Essential Shakespeare Handbook - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1409346250 ISBN 13: 9781409346258

Publisher: GARDNERS VI BOOKS AMS006, 2014

Synopsis

The ultimate visual guide to every Shakespeare play

The Essential Shakespeare Handbook unravels the history, themes and language of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets.

Romance, comedy and tragedy, Shakespeare's canon has it all. With act-by-act plot summaries and resumes of main characters, the Essential Shakespeare Handbook will allow you to enjoy the Bard with new confidence. See the plays and sonnets in context with a portrait of the Bard's life and the world of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre. Enrich your experience of the Bard's work on the page, stage, and screen with an in-depth look at Shakespearean language and Shakespeare's influence across the globe.

Whether you want a quick overview of Hamlet before a trip to the theatre or help with a Shakespeare essay, the popular Essential Shakespeare Handbook now with a new jacket (previous ISBN 9780751348828) is the book for you.

About this title

About the Author

Leslie Dunton-Downer is a lecturer who has an abundance of awards and accolades to her credit. Her Parisian bookshelves are piled high with books on the bard alongside some of her own which have been read worldwide. Alan Riding makes a living out of waxing lyrical about Shakespeare. He regularly contributes his interpretations on the much-loved playwright to national and international press.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up–Organized according to the categories of plays and including a section on his nondramatic poetry, this is an excellent basic tool for gaining insight into the Bard's poetic genius. Each of the categories–histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances–commences with a well-written essay that explains the nature of the genre (and the place of Shakespeare's works within it) and discusses the themes and ideas that lay behind the poet's words. A more in-depth analysis of each play follows: a look at the sources that inspired it, an act-by-act plot outline (with relevant quotes), an annotated list of the dramatis personae, ideas to ponder when reading/seeing the play, and, finally, a discussion of issues associated with the play and/or its productions. Each treatment is liberally peppered with informative sidebars, as well as with clear, color photos of relevant people and places. For the poems, similarly organized information is offered. A number of useful discussions help put the pieces into their full literary context. A biography of the playwright, an essay on Elizabethan society and the theater it spawned, a discussion of the overall canon, and an explanation of Shakespeare's language and poetic meters round out the text. This volume is not meant to take the place of more comprehensive reference works, such as Michael Dobson and Stanley Wells's The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (Oxford, 2001), but it isan informative, visually enticing introduction to the world's most famous dramatist.–Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI
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Edition details

• Publisher: GARDNERS VI BOOKS AMS006
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1409346250
• ISBN 13: 9781409346258
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480