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Brick Shakespeare: The Tragedies-Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar
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.
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.
352 pages, Paperback
First published November 6, 2013
7 people are currently reading
299 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 28, 2011
HAMLET 5/5
I really liked Hamlet. At first I wanted to give it 4 stars because I thought : Okay I really liked it as a whole but now it's time to think about the things that really bugged me while reading and surprisingly I couldn't find a thing that was such a big deal that made me like the book less. Shakespeare's language is sometimes hard to follow but with footnotes explaining things you can manage and in "Hamlet" there were moments where I was a bit lost when Hamlet was talking but I think it was intention of the writer. This is one of the situations where I can't find reasonable explanation of why I wouldn't make it a 5 star book but something in my gut tells me that something that makes a book spacial for me was missing so it is not a full 5 stars book.
Macbeth 3,5/5
This is my second time reading "Macbeth" and I have to admit it was a tad better than the first time. I don't know why but even when I was beginning to read it for the first time I had some kind of aversion to this play, maybe third time will be a charm. I think that what kind of irritates me is the fact that Macbeth blindly listens to the witches and doesn't really question anything about their prophecies or doesn't think about consequences of his acts or morality of his behavior. This character just really bugged me and since he is the protagonist and everything in the play evolves around him my dislike to him kind of influenced how I feel about the whole book. The thing I liked about the book were the scenes with the witches. Texts like :" Double, double toil and trouble" or "Something wicked this way comes" lightened the mood of the play for me a little bit.
Othello 4/5
Main themes are trust and love. The story kept me quite curious till the end. The thing that bothered me a little was the fact that Othello so easily gave up to his jealousy and stopped trusting his wife, his emotions took over his common sense and thats why Iago so easily did what he did.If Othello put more trust into his wife Iago would have to play even more games to get to his goal and there would be more intrigues for us to uncover throughout the book. What I really like is that you can't really be sure what happens next so you read attentively wanting to know what will happen.
Romeo and Juliet 4,5/5
It's a story that nearly everyone knows. It is a great read. Only one thing bugges me a little and it is Romeo. I consider him to be a little too emotional, he kind of reminds me of a women with all his shifts of emotions. But if he wouldn't so easily fall in love and follow his emotions no matter what we wouldn't have the story.
I really liked Hamlet. At first I wanted to give it 4 stars because I thought : Okay I really liked it as a whole but now it's time to think about the things that really bugged me while reading and surprisingly I couldn't find a thing that was such a big deal that made me like the book less. Shakespeare's language is sometimes hard to follow but with footnotes explaining things you can manage and in "Hamlet" there were moments where I was a bit lost when Hamlet was talking but I think it was intention of the writer. This is one of the situations where I can't find reasonable explanation of why I wouldn't make it a 5 star book but something in my gut tells me that something that makes a book spacial for me was missing so it is not a full 5 stars book.
Macbeth 3,5/5
This is my second time reading "Macbeth" and I have to admit it was a tad better than the first time. I don't know why but even when I was beginning to read it for the first time I had some kind of aversion to this play, maybe third time will be a charm. I think that what kind of irritates me is the fact that Macbeth blindly listens to the witches and doesn't really question anything about their prophecies or doesn't think about consequences of his acts or morality of his behavior. This character just really bugged me and since he is the protagonist and everything in the play evolves around him my dislike to him kind of influenced how I feel about the whole book. The thing I liked about the book were the scenes with the witches. Texts like :" Double, double toil and trouble" or "Something wicked this way comes" lightened the mood of the play for me a little bit.
Othello 4/5
Main themes are trust and love. The story kept me quite curious till the end. The thing that bothered me a little was the fact that Othello so easily gave up to his jealousy and stopped trusting his wife, his emotions took over his common sense and thats why Iago so easily did what he did.If Othello put more trust into his wife Iago would have to play even more games to get to his goal and there would be more intrigues for us to uncover throughout the book. What I really like is that you can't really be sure what happens next so you read attentively wanting to know what will happen.
Romeo and Juliet 4,5/5
It's a story that nearly everyone knows. It is a great read. Only one thing bugges me a little and it is Romeo. I consider him to be a little too emotional, he kind of reminds me of a women with all his shifts of emotions. But if he wouldn't so easily fall in love and follow his emotions no matter what we wouldn't have the story.
June 29, 2015
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.
December 3, 2012
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
September 18, 2017
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.
August 22, 2021
Enjoyed these plays quite a lot! It was an interesting experience to read Shakespeare.
April 28, 2023
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.
September 28, 2007
this book u must should try to read, coz the line of this books will know who is the really william shakespeare
August 23, 2007
I read Macbeth and also Romeo and Juliet in high school and Hamlet in college.
March 26, 2008
I really liked Macbeth and Hamlet in high school. So I got this book and loved the other tradegies as well.
October 5, 2011
I liked Othello, others were ok
Want to Read
November 6, 2013This looks amazing and I really want to read it.
August 23, 2015
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.
Read
August 12, 2016Hilarious!
November 14, 2016
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.
January 22, 2019
Great introduction to Shakespeare's tragedies.
April 8, 2014
I will not doubt finish this many times more.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews