An Introduction to Shakespeare's Late Plays

Shakespeare's last four plays, Pericles, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline and The Tempest, have grown considerably in stature in recent years. Always favourite choices for study by teachers and examiners alike, these last plays contain some of Shakespeare's most sophisticated dramatic thinking. Extreme suffering and intense joy can be evoked in a single play, manipulating the audience's emotions to such a remarkable degree that there is nothing quite as raw or expressive anywhere else in the Shakespeare canon. These plays explore what it is to be human, to be part of a family, to feel love and endure loss at its most poignant and powerful.

This engaging new study takes a comprehensive look at all four of the late plays, and contains detailed analyses to show you how to approach Shakespeare's verse and consider its dramatic potential. Crowded into the final few years of Shakespeare's working life, the late plays still have much to teach us today, whatever our reason for reading them: An Introduction to Shakespeare's Late Plays will help you to appreciate and understand these most complex and compelling of dramatic works.

JOE NUTT is currently the Lead Consultant at CfBT Education Trust and previously taught English at the City of London School. He is also the author of John Donne: The Poems in the Palgrave Analysing Texts series.
JOE NUTT is currently the Lead Consultant at CfBT Education Trust and previously taught English at the City of London School. He is also the author of John Donne: The Poems in the Palgrave Analysing Texts series.