Julius Caesar

by William Shakespeare

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Genres: Shakespeare, Classics

Paperback

Published June 26, 1998

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[mari0ndule]

outil de torture much cette pièce bien que la situationship cassius/brutus rendait ça un peu plus intéressant 🚬

[Dennis]

I've not yet read any of the Arden Shakespeare: Third Series but am so impressed by the detailed, comprehenive and readable! books. That last quality in my list is a rare quality in so much of otherwise worthy books on the plays. Thank you to David Daniell and all the other Shakespeare scholars who've contributed to this compendium of both the play and its history covering so many areas of the play's life in our culture.
Well, done.

[S]

This play for me starts off very very strong, and with possibly my favourite speech in it of all Shakespeare’s. The “friends romans countrymen” - not many move me like that one. I feel like it just peters off a little towards the end and the characters all get a little muddled and it drags. But overall a great interpretation of great men and their faults. Some brilliant themes. I hope one day I can perform it or have a hand in reinventing it for modern ears…

[audrey]

Guys I LOVE JULIUS CAESAR! I LOVE IT! Such a good edition, and the introduction is soooo juicy. I also appreciated the excerpts from Plutarch's Lives, and the text is actually so entertaining despite being thousands of years old?? Gagged.

The way to my heart is to ask me about Brutus and Cassius. That's all.

[Lidia]

✨ 4 stars

[Tian Gao]

Very detailed notes, which I find a little distracting.

[Sara Pezzoni]

Come ho fatto a vivere senza finora non lo so proprio.