William Shakespeare

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ISBN: 978-1-904048-05-3
extent: 96pp
binding: paperback
price £3.99
pub. date August 2002

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featuring:

The Taming of the Shrew
Much Ado About Nothing
King Lear
Romeo and Juliet
Macbeth
The Tempest
Twelfth Night
Richard III
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
Othello

and more...

Shakespeare is undoubtedly the most famous playwright in the English language. Every day, all over the world his plays are performed in thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of productions. Quotations from his plays and poems have become part of the language, and are often uttered without people even knowing that they are, in fact, quoting Shakespeare.

Shakespeare’s characters are as famous as the titles of his plays. Jack Falstaff, Oberon, Macbeth, Henry V, Hamlet, Shylock, Romeo and Juliet to name but a few. They range across the entire gamut of human nature: from the misguided nobility of Brutus to the manipulative malice of Iago; from the buffoonery of Bottom to the world-weariness of Prospero; from the seductive flightiness of Cleopatra to the wisdom of Portia. His poetry explores every human emotion, and ranges from the serio-comic shaggy dog story in A Lover’s Complaint to the tragedy of The Rape Of Lucrece.

Shakespeare has been on film almost since film was invented, and his plays continue to be filmed today (Hamlet, Love’s Labour Lost, Romeo+Juliet), or to form the basis for other films (Ten Things I Hate About You was based on The Taming Of The Shrew). Shakespeare himself provided the raw material for Shakespeare In Love.

This Pocket Essentials Guide has a synopsis of every play and poem, a listing of the major characters and a discussion of the issues and themes. A brief biography explains what is known of Shakespeare’s life. Since even the Bard had his off days, every play and poem in the canon is rated. The great lines from each play are quoted, and the great films of each play are listed. The appendices contain the most useful texts and websites.

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