’t like Holling—he’s sure of it. Why else would she make him read the plays of William Shakespeare outside class? But everyone has bigger things to worry about, like Vietnam. His father wants Holling and his sister to be on their best behavior: the success of his business depends on it. But how can Holling stay out of trouble when he has so much to contend with? A bully demanding cream puffs; angry rats; and a baseball hero signing autographs the very same night Holling has to appear in a play in yellow tights! As fate sneaks up on him again and again, Holling finds Motivation—the Big M—in the most unexpected places and musters up the courage to embrace his destiny, in spite of himself.
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The Shakespeare Stories
Andrew Matthews
4.2
Boasting 16 of William Shakespeare's most popular and enduring plays, this brand new collection features more Shakespeare Stories than ever before. From the tragedy of Macbeth to the humour of Much Ado About Nothing, this superb collection of paperbacks makes an excellent introduction to Shakespeare for younger readers. The tales have been retold using accessible language and with the help of Tony Ross's engaging black-and-white illustrations, each play is vividly brought to life allowing these culturally enriching stories to be shared with as wide an audience as possible.
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Recommended by Natasha.
Natasha
I really enjoy the books in this series and the way they’re structured. The illustrations are by Tony Ross, who also illustrates David Walliams’s books and they are quite funny (depending on the play, of course). They help you understand exactly what the play is about. [source]
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48
The Shakespeare Stealer (Shakespeare Stealer, #1)
Gary Blackwood
4.2
Widge is an orphan with a rare talent for shorthand. His fearsome master has just one demand: steal Shakespeare's play "Hamlet"--or else. Widge has no choice but to follow orders, so he works his way into the heart of the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare's players perform. As full of twists and turns as a London alleyway, this entertaining novel is rich in period details, colorful characters, villainy, and drama."A fast-moving historical novel that introduces an important era with casual familiarity." --School Library Journal, starred review
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49
Tales from Shakespeare
Charles Lamb, Mary Lamb
4.2
Presents an introduction to Shakespeare's greatest plays including Hamlet Othello, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest and Pericles.
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50
If We Were Villains
M. L. Rio
4.2
Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail - for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago.
As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.
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Recommended by Jacqui Pretty.
Jacqui Pretty
"When it comes to fiction, there are so many to choose from! Some books I've loved in the past year include If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio" [source]
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The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (37 plays, 160 sonnets and 5 Poetry Books With Active Table of Contents)
William Shakespeare
4.2
This collection gathers together the works by William Shakespeare in a single, convenient, high quality, and extremely low priced Kindle volume!
The Comedies of William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream All's Well That Ends Well As You Like It Love’s Labour ’s Lost Measure for Measure Much Ado About Nothing The Comedy of Errors The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor The Taming of the Shrew The Two Gentlemen of Verona Twelfth Night; or, What you will
The Romances of William Shakespeare
Cymbeline Pericles, Prince of Tyre The Tempest The Winter's Tale
The Tragedies of William Shakespeare
King Lear Romeo and Juliet The History of Troilus and Cressida The Life and Death of Julius Caesar The Life of Timon of Athens The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra The Tragedy of Coriolanus The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark The Tragedy of Macbeth The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice Titus Andronicus
The Histories of William Shakespeare
The Life and Death of King John The Life and Death of King Richard the Second The Tragedy of King Richard the Third The first part of King Henry the Fourth The second part of King Henry the Fourth The Life of King Henry V The first part of King Henry the Sixth The second part of King Henry the Sixth The third part of King Henry the Sixth The Life of King Henry the Eighth
The Poetical Works of William Shakespeare
The Sonnets Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music A Lover's Complaint The Rape of Lucrece Venus and Adonis The Phoenix and the Turtle The Passionate Pilgrim
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52
How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare
Ken Ludwig
4.2
Winner of the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare Book, How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare is a foolproof, enormously fun method of teaching your children the classic works of William Shakespeare by Tony-Award winning playwright, Ken Ludwig.
