Shakespeare: A Crash Course

Thanks to this delightful, reader-friendly gem, at long last, the Bard is made accessible to all-even to he or she who hath never dug a line of Shakespeare before.

Starting with the controversy over whether the genius who wrote the plays was Shakespeare or one of his rivals, the author puts the Bard in the context of Elizabethan life and theater. His personas as actor, businessman, playwright, and poet are touched upon, followed by selections from his greatest plays and sonnets. A roundup of miscellaneous Bardean tidbits, Elizabethan insults, and other Shakespearean lore completes the irreverent, entertaining, yet informative text.

Rob Graham, whose background includes acting, directing, and theater management, is Senior Tutor of Theatre Studies at Brunel University in England.