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. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This second edition of Romeo and Juliet retains the text prepared by G. Blakemore Evans, together with his introduction and detailed textual notes. A thorough stage history features i...

The classic comedy. According to Wikipedia: "Much Ado About Nothing is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare set in Messina, Sicily about a pair of lovers named Claudio and Hero due to be married in a week. To pass the time before their wedding day they conspire with Don Pedro, the prince of Aragon, to trick their friends, Beatrice and Benedick, into confessing their love for one another. The prince's brother Don John, however, jealous of both Don Pedro's power and his affection for Cla...

Delve into the dark and treacherous world of Macbeth, William Shakespeare's most intense and captivating psychological tragedy. A cornerstone of classic English literature, this iconic play-often referred to as the "Scottish Play"-explores the corrosive and destructive nature of unchecked ambition and the complexities of human morality. The gripping narrative follows the brave Scottish general, Macbeth, who receives a chilling prophecy from three mysterious witches predicting that he will ...

Prince Hamlet, the son of the deceased king and the nephew of King Claudius, his father's brother and successor, is the hero of this play. He returns to Denmark to find that his mother has already remarried, marrying his uncle. Soon, the castle grounds are haunted by the King’s ghost and Hamlet decides to meet the spectre. The ghost reveals a secret to Hamlet: his father didn’t die of natural causes. In fact, his uncle poisoned him and usurped the throne. Hamlet begins conspiring with the ...

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 read...

Rape of Lucreceby William ShakespeareLucrece is described as if she were a work of art, objectified in as if she were a material possession. Tarquin's rape of her is described as if she were a fortress under attack -- conquering her various physical attributes. Although Lucrece is raped, the poem offers an apology to absolve her of guilt. Like Shakespeare's other raped women, Lucrece gains symbolic value: through her suicide, her body metamorphoses into a political symbol.

In this new offering from Stanley Wells, the pre-eminent Shakespearian scholar, comes a Very Short Introduction to the life and writings of the world's greatest and best-known dramatists: William Shakespeare. Looking at his early life and education, Wells explores Shakespeare's social and intellectual background and the literary traditions on which Shakespeare drew. Examining the theatres and theatrical profession of the time, he also considers how Shakespeare experienced this wor...

According to Wikipedia: "William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616)[a] was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.[1] He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living l...

Unlock the more straightforward side of Romeo and Juliet with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!This engaging summary presents an analysis of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the timeless story of two lovers separated by the feud between their houses and a contrary fate. This powerful play by the genius playwright is still as moving now as it was in the 16th century, when it was first performed. Shakespeare is widely conside...