Shakespeare and Co: Christopher Marlowe Thomas Dekker Ben Jonjon Thomas Middleton - Softcover

Wells, Stanley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141017139 ISBN 13: 9780141017136

Publisher: Penguin UK, 2007

Synopsis

'Enjoyable, lively ... such a pleasure to read ... renders the drama of Shakespeare’s contemporaries more than fringe entertainment’ Independent Shakespeare is one of the greatest of all English figures, considered a genius for all time. Yet as this enthralling book shows, he was at heart a man of the theatre, one among a community of artists in the teeming world of Renaissance London – from the enigmatic spy Christopher Marlowe to the self-aggrandizing Ben Jonson, from the actor Richard Burbage to the brilliant Thomas Middleton. By bringing Shakespeare’s contemporaries to life, Shakespeare & Co throws fresh new light on the man himself. ‘Warm, cheerful, generous ... Wells sketches a whole gallery of Shakespeare’s fellow playwrights ... He brings each vividly to life, making you feel that you’ve met them personally in some Blackfriars tavern’ Simon Callow ‘It was a time and place teeming with excitement, anecdote and incident, and Wells, in this richly enjoyable work, brings it to life with a novelist’s sense of the telling detail’ Dominic Dromgoole ‘Enthralling’ Observer ‘This is one of the most sane and exciting books on Shakespeare I have read for a long time’ Scotland on Sunday

About this title

About the Author:

Stanley Wells has devoted most of life to teaching, editing and writing about Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Honorary Governor Emeritus of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, he is also Emeritus Professor of Shakespeare Studies of the University of Birmingham. He is General Editor of the Penguin and Oxford editions of Shakespeare and co-editor of the Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. His recent account of Shakespeare and his after-life, Shakespeare For All Time, was described as the best book about Shakespeare for a generation.

Review:

Praise from Great Britain:

“Fascinating... An enthralling work of popular scholarship.”
–Robert McCrum, The Observer

“Ingenious... [Shakespeare’s London] was a time and a place teeming with excitement, anecdote and incident, and Wells, in this richly enjoyable work, brings it to life with a novelist’s sense of the telling detail.”
–Dominic Dromgoole, The Sunday Times

“Comprehensive and colorful... This is illuminating, well-planned and suggestive work, not only for those readers who have little acquaintance with the subject, but also for those already familiar with it. One of the greatest gifts of this book... is to re-astonish readers with the simple fact of the newness of all this.”
–Min Wild, The Independent on Sunday

“A valuable contribution to popular Shakespeare scholarship... A feat of synthesis... Each page is dense with well-chosen information and sensible, sensitive interpretation.”
–Peter Wentworth, The Literary Times Supplement

“This collaborative Shakespeare makes a refreshing change from the autistic monarch of the stage... Wit its lightly worn learning and its refreshing argument, this is a rewarding and readable book. Anyone who wants to understand Shakespeare will learn from it.”
–Colin Burrow, Evening Standard

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin UK
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0141017139
• ISBN 13: 9780141017136
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304