William Shakespeare: Sonnets and Poems (English Authors Series) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805716491 ISBN 13: 9780805716498

Publisher: Twayne Publishers, 1998

Synopsis

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

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

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

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

About this title

From the Back Cover

In examining historical records, Kay has assembled a story of Shakespeare's life - one that shows a man driven to develop his business interests and to preserve his estates in Stratford-upon-Avon. He contends that there is little evidence that Shakespeare was writing with an eye on posterity. Rather, his writing was intimately bound up with his contemporary culture, and particularly with the new art form of the professional theater. Kay argues that in writing for the public stage Shakespeare chose a medium whose tendency to be social and collaborative was especially marked in the culture of early modern England, where the function, value, effects, and even the existence of drama were matters of intense concern. In various chapters Kay describes Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford, citing its history and the career of Shakespeare's father, his own marriage and appearances in the town records; the curriculum Shakespeare probably followed at the grammar school in Stratford and the evidence the plays provide of his reading throughout his life; English history from the accession of Henry VII in 1485 to the death of James I in 1625, depicting the culture and society of Shakespeare's England; London, the city where Shakespeare worked for some 20 years, and the evidence of his activities and residences there; the theatrical industry in which Shakespeare worked, considering the playhouses, acting companies, the playgoers, and changing attitudes to the drama; Elizabethan and Jacobean culture, with special reference to the place of drama; and the three major phases of Shakespeare's literary career. Kay's research and archival detective work provide a portrait of a man whose plays entertained bothroyalty and commoners with characters, plots, and subjects that both reflected and illuminated life as they experienced and understood it. Kay shows that Shakespeare's works were not created in a vacuum - he demonstrates that an appreciation of the extraordinary genius of Shakespeare can only be enriched and deepened by an awareness of his life and career in the context of his times.

About the Author

Dennis Kay will take up the Russell M. Robinson Distinguished Chair in Shakespeare at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1995.

Edition details

• Publisher: Twayne Publishers
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805716491
• ISBN 13: 9780805716498
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200
• Editor: Kay Dennis, Shakespeare William