Brick Shakespeare: The Tragedies-Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar

by John McCann, Monica Sweeney, Becky Thomas

Enjoy four of Shakespeare’s tragedies told with LEGO bricks. Here are Hamlet , Macbeth , Romeo and Juliet , and Julius Caesar enacted scene by scene, captioned by excerpts from the plays. Flip through one thousand color photographs as you enjoy Shakespeare’s iconic poetry and marvel at what can be done with the world’s most popular children’s toy.

Watch the brick Hamlet give his famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy, and feel brick Ophelia’s grief as she meets her watery end. Lady Macbeth in brick form brings new terror to “Out, out, damn spot!” and brick Romeo and Juliet are no less star-crossed for being rectangular and plastic. The warm familiarity of bricks lends levity to Shakespeare’s tragedies while remaining true to his original language.

The ideal book for Shakespeare enthusiasts, as well as a fun way to introduce children to Shakespeare’s masterpieces, this book employs Shakespeare’s original, characteristic language in abridged form. Though the language stays true to its origins, the unique format of these well-known tragedies will give readers a new way to enjoy one of the most popular playwrights in history.

Genres: Classics, Graphic Novels, Drama, Shakespeare, Plays, Nonfiction, Tragedy

352 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 2013

Reviews

[Edy Gies · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful introduction to Shakespeare if you don't have a lot of experience with the Bard. They cut out large portions to make it possible to have four plays into one book. The graphic novel type layout is fantastic. Iconic scenes like the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, Ophelia drowning, and Hamlet's dramatic scene are just so fabulously odd and wonderful when told in Lego. I know my eight year old son was engrossed in these stories that are timeless and because he loves Legos he loved the story. I would recommend this as a great way to introduce great literature to young people.

[Magenta Cooly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Haven't completely read the whole thing, but I've grown up with enough people reading or watching Shakespeare to understand everything going on. I'm not anywhere close to a Shakespeare fan, but I needed something of him in my collection and this book was just too beautiful not to pick up and read a little. A star for some of the smartest writing of all time, and another for being something one of the most beautiful bindings I've ever seen

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is clearly an amazing accomplishment. Building every scene in Legos?! Amazing. It also uses actual text, so it's a great companion resource or even substitute source for classroom use. But it's so jam packed that it was almost too much. But interesting and worth looking at if you teach Shakespeare.

[Brent Agamã · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed these plays quite a lot! It was an interesting experience to read Shakespeare.

[Lilac A. Penda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pretty interesting take on shakespeare, each story chosen is accurate and well known to be shakespeare. This allows for a firm grasp on what shakespeare was all about. My only gripe being that they had to cut some of the more interesting pieces out for the sake of the book and lack of resources available to them. However overall, a worthy read. Easily five stars.

[kebot the chocolate · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book u must should try to read, coz the line of this books will know who is the really william shakespeare

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Macbeth and also Romeo and Juliet in high school and Hamlet in college.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked Macbeth and Hamlet in high school. So I got this book and loved the other tradegies as well.

[LMS]

This looks amazing and I really want to read it.

[Casey Lenhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's tough to take the tragedies seriously when they are all made out of Legos, but it was fun to read and now I have read more Shakespeare! My favorites were Hamlet and Macbeth - at least in Legos.

[Radagast]

Hilarious!

[Paul Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Max stars. This is a no-brainer. Shakespeare should be not just on everyone's to read list, but on everyone's read list. Much more Shakespeare to come.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introduction to Shakespeare's tragedies.

[Grace Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will not doubt finish this many times more.