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Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard
‘A master class for modern beginners and old hands alike.’ — The Times (London)
Actor, producer and director Ben Crystal revisits his acclaimed book on Shakespeare for the 400th anniversary of his death. Shakespeare on Toast knocks the stuffing from the staid old myth of the Bard, revealing his plays for what they really modern, thrilling, uplifting drama. Crystal explores his language, his life, his world, his sounds, his craft — and, astonishingly, finds Shakespeare’s own voice amid the poetry.
Whether you’re studying Shakespeare for the first time or you’ve never set foot near one of his plays but have always wanted to, this book smashes down the walls that have been built up around this untouchable literary figure.
Actor, producer and director Ben Crystal revisits his acclaimed book on Shakespeare for the 400th anniversary of his death. Shakespeare on Toast knocks the stuffing from the staid old myth of the Bard, revealing his plays for what they really modern, thrilling, uplifting drama. Crystal explores his language, his life, his world, his sounds, his craft — and, astonishingly, finds Shakespeare’s own voice amid the poetry.
Whether you’re studying Shakespeare for the first time or you’ve never set foot near one of his plays but have always wanted to, this book smashes down the walls that have been built up around this untouchable literary figure.
272 pages, Paperback
First published September 4, 2008
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November 26, 2013
I came to this book when reading a textbook on Middle Welsh which pointed out that the pronunciation differences between Middle Welsh and today's Welsh are minor compared to that between Shakespeare's English and today's. Oh really? A couple of minutes later I found myself hugely enjoying a student production of Night Dream and, hungry for more, watching this fascinating and captivating video on Original Pronunciation by the Messers Crystal (father and son, the latter who is the author of this book).
The Original Pronunciation work resonated very strongly with me because until then I had a strong (but weakly held) belief that Shakespeare is popular because he's popular, that is, he's to English literature what J.K. Rowlings is to adolescent fantasy writers, the Mona Lisa is to da Vinci's paintings, as hush puppies (the shoes that Gladwell goes on about in Tipping Point) are to fashion. I'm paraphrasing from Duncan Watts' exemplary book Everything is Obvious (once you know the answer) , go read that as soon as possible for the juicy anti-Gladwellian details, but popularity in social situations (literature, art, even science and engineering---who here really, really thinks Java is the best language ever?) is the result of the extremely unpredictable paths taken by word of mouth, the vicissitudes of fortune (as Machiavelli might be translated), and more epistemologically relevant here, that our explanations for why something is popular (Rowlings &al.) are usually circular arguments: we give descriptions and try to pass them off as explanations. Here's a million dollar quote-inside-a-quote from Watts' book:
Having studied Shakespeare for three years in high school (Romeo, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet) and watched a movie production of Romeo and two of Hamlet (thanks Mrs Roy), I knew that either (1) it was the usual story of something bad becoming popular, or (2) literature teaching methods are ineffective. However, nobody would say that something popular must be "bad" (I'd just say it doesn't have to be "good", for some relative value of "good" and "bad"). In fact, having watched a snippet of Midsummer in Original Pronunciation (I really, really cannot abide the Received Pronunciation that so-called real Shakespearean actors invariably put on, sorry Ian McKellen) and glimpsing how much more sensible and worthwhile Shakespeare is when reenacted, and with extra context of linguistic evolution, I was ready to learn more, convinced that it is very likely that Shakespeare is actually good, not just popular! (Like the Mona Lisa is certainly good, a little bit ruined by the throngs of tourists jostling about you to give their cameras a second to focus and then scampering off, but certainly good. But actually, it's not my favorite da Vinci, I was much more moved by his St John the Baptist, and absolutely floored, entranced, by his Virgin and Child with St Anne. If you are ever nearby, be sure to see those at the Louvre. You can skip the Mona Lisa.)
This all happened about a year ago, and I got to this book over the weekend.
There is very little about Original Pronunciation here, but a lot more of the broad context is sketched out: the political situation, the religious milieu (remember: Puritan England was the 17th century's equivalent of Taliban Afghanistan---where do you think American founding fathers got freedom of religion and press?), the English language, the entire notion that Shakespeare belongs to the Theatre, to actors and their work, rather than to Literature and professors (sorry Mrs Roy), and of course poetry, all these are considered and expounded.