To know some Shakespeare provides a head start in life. His plays are among the great bedrocks of Western civilization and contain the finest writing of the past 450 years. Many of the best novels, plays, poems, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeare’s death in 1616—from Pride and Prejudice to The Godfather—are heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s stories, characters, language, and themes. In How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, acclaimed playwright Ken Ludwig provides the tools you need to inspire an understanding, and a love, of Shakespeare’s works in your children, and to have fun together along the way.
Ken Ludwig devised his friendly, easy-to-master methods while teaching his own children. Beginning with memorizing short passages from the plays, his technique then instills children with cultural references they will utilize for years to come. Ludwig’s approach includes understanding of the time period and implications of Shakespeare’s diction as well as the invaluable lessons behind his words and stories. Colorfully incorporating the history of Shakespearean theater and society, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare guides readers on an informed and adventurous journey through the world in which the Bard wrote.
This book’s simple process allows anyone to impart to children the wisdom of plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. And there’s fun to be had throughout. Shakespeare novices and experts and readers of all ages will each find something delightfully irresistible in How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.
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53
Vinegar Girl
Anne Tyler
4.2
Pulitzer Prize winner and American master Anne Tyler brings us an inspired, witty and irresistible contemporary take on one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies.
Kate Battista feels stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and uppity, pretty younger sister Bunny? Plus, she’s always in trouble at work – her pre-school charges adore her, but their parents don’t always appreciate her unusual opinions and forthright manner.
Dr. Battista has other problems. After years out in the academic wilderness, he is on the verge of a breakthrough. His research could help millions. There’s only one problem: his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. And without Pyotr, all would be lost.
When Dr. Battista cooks up an outrageous plan that will enable Pyotr to stay in the country, he’s relying – as usual – on Kate to help him. Kate is furious: this time he’s really asking too much. But will she be able to resist the two men’s touchingly ludicrous campaign to bring her around?
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Four Great Tragedies: Hamlet / Othello / King Lear / Macbeth
William Shakespeare
4.2
The greatest tragic plays of William Shakespeare--including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth.
What is tragedy? The Elizabethans defined it as a "lofty" play showing "personages of great state" caught up in a "lamentable" action that "beginneth prosperously and endeth unfortunately." Whether judged by this or any other standard, the plays selected for this collection are considered to be the four central works of Shakespearean tragedy and must be included in any list of the world's finest tragic literature. And to make these plays more accessible for the modern reader, this edition includes the following special features:
- Reliable texts by noted Shakespeare scholars - Texts printed in the clearest, most readable type - Names of each speaker given in full - Detailed footnotes at the bottom of each page keyed to the numbered lines of the text - Textual notes - Updated bibliography
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55
Romeo and Juliet (AmazonClassics Edition)
William Shakespeare
4.1
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56
Essential Shakespeare Handbook
Leslie Dunton-Downer and Alan Riding
4.1
THE ONE-STOP, SINGLE-VOLUME COMPANION TO SHAKESPEARE'S GREATEST WORKS-HIS HISTORY PLAYS, COMEDIES, TRAGEDIA, ROMANCES, AND POETRY
A portrait of Shakespeare's life and times: critics, contemporaries, patrons, and the era's vibrant theater.
Full commentaries on all 39 plays including detailed plot summaries, a survey of dramatic interpretations on stage and screen, and an introduction to Shakespeare's sonnets and narrative poetry.
Insight into Shakespeare's unique world, including his language, his sources of inspiration, and teh secret of his enduring universal appeal.
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57
Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard
Ben Crystal
4.1
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58
Wyrd Sisters (Discworld, #6; Witches #2)
Terry Pratchett
4.1
Kingdoms wobble, crowns topple and knives flash on the magical Discworld as the statutory three witches meddle in royal politics. The wyrd sisters battle against frightful odds to put the rightful king on the throne. At least, that's what they think...
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59
A Midsummer Night's Dream (AmazonClassics Edition)
William Shakespeare
4.1
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60
Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable-Path Adventure
Ryan North
4.1
Shakespeare’s plays weren’t meant to be read. They were meant…to be played.
What if Romeo never met Juliet? What if Juliet got really buff instead of moping around all day? What if they teamed up to take over Verona with robot suits? This choose-your-own-path version of Romeo and Juliet—packed with fun puzzles, secrets, and quadrillions of possible storylines—lets you decide where the plot goes every time you read. You might play as Romeo, or as Juliet, or as both of them at the same time. You might even unlock additional playable characters!
That’s right. We figured out how to have unlockable characters in books.
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61
Playing Shakespeare: An Actor's Guide
John Barton
4.1
Now in its first American edition, Playing Shakespeareis the premier guide to understanding and appreciating the mastery of the world’s greatest playwright.
Together with Royal Shakespeare Company actors–among them Patrick Stewart, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Ben Kingsley, and David Suchet–John Barton demonstrates how to adapt Elizabethan theater for the modern stage. The director begins by explicating Shakespeare’s verse and prose, speeches and soliloquies, and naturalistic and heightened language to discover the essence of his characters. In the second section, Barton and the actors explore nuance in Shakespearean theater, from evoking irony and ambiguity and striking the delicate balance of passion and profound intellectual thought, to finding new approaches to playing Shakespeare’s most controversial creation, Shylock, from The Merchant of Venice. A practical and essential guide, Playing Shakespearewill stand for years as the authoritative favorite among actors, scholars, teachers, and students.
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62
The War of the Worlds
H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke
4.1
When an army of invading Martians lands in England, panic and terror seize the population. As the aliens traverse the country in huge three-legged machines, incinerating all in their path with a heat ray and spreading noxious toxic gases, the people of the Earth must come to terms with the prospect of the end of human civilization and the beginning of Martian rule.
Inspiring films, radio dramas, comic-book adaptations, television series and sequels,The War of the Worlds is a prototypical work of science fiction which has influenced every alien story that has come since, and is unsurpassed in its ability to thrill, well over a century since it was first published.
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Recommended by Roger Luckhurst.
Roger Luckhurst
Wells’ brilliant satirical stroke of turning colonialism on its head. [source]
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63
Henry IV, Parts One and Two (No Fear Shakespeare)
William Shakespeare
4.1
No Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of Henry IV Part One and Two on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right.
Each No Fear Shakespeare contains: * The complete text of the original play * A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday language * A complete list of characters with descriptions * Plenty of helpful commentary
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Macbeth (Hogarth Shakespeare)
William Shakespeare
4.1
He’s the best cop they’ve got.
When a drug bust turns into a bloodbath it’s up to Inspector Macbeth and his team to clean up the mess.
He’s also an ex-drug addict with a troubled past.
He’s rewarded for his success. Power. Money. Respect. They’re all within reach.
But a man like him won’t get to the top.
Plagued by hallucinations and paranoia, Macbeth starts to unravel. He’s convinced he won’t get what is rightfully his.
Unless he kills for it.
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65
Dream Country (The Sandman, #3)
Neil Gaiman, Kelley Jones, Charles Vess
4.1
The third volume of the Sandman collection is a series of four short comic book stories. In each of these otherwise unrelated stories, Morpheus serves only as a minor character. Here we meet the mother of Morpheus's son, find out what cats dream about, and discover the true origin behind Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream. The latter won a World Fantasy Award for best short story, the first time a comic book was given that honor. collecting The Sandman #17–20
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A Thousand Acres
Jane Smiley
4.1
Aging Larry Cook announces his intention to turn over his 1,000-acre farm--one of the largest in Zebulon County, Iowa--to his three daughters, Caroline, Ginny, and Rose. A man of harsh sensibilities, he carves Caroline out of the deal because she has the nerve to be less than enthusiastic about her father's generosity. While Larry Cook deteriorates into a pathetic drunk, his daughters are left to cope with the often grim realities of life on a family farm--from battering husbands to cutthroat lenders. In this winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Smiley captures the essence of such a life with stark, painful detail.
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67
Escape to Shakespeare's World: A Colouring Book Adventure
William Shakespeare
4.1
A beautiful, intricate colouring book, full of romantic, inspirational and dramatic quotes from the favourite plays and poems of William Shakespeare. An ideal choice for older children and adults, in a beautiful square format designed to fit comfortably into handbag, briefcase or schoolbag. Gloriously intricate illustrations provide a soothing occupation for the millions of fans of adult colouring books. A perfect way to celebrate Shakespeare 400.
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Great Scenes from Shakespeare's Plays
John Green and Paul Negri
4.1
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69
The Globe Guide to Shakespeare: The Plays, The Productions, The Life
Andrew Dickso
4.1
The Globe Guide to Shakespeare is the ultimate guide to the life and work of the world's greatest playwright: William Shakespeare. With full coverage of the 39 Shakespearian plays, including a synopsis, full character list, stage history and a critical essay for each, this comprehensive guide is both a quick reference and in-depth background guide for theatre goers, students, film buffs and lovers of literature alike. The Globe Guide to Shakespeare also explores Shakespeare's sonnets and the narrative poems, combined with fascinating accounts of Shakespeare's life and theatre, exploring in colourful detail each play's original performances.
This comprehensive guide includes up-to-date reviews of the best films and audio recordings of each play, from Laurence Olivier to Baz Luhrmann, Kozintsev to Kurosawa. The Globe Guide to Shakespeare is a celebration of all things Shakespearian.
Published to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.
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70
The Norton Shakespeare
Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen Ph.D., et al.
4.1
The attractive print and digital bundle offers students a great reading experience at an affordable price in two ways a hardcover volume for their dorm shelf and lifetime library, and a digital edition ideal for in-class use. Students can access the ebook from their computer, tablet, or smartphone via the registration code included in the print volume at no additional charge. As one instructor summed it up, It s a long overdue step forward in the way Shakespeare is taught. "
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71
The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thomas E. Connolly, Nina Baym
4.1
Nathaniel Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER reaches to our nation's historical and moral roots for the material of great tragedy. Set in an early New England colony, the novel shows the terrible impact a single, passionate act has on the lives of three members of the community: the defiant Hester Prynne; the fiery, tortured Reverend Dimmesdale; and the obsessed, vengeful Chillingworth.
With THE SCARLET LETTER, Hawthorne became the first American novelist to forge from our Puritan heritage a universal classic, a masterful exploration of humanity's unending struggle with sin, guilt and pride.
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Recommended by Carol Gilligan.
Carol Gilligan
The Scarlet Letter is a tragic love story, but it’s also a story about resistance and transformation. [source]
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72
World of Shakespeare: The Complete Plays and Sonnets of William Shakespeare (38 Volume Library)
William Shakespeare
4.1
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73
Shakespeare's Secret
Elise Broach
4.1
A missing diamond, a mysterious neighbor, a link to Shakespeare-can Hero uncover the connections?
When Hero starts sixth grade at a new school, she's less concerned about the literary origins of her Shakespearean name than about the teasing she's sure to suffer because of it. So she has the same name as a girl in a book by a dusty old author. Hero is simply not interested in the connections. But that's just the thing; suddenly connections are cropping up all over, and odd characters and uncertain pasts are exactly what do fascinate Hero. There's a mysterious diamond hidden in her new house, a curious woman next door who seems to know an awful lot about it, and then, well, then there's Shakespeare. Not to mention Danny Cordova, only the most popular boy in school. Is it all in keeping with her namesake's origin-just much ado about nothing? Hero, being Hero, is determined to figure it out. In this fast-paced novel, Elise Broach weaves an intriguing literary mystery full of historical insights and discoveries. A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD SELECTION
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Othello (AmazonClassics Edition)
William Shakespeare
4.1
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75
Shakespeare's Insults: Educating Your Wit
Wayne F. Hill and Cynthia J. Ottchen
4.1
The sharpest stings ever to snap from the tip of an English-speaking tongue are here at hand, ready to be directed at the knaves, villains, and coxcombs of the reader's choice. Culled from 38 plays, here are the best 5,000 examples of Shakespeare's glorious invective, arranged by play, in order of appearance, with helpful act and line numbers for easy reference, along with an index of topical scorn appropriate to particular characters and occasions. Line art.
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.
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80
Romeo and Juliet (Twenty Shakespeare Children's Stories: The Complete Collection)
William Shakespeare
4.0
Hailed as one of the greatest romantic tragedies ever written, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is the tragic love story of the ‘star-crossed lovers’, Romeo and Juliet. Set in the city of Verona, Italy, the play revolves around the feud between two affluent families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Despite the enmity, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall passionately in love and wed in secret. However, the curse of enmity overpowers and everything goes terribly wrong.
This short narrative version of the play has been suitably adapted to help introduce the play to young readers. It can be read by children or read to them by parents who wish to introduce them to the play. It can also be used by teachers as a classroom resource. The easy-to-read narration and comic-style illustrations are sure to captivate children’s interest and develop their reading skills
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The Weird Sisters
Eleanor Brown
4.0
Watch a video A major new talent tackles the complicated terrain of sisters, the power of books, and the places we decide to call home.
There is no problem that a library card can't solve.
The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there. See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much. But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from-one another, their small hometown, and themselves-might offer more than they ever expected.
10 Hours and 26 Minutes Imprint: Penguin Audio Genre: Fiction - Family Life - General Release Date: January 20, 2011
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82
The Meaning of Shakespeare, Volume 1
Harold C. Goddard
4.0
In two magnificent and authoritative volumes, Harold C. Goddard takes readers on a tour through the works of William Shakespeare, celebrating his incomparable plays and unsurpassed literary genius.
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83
Shakespeare by Another Name: The Life of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, the Man Who Was Shakespeare
Mark Anderson
4.0
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84
Hamlet: The Arkangel Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
4.0
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85
Just One Day (Just One Day, #1)
Gayle Forman
4.0
A breathtaking journey toward self-discovery and true love, from the author of If I Stay.
When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there's an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.
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Twenty Shakespeare Children's Stories - The Complete 20 Books Boxed Collection: The Winters Take, Macbeth, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo ... and More (A Shakespeare Children's Story)
Shakespeare's English Kings: History, Chronicle, and Drama
Peter Saccio
4.0
Far more than any professional historian, Shakespeare is responsible for whatever notions most of us possess about English medieval history. Anyone who appreciates the dramatic action of Shakespeare's history plays but is confused by much of the historical detail will welcome this guide to the Richards, Edwards, Henrys, Warwicks and Norfolks who ruled and fought across Shakespeare's page and stage. Not only theater-goers and students, but today's film-goers who want to enrich their understanding of film adaptations of plays such as Richard III and Henry V will find this revised edition of Shakespeare's English Kings to be an essential companion.
Saccio's engaging narrative weaves together three threads: medieval English history according to the Tudor chroniclers who provided Shakespeare with his material, that history as understood by modern scholars, and the action of the plays themselves. Including a new preface, a revised further reading list, genealogical charts, an appendix of names and titles, and an index, the second edition of Shakespeare's English Kings offers excellent background reading for all of the ten history plays.
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88
Macbeth: The Arkangel Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
4.0
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89
Shakespeare and Company
Sylvia Beach, James Laughlin
4.0
Sylvia Beach was intimately acquainted with the expatriate and visiting writers of the Lost Generation, a label that she never accepted. Like moths of great promise, they were drawn to her well-lighted bookstore and warm hearth on the Left Bank. Shakespeare and Company evokes the zeitgeist of an era through its revealing glimpses of James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Sherwood Anderson, Andre Gide, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, D. H. Lawrence, and others already famous or soon to be. In his introduction to this new edition, James Laughlin recalls his friendship with Sylvia Beach. Like her bookstore, his publishing house, New Directions, is considered a cultural touchstone.
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90
Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare
Stephen Greenblatt
4.0
Renaissance Self-Fashioning is a study of sixteenth-century life and literature that spawned a new era of scholarly inquiry. Stephen Greenblatt examines the structure of selfhood as evidenced in major literary figures of the English Renaissance—More, Tyndale, Wyatt, Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare—and finds that in the early modern period new questions surrounding the nature of identity heavily influenced the literature of the era. Now a classic text in literary studies, Renaissance Self-Fashioning continues to be of interest to students of the Renaissance, English literature, and the new historicist tradition, and this new edition includes a preface by the author on the book's creation and influence.
"No one who has read [Greenblatt's] accounts of More, Tyndale, Wyatt, and others can fail to be moved, as well as enlightened, by an interpretive mode which is as humane and sympathetic as it is analytical. These portraits are poignantly, subtly, and minutely rendered in a beautifully lucid prose alive in every sentence to the ambivalences and complexities of its subjects."—Harry Berger Jr., University of California, Santa Cruz
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Recommended by Jerry Brotton.
Jerry Brotton
Greenblatt is interested in the great literature that comes out of the late 16th and early 17th century. [source]
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91
William Shakespeare: An Adult Coloring Book
Odessa Begay
4.0
Color iconic scenes from the works of the world’s greatest playwright: William Shakespeare. To be or not to be. Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo? Shakespeare’s words are without doubt the most famous in the English language. And this coloring book by Little Birds author Odessa Begay pays tribute to his work. Each stunning illustration was inspired by the Bard’s timeless tales, and references settings, motifs, and details, with one-two lines of text accompanying the image.
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92
The Tempest (AmazonClassics Edition)
William Shakespeare
4.0
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93
William Shakespeare: Complete Plays
William Shakespeare
4.0
King Lear. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Romeo and Juliet. Macbeth. Othello, the Moor of Venice. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Merchant of Venice. Lovers of literature will immediately recognize these as signature dramas of William Shakespeare, whose plays still rank as the greatest works ever produced for the stage. More than four centuries after they were written, they have yet to be surpassed for their poetry and their insight into the human condition.
William Shakespeare: Complete Plays collects all thirty-seven of the immortal Bard’s comedies, tragedies, and historical plays. In this volume all of Shakespeare’s memorable characters—star-crossed lovers, majestic monarchs, wise fools, lovable rogues, treacherous villains, conflicted heroes, cagey heroines, and creatures magical and mythic—strut and fret their hour upon the stage. These characters, and the roles they play, have influenced virtually all literature written since. For readers who appreciate the emotional power of the written word, and the heights of humor and the depths of drama that can be encompassed by a single type of literature, William Shakespeare: Complete Plays is an indispensable collection of timeless masterpieces.
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94
The Age of Shakespeare (Modern Library Chronicles)
Frank Kermode
4.0
In The Age of Shakespeare, Frank Kermode uses the history and culture of the Elizabethan era to enlighten us about William Shakespeare and his poetry and plays. Opening with the big picture of the religious and dynastic events that defined England in the age of the Tudors, Kermode takes the reader on a tour of Shakespeare’s England, vividly portraying London’s society, its early capitalism, its court, its bursting population, and its epidemics, as well as its arts—including, of course, its theater. Then Kermode focuses on Shakespeare himself and his career, all in the context of the time in which he lived. Kermode reads each play against the backdrop of its probable year of composition, providing new historical insights into Shakspeare’s characters, themes, and sources. The result is an important, lasting, and concise companion guide to the works of Shakespeare by one of our most eminent literary scholars.
From the Hardcover edition.
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95
The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet
Erin Dionne
4.0
Hamlet Kennedy just wants to be your average, happy, vanilla eighth grader. But with Shakespearean scholar parents who dress in Elizabethan regalia and generally go about in public as if it were the sixteenth century, that’s not terribly easy. It gets worse when they decide that Hamlet’s genius seven year-old sister will attend middle school with her— and even worse when the Shakespeare project is announced and her sister is named the new math tutor. By the time an in-class recitation reveals that our heroine is an extraordinary Shakespearean actress, Hamlet can no longer hide from the fact that she—like her family—is anything but average. In a novel every bit as funny as her debut, Erin Dionne has created another eighth grader whose situation is utterly unique—but whose foibles and farces will resound with every girl currently suffering through middle school.
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96
How to Read and Understand Shakespeare
Marc C. Conner
4.0
Listening Length: 12 hours and 6 minutes
Shakespeare's works are among the greatest of humanity's cultural expressions and, as such, demand to be experienced and understood.
But, simply put, Shakespeare is difficult. His language and culture - those of Elizabethan England - are greatly different from our own, and his poetry, thick with metaphorical imagery and double meanings, can be hard to penetrate.
Yet the keys to understanding Shakespeare are written into the plays themselves. If you can learn to recognize the playwright's own clues, you'll become able to engage meaningfully with his language, to follow the plot structures and themes that drive his plays, and to track the development of his characters.
Over the course of 24 lectures, this innovative and penetrating exploration of Shakespeare's plays reveals how to enter Shakespeare's dramatic world, how to grasp what's happening in any of his plays, and how to enjoy them fully both on the page and the stage.
Under Professor Conner's expert guidance, shaped by decades of studying and performing Shakespeare, you learn more than 40 interpretive tools, drawn from the texts themselves, that give you direct insight into the plays. These guiding principles allow you to follow the narratives of the plays as they unfold, with a clear understanding of how the plays function and fit together.
The professor also reveals fascinating details of Shakespeare's era, which shed further light on the plays and the way his contemporary audiences perceived them.
This course builds the skills that allow you to reach your own understanding of the plays - to deeply comprehend Shakespeare's transcendent poetic language, the spellbinding world of his great characters and stories, and his revelatory reflections on human experience.
Disclaimer: Please note that this recording may include references to supplemental texts or print references that are not essential to the program and not supplied with your purchase.
This classic of Shakespeare scholarship begins with a masterly introductory essay analysing and exemplifying the various categories of sexual and non-sexual bawdy expressions and allusions in Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. The main body of the work consists of an alphabetical glossary of all words and phrases used in a sexual or scatological sense, with full explanations and cross-references.
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98
William Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories and Tragedies
Peter Saccio
4.0
Professor Peter Saccio—an award-winning Ivy League Professor of Shakespeare studies—is your guide for this marvelous exploration of 15 of Shakespeare's greatest plays. Learn how our most abundant poet and dramatist has been moving, delighting, and enlightening readers and audiences for 400 years, with no end in sight.
Lecture Titles: 1. Shakespeare Then and Now 2. The Nature of Shakespeare's Plays 3. Twelfth Night—Shakespearean Comedy 4. Twelfth Night—Malvolio in Love 5. The Taming of the Shrew—Getting Married in the 1590s 6. The Taming of the Shrew—Farce and Romance 7. The Merchant of Venice—Courting the Heiress 8. The Merchant of Venice—Shylock 9. Measure for Measure—Sex in Society 10. Measure for Measure—Justice and Comedy 11. Richard III—Shakespearean History 12. Richard III—The Villain's Career 13. Richard II—The Theory of Kingship 14. Richard II—The Fall of the King 15. Henry IV—All the King's Men 16. Henry IV—The Life of Falstaff 17. Henry V—The Death of Falstaff 18. Henry V—The King Victorious 19. Romeo and Juliet—Shakespearean Tragedy 20. Romeo and Juliet—Public Violence and Private Bliss; 21. Troilus and Cressida—Ancient Epic in a New Mode 22. Troilus and Cressida—Heroic Aspirations 23. Julius Caesar—The Matter of Rome 24. Julius Caesar—Heroes of History 25. Hamlet—The Abundance of the Play 26. Hamlet—The Causes of Tragedy 27. Hamlet—The Protestant Hero 28. Othello—The Design of the Tragedy 29. Othello—“O Villainy!” 30. Othello—“The Noble Moor” 31. King Lear—“This Is the Worst” 32. King Lear—Wisdom Through Suffering 33. King Lear—“Then We Go On” 34. Macbeth—“Fair Is Foul” 35. Macbeth—Musing on Murder 36. Macbeth—“Enter Two Murderers”
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