Of all these, the most important I think is that I now know much more about acting and the importance---to actors and thus to interested audiences---of referring to the original folios for the stage directions Shakespeare encodes in the scripts. Here's the checklist Crystal provides at the end:
These are all quite thoroughly examined in the last two chapters. The biggest aids to me were the explanation of the actual work, the actual actions an actor had to go through, as well as an explanation of how important and critical rhythm (meter) is to production. For example, the playwright would write each character's script on his own scroll, with just three queue words (of other characters) before each of his sections. The actors, performing a new play a night, would probably never have read the entire script and would have absolutely no idea what it was about before or after a play (what with scene & costume changes, etc.). So Shakespeare's capitalization and punctuation, purely textual aspects of the scripts preserved in the folio, can be critical aids for a modern reader/playgoer to grasp what the actors will be trying to stress. But of course, besides the symbols of the text, the really big way these kinds of messages are conveyed is through rhythm. In verse mode, a short phrase by a character might have to be followed by a long pause before another character responds, to maintain the rhythm---or depending on the textual annotations (the indentation in this case), the subsequent statements may come immediately after the first, without a pause, again to maintain rhythm. I understood, technically, how this worked in both metric (say, Milton) and non-metrical poetry (say, Beowulf in the original Old English), but Crystal's deconstruction of these devices, and the checklist above, for a particularly frightening and dramatic scene in Macbeth brought them together very vividly for me. This was the most valuable part of what Crystal has accomplished here.
Most English literature professors and editors are incompetent. The proof of this book's pudding will be when I get my hands on a DVD of Kansas University's production of Midsummer in OP and, with script in hand, and maybe referring to the copious notes I made while reading this book, watch it a few times.
The Original Pronunciation work resonated very strongly with me because until then I had a strong (but weakly held) belief that Shakespeare is popular because he's popular, that is, he's to English literature what J.K. Rowlings is to adolescent fantasy writers, the Mona Lisa is to da Vinci's paintings, as hush puppies (the shoes that Gladwell goes on about in Tipping Point) are to fashion. I'm paraphrasing from Duncan Watts' exemplary book Everything is Obvious (once you know the answer) , go read that as soon as possible for the juicy anti-Gladwellian details, but popularity in social situations (literature, art, even science and engineering---who here really, really thinks Java is the best language ever?) is the result of the extremely unpredictable paths taken by word of mouth, the vicissitudes of fortune (as Machiavelli might be translated), and more epistemologically relevant here, that our explanations for why something is popular (Rowlings &al.) are usually circular arguments: we give descriptions and try to pass them off as explanations. Here's a million dollar quote-inside-a-quote from Watts' book:
Although it is rarely presented as such, this kind of circular reasoning—X succeeded because X had the attributes of X—pervades commonsense explanations for why some things succeed and others fail. For example, an article on the success of the Harry Potter books explained it this way: “A Cinderella plot set in a novel type of boarding school peopled by jolly pupils already has a lot going for it. Add in some easy stereotypes illustrating meanness, gluttony, envy, or black-hearted evil to raise the tension, round off with a sound, unchallenging moral statement about the value of courage, friendship, and the power of love, and there already are some of the important ingredients necessary for a match-winning formula.” In other words, Harry Potter was successful because it had exactly the attributes of Harry Potter, and not something else. [emphasis mine]
Having studied Shakespeare for three years in high school (Romeo, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet) and watched a movie production of Romeo and two of Hamlet (thanks Mrs Roy), I knew that either (1) it was the usual story of something bad becoming popular, or (2) literature teaching methods are ineffective. However, nobody would say that something popular must be "bad" (I'd just say it doesn't have to be "good", for some relative value of "good" and "bad"). In fact, having watched a snippet of Midsummer in Original Pronunciation (I really, really cannot abide the Received Pronunciation that so-called real Shakespearean actors invariably put on, sorry Ian McKellen) and glimpsing how much more sensible and worthwhile Shakespeare is when reenacted, and with extra context of linguistic evolution, I was ready to learn more, convinced that it is very likely that Shakespeare is actually good, not just popular! (Like the Mona Lisa is certainly good, a little bit ruined by the throngs of tourists jostling about you to give their cameras a second to focus and then scampering off, but certainly good. But actually, it's not my favorite da Vinci, I was much more moved by his St John the Baptist, and absolutely floored, entranced, by his Virgin and Child with St Anne. If you are ever nearby, be sure to see those at the Louvre. You can skip the Mona Lisa.)
This all happened about a year ago, and I got to this book over the weekend.
There is very little about Original Pronunciation here, but a lot more of the broad context is sketched out: the political situation, the religious milieu (remember: Puritan England was the 17th century's equivalent of Taliban Afghanistan---where do you think American founding fathers got freedom of religion and press?), the English language, the entire notion that Shakespeare belongs to the Theatre, to actors and their work, rather than to Literature and professors (sorry Mrs Roy), and of course poetry, all these are considered and expounded.
Of all these, the most important I think is that I now know much more about acting and the importance---to actors and thus to interested audiences---of referring to the original folios for the stage directions Shakespeare encodes in the scripts. Here's the checklist Crystal provides at the end:
* Is the scene in verse or prose? Or both? If both, why does it switch from one to the other?
* If it’s verse, is it regular iambic pentameter, or does the metre jump around all over the place? If it’s irregular, what might that be saying about a character’s state of mind?
* Are the speeches complicated or simple – i.e., are there mid-line endings, shared or short lines of metre?
** If there are mid-line endings, what kind of emotions might be making the characters interrupt themselves?
** If there are shared lines of metre, what does that say about the characters’ relationship?
** If there are short lines of metre, what might the character be doing or thinking in the gap?
* Do the characters use thou/you to each other? If they do, do they switch between the two? If they switch, why do they switch?
* Are there any characters in the scene that don’t speak? Why are they there? How does it help the story to have them there?
These are all quite thoroughly examined in the last two chapters. The biggest aids to me were the explanation of the actual work, the actual actions an actor had to go through, as well as an explanation of how important and critical rhythm (meter) is to production. For example, the playwright would write each character's script on his own scroll, with just three queue words (of other characters) before each of his sections. The actors, performing a new play a night, would probably never have read the entire script and would have absolutely no idea what it was about before or after a play (what with scene & costume changes, etc.). So Shakespeare's capitalization and punctuation, purely textual aspects of the scripts preserved in the folio, can be critical aids for a modern reader/playgoer to grasp what the actors will be trying to stress. But of course, besides the symbols of the text, the really big way these kinds of messages are conveyed is through rhythm. In verse mode, a short phrase by a character might have to be followed by a long pause before another character responds, to maintain the rhythm---or depending on the textual annotations (the indentation in this case), the subsequent statements may come immediately after the first, without a pause, again to maintain rhythm. I understood, technically, how this worked in both metric (say, Milton) and non-metrical poetry (say, Beowulf in the original Old English), but Crystal's deconstruction of these devices, and the checklist above, for a particularly frightening and dramatic scene in Macbeth brought them together very vividly for me. This was the most valuable part of what Crystal has accomplished here.
Most English literature professors and editors are incompetent. The proof of this book's pudding will be when I get my hands on a DVD of Kansas University's production of Midsummer in OP and, with script in hand, and maybe referring to the copious notes I made while reading this book, watch it a few times.
July 8, 2023
Në dijeninë time, ne, lexuesit shqipëtarë e duam shumë Shekspirin. Jam e sigurtë që secili prej nesh ka lexuar e mund të rendisë të paktën tre vepra të tij. Përkthimet e kryeveprave shekspiriane i kemi shumë cilësore dhe nuk më ka ndodhur të takoj një njeri që s’flet për Shekspirin me qejf të madh.
Fatmirësisht e kam lexuar e studiuar Shekspirin dhe ky libër për mua ishte mjaft argëtues, mund të them edhe i vlefshëm. Ndonëse besoj më shumë është bërë për lexuesit që ende se njohin botën e Shekspirit, dhe për ne të tjerët ka diçka për të ofruar. Një lexues i ri përfiton prej këtij libri pasi njihet me disa baza duke qenë se libri jep panoramë të detajuar të kohës kur Shekspiri ka shkruar, të stilit të tij, prozës dhe vargut, duke vënë theksin te skena, aty ku këto tragjedi e komedi vihen në jetë, e argumenton që janë vepra posaçërisht për teatrin. Shpjegon sesi ti mund të interpretosh fjalë të ndryshme që i japin veçantinë veprave të tij. Të vë në dilemë a i ka shkruar vërtet Shekspiri gjithë ato histori e falenderon po Shekspirin që i ka shkruar.
Një lexues që ka mundësi ta lexojë këtë libër, përpara se të nisë aventurën me Shekspirin, do ja sugjeroja. Veç mos më bëni mua ta vjedh! (jam, që jam). Dhe lexuesi që njeh apo ka lexuar të gjithë librat me kopertinë të gjelbër: Është këndshëm ta lexosh këtë libër, të afron e të bën ta duash më shumë shkrimtarin e magjishëm: Shekspir!
Fatmirësisht e kam lexuar e studiuar Shekspirin dhe ky libër për mua ishte mjaft argëtues, mund të them edhe i vlefshëm. Ndonëse besoj më shumë është bërë për lexuesit që ende se njohin botën e Shekspirit, dhe për ne të tjerët ka diçka për të ofruar. Një lexues i ri përfiton prej këtij libri pasi njihet me disa baza duke qenë se libri jep panoramë të detajuar të kohës kur Shekspiri ka shkruar, të stilit të tij, prozës dhe vargut, duke vënë theksin te skena, aty ku këto tragjedi e komedi vihen në jetë, e argumenton që janë vepra posaçërisht për teatrin. Shpjegon sesi ti mund të interpretosh fjalë të ndryshme që i japin veçantinë veprave të tij. Të vë në dilemë a i ka shkruar vërtet Shekspiri gjithë ato histori e falenderon po Shekspirin që i ka shkruar.
Një lexues që ka mundësi ta lexojë këtë libër, përpara se të nisë aventurën me Shekspirin, do ja sugjeroja. Veç mos më bëni mua ta vjedh! (jam, që jam). Dhe lexuesi që njeh apo ka lexuar të gjithë librat me kopertinë të gjelbër: Është këndshëm ta lexosh këtë libër, të afron e të bën ta duash më shumë shkrimtarin e magjishëm: Shekspir!
July 2, 2018
Long intro with my very own background story
I downloaded this book as a freebie when I first got my Kindle about 4 years ago, then proceeded to ignore it completely until now. I decided to read it to prepare for a summer of Shakespeare here in York, where a pop-up Elizabethan theatre is being built for the summer.
I didn't study Shakespeare at school - not really. We had a great English teacher, but she had 6 hours a week for two school years to teach us English literature from Chaucer to Doris Lessing, and she had to keep a couple of hours a week aside to make sure our grammar was sort of, kind of, but not really good enough for us to actually understand what we were reading. So when it was time for Shakespeare we had a bit of an introduction to the historical background, watched a bit of Shakespeare in Love long enough to see what an Elizabethan theatre looked like, analysed the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, and then moved on to, if I remember correctly, Wordsworth. It was very good, but incredibly short. I have seen 3 Shakespeare plays since moving to England, and I can just about follow them as long as I can read the text before hand. However, since I'm probably going to see at least another 2 over the course of the summer, I decided not only that I wanted to be able to understand them, but I wanted to be properly prepared. Enter this book.
Actually about the book
I read this book faster than I have read any other non-fiction book in quite a while and would recommend it to anyone wanting to start out on their Shakespeare studies. Far from being a school text, the style is conversational and Ben Crystal's knowledge and passion for his subject shine through on every page, encouraging you to keep reading.
Fittingly, the book is divided into Acts and Scenes with some fun settings, including "A Galaxy Far, Far Away" and "A Christmas Tree, Liverpool". With each act, the information becomes more and more technical, without becoming any less interesting. While reading the first act I was thinking "blah blah blah yes, I know, open round theatre, natural light only, cheap standing tickets, not just for the rich" and so on and so forth. However, the text was still engaging and funny, with lots of funny comparisons aimed at explaining that really, a Shakespeare play is kind of like a soap opera, but not really.
Later on, Ben Crystal starts to dissect the use of language, the metre, the way the rhythm of the text bounces and flows. He even goes on to analyse a little bit of Macbeth, which is handy since I am definitely going to see that this summer. That is where the book started to really fascinate me and I found myself underlining longer and longer sections of text, hoping that way I will find them quickly as I try to read Macbeth for the first time. Would I ever have noticed that the characters change from using thou to using you, if I hadn't read this, and would I have realised it meant something? Would I have realised that mid-line sentence endings, changes from prose to verse, and a myriad other little things all mean something? Almost definitely not.
Some may find it very simplistic, but to me this book is a fantastic introduction to watching, reading and understanding Shakespeare for complete beginners, which manages to do all this without being patronising. It is by its own admission not a definitive guide, but it was incredibly engaging and enjoyable, thanks to Ben Crystal's clear explanations and sense of humour. These are often intertwined and produce passages like this one:
But a Shakespeare director, a very nice bearded chap called Patrick Tucker, told me once that Shakespeare's poetry has a system to it; that it's full of hidden clues from Shakespeare telling his actors how to deliver his lines; and that once you know how, the poetry is practically colour-coded, virtually letting you read it by numbers. Alan Turing and Dan Brown eat your heart out.
Before I'd learnt this system in Shakespeare, it seemed like poetry was surrounded by a vast amount of technical terminology used by very flouncy people, and so either required too much work that I didn't want to do, or a goatee and a hat, neither of which I had.
There are also some very insightful passages where the author's passion is palpable and the aim of the book very clear:
Think about it in terms of Italian opera. I don't speak Italian, but I could go to an opera sung in Italian and I'd enjoy it on a basic level [...]. Or I could learn a little Italian, maybe read the libretto before I go. Or, in this case, learn a bit of Shakespearian before going to see a play of his, and unlock a treasure chest of life-changing jewels in his work.
In short: if you don't know anything about Shakespeare, but you would like to, even though it scares you a little, read this book.
I downloaded this book as a freebie when I first got my Kindle about 4 years ago, then proceeded to ignore it completely until now. I decided to read it to prepare for a summer of Shakespeare here in York, where a pop-up Elizabethan theatre is being built for the summer.
I didn't study Shakespeare at school - not really. We had a great English teacher, but she had 6 hours a week for two school years to teach us English literature from Chaucer to Doris Lessing, and she had to keep a couple of hours a week aside to make sure our grammar was sort of, kind of, but not really good enough for us to actually understand what we were reading. So when it was time for Shakespeare we had a bit of an introduction to the historical background, watched a bit of Shakespeare in Love long enough to see what an Elizabethan theatre looked like, analysed the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, and then moved on to, if I remember correctly, Wordsworth. It was very good, but incredibly short. I have seen 3 Shakespeare plays since moving to England, and I can just about follow them as long as I can read the text before hand. However, since I'm probably going to see at least another 2 over the course of the summer, I decided not only that I wanted to be able to understand them, but I wanted to be properly prepared. Enter this book.
Actually about the book
I read this book faster than I have read any other non-fiction book in quite a while and would recommend it to anyone wanting to start out on their Shakespeare studies. Far from being a school text, the style is conversational and Ben Crystal's knowledge and passion for his subject shine through on every page, encouraging you to keep reading.
Fittingly, the book is divided into Acts and Scenes with some fun settings, including "A Galaxy Far, Far Away" and "A Christmas Tree, Liverpool". With each act, the information becomes more and more technical, without becoming any less interesting. While reading the first act I was thinking "blah blah blah yes, I know, open round theatre, natural light only, cheap standing tickets, not just for the rich" and so on and so forth. However, the text was still engaging and funny, with lots of funny comparisons aimed at explaining that really, a Shakespeare play is kind of like a soap opera, but not really.
Later on, Ben Crystal starts to dissect the use of language, the metre, the way the rhythm of the text bounces and flows. He even goes on to analyse a little bit of Macbeth, which is handy since I am definitely going to see that this summer. That is where the book started to really fascinate me and I found myself underlining longer and longer sections of text, hoping that way I will find them quickly as I try to read Macbeth for the first time. Would I ever have noticed that the characters change from using thou to using you, if I hadn't read this, and would I have realised it meant something? Would I have realised that mid-line sentence endings, changes from prose to verse, and a myriad other little things all mean something? Almost definitely not.
Some may find it very simplistic, but to me this book is a fantastic introduction to watching, reading and understanding Shakespeare for complete beginners, which manages to do all this without being patronising. It is by its own admission not a definitive guide, but it was incredibly engaging and enjoyable, thanks to Ben Crystal's clear explanations and sense of humour. These are often intertwined and produce passages like this one:
But a Shakespeare director, a very nice bearded chap called Patrick Tucker, told me once that Shakespeare's poetry has a system to it; that it's full of hidden clues from Shakespeare telling his actors how to deliver his lines; and that once you know how, the poetry is practically colour-coded, virtually letting you read it by numbers. Alan Turing and Dan Brown eat your heart out.
Before I'd learnt this system in Shakespeare, it seemed like poetry was surrounded by a vast amount of technical terminology used by very flouncy people, and so either required too much work that I didn't want to do, or a goatee and a hat, neither of which I had.
There are also some very insightful passages where the author's passion is palpable and the aim of the book very clear:
Think about it in terms of Italian opera. I don't speak Italian, but I could go to an opera sung in Italian and I'd enjoy it on a basic level [...]. Or I could learn a little Italian, maybe read the libretto before I go. Or, in this case, learn a bit of Shakespearian before going to see a play of his, and unlock a treasure chest of life-changing jewels in his work.
In short: if you don't know anything about Shakespeare, but you would like to, even though it scares you a little, read this book.
October 6, 2012
When I was in junior high I took a Shakespeare class from my favorite teacher ever. Mr. Stefan was not only a teacher, he was also an actor in the local theater production that year of Fiddler on the Roof. Why am I writing about him in my review? Well, Crystal points out something that I had never considered about Shakespeare, and it's something that I think Mr. Stefan would have 100% agreed with - Shakespeare is meant to be heard and seen, not read. The experience of being in a Shakespearean theater such as The Globe, seeing the actors use minimal props, and understanding the subtle references in the slight changing of word usage from thou to you or in moving from prose to verse, can never be fully appreciated by simply silently reading one of Shakespeare's plays.
Mr. Stefan's Shakespeare class was not about reading Shakespeare (which we didn't even do!). It was about watching his plays being performed on the screen - whether big budget or film student versions, and most importantly learning about his life and times. Crystal's idea is that Shakespeare shouldn't be read like a novel, or even a modern play, simply because what Shakespeare needed to accomplish in his writing was more in direction to the actors on how to perform than to a reader on how to enjoy. Maybe that's why whenever I read Shakespeare I can't help but read it aloud, and yes, I do use a cheesy accent that I'm sure would horrify my Welsh and British relatives.
I had never considered how important all of these pieces were until I started reading Shakespeare on Toast. Crystal manages to point out how easy Shakespeare is to understand when you put him in context. Knowing who he was writing for, how his work was being presented, and most importantly the cultural influences he was under, makes certain things much easier to relate to. I have to admit there were certain things I had never even thought of, such as Shakespeare's use of the iambic pentameter, yet when it was explained in the book, I quickly found myself testing it out on random selections of Shakespeare.
Now that I've finished Shakespeare on Toast, I am feeling an overwhelming urge to read, ad watch, some Shakespeare. My husband on the other hand is rolling his eyes at my continued efforts to make him discuss The Bard :)
Shakespeare on Toast is a great book for anyone struggling with understanding works by Shakespeare, or just a general obsession with him!
Check out more of my reviews on my blog Turning the Pages
Mr. Stefan's Shakespeare class was not about reading Shakespeare (which we didn't even do!). It was about watching his plays being performed on the screen - whether big budget or film student versions, and most importantly learning about his life and times. Crystal's idea is that Shakespeare shouldn't be read like a novel, or even a modern play, simply because what Shakespeare needed to accomplish in his writing was more in direction to the actors on how to perform than to a reader on how to enjoy. Maybe that's why whenever I read Shakespeare I can't help but read it aloud, and yes, I do use a cheesy accent that I'm sure would horrify my Welsh and British relatives.
I had never considered how important all of these pieces were until I started reading Shakespeare on Toast. Crystal manages to point out how easy Shakespeare is to understand when you put him in context. Knowing who he was writing for, how his work was being presented, and most importantly the cultural influences he was under, makes certain things much easier to relate to. I have to admit there were certain things I had never even thought of, such as Shakespeare's use of the iambic pentameter, yet when it was explained in the book, I quickly found myself testing it out on random selections of Shakespeare.
Now that I've finished Shakespeare on Toast, I am feeling an overwhelming urge to read, ad watch, some Shakespeare. My husband on the other hand is rolling his eyes at my continued efforts to make him discuss The Bard :)
Shakespeare on Toast is a great book for anyone struggling with understanding works by Shakespeare, or just a general obsession with him!
Check out more of my reviews on my blog Turning the Pages
October 23, 2025
Giving star judgments is difficult: there were times when I wanted to give this book one star, but it was all redeemed by the last 32 pages, the last two chapters. The preceding 200 pages were not without interest, but the tone was embarrassing: Ben Crystal (for me) was trying too hard to be flippant, lively, fun and chatty, with occasional echoes of hard-boiled detective novels.
The last two chapters were superb: BC takes us away from printed words on a page towards performance, with an analysis of how metre, unmetrical lines, short lines and shared lines are like Shakespeare's stage directions to his actors. And here, the chatty commentary was thankfully less present.
(I see that other reviewers praise the 'humour' and 'ready wit' of the book, so other people enjoyed what I found annoying and inauthentic.)
The last two chapters were superb: BC takes us away from printed words on a page towards performance, with an analysis of how metre, unmetrical lines, short lines and shared lines are like Shakespeare's stage directions to his actors. And here, the chatty commentary was thankfully less present.
(I see that other reviewers praise the 'humour' and 'ready wit' of the book, so other people enjoyed what I found annoying and inauthentic.)
April 13, 2017
Reading this book was like having a conversation with Ben Crystal over coffee, and, well, toast. I personally was a Shakespeare minor in college, so I’m no stranger myself to his works, or to analyses of his work, for that matter. Overall, I was very pleased with my Shakespeare education, though I must admit that I wish that we had read this book for our intro class. The reason why I say that is because Crystal takes us on a journey through Shakespeare’s time, and then through his works as well.
He discusses Shakespeare’s time, history, monarchs, and profession. He explains how plays were generally received in the public, and where Shakespeare may have gotten his ideas from. He doesn’t dwell on whether Shakespeare was “actually” Shakespeare, because for him, this doesn’t matter. What matters for Crystal is how Shakespeare is performed and the catharsis his audience feels after a performance.
“It doesn’t matter who Shakespeare might have been, because who he was isn’t as important to us as when he was and what he did” (15).
For those who have already studied Shakespeare, the first half of the book might be a bit of a refresher, though a very humorous one. Shakespeare, to Crystal, is the equivalent of today’s soap opera writers, and this makes for quite a few funny jabs at the expense of our bard. He introduces, in these chapters/acts, the history of the folios, quartos, and how to read Ye Olde English. Which, by the way, did you know that only 5% of words that Shakespeare uses aren’t in our current lexicon? It’s not the language that’s “outdated”, per se, but the definitions–and knowing this helps us read Shakespeare.
The next half is where it gets very interesting, especially from a scholar’s point of view. Now, I’m by no means a Highe Scholar of Ye Bard Shakespeare (read: I took a couple classes on him in college, and I’ve watched his plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival). But, I think that after all of my classes that I know a little more than the average person. So, that being said, it’s nice to get into the semantics of Shakespeare’s works.
What do I mean by semantics? I mean the stuff that I absolutely dreaded learning about some years ago: iambic pentameter. Crystal explains how Shakespeare uses meter so well that all I want to do now is reread all of his plays. He uses both words and graphs to make his points clear: Shakespeare is the Miles Davis of wordplay. Crystal argues that nothing that Shakespeare writes is unintentional, and this makes sense, given that he writes clues in each scene for each actor in his troupe.
In addition to this, he takes the time to explain the difference between prose and verse, and the different types of prose and verse, and when a character might use rhyming verse versus blank verse versus prose. Crystal also points out the differences between “thou” and “you,” and when a character might use one or the other, or when they might switch pronouns. In fact, did you know that Lady Macbeth stops using “thou” to refer to her husband after Macbeth tries to convince her that they shouldn’t kill Duncan (98)? This is just one example of the interesting things I learned whilst reading Crystal’s book.
Complete with a glossary and recommended readings and movies, Crystal’s book is an incredible help to those who enjoy–or want to enjoy–Shakespeare.
Ultimately, the point of Crystal’s book is how to uncover and read these clues. And those clues are the key to unlocking the absolute gold that Shakespeare wrote.
He discusses Shakespeare’s time, history, monarchs, and profession. He explains how plays were generally received in the public, and where Shakespeare may have gotten his ideas from. He doesn’t dwell on whether Shakespeare was “actually” Shakespeare, because for him, this doesn’t matter. What matters for Crystal is how Shakespeare is performed and the catharsis his audience feels after a performance.
“It doesn’t matter who Shakespeare might have been, because who he was isn’t as important to us as when he was and what he did” (15).
For those who have already studied Shakespeare, the first half of the book might be a bit of a refresher, though a very humorous one. Shakespeare, to Crystal, is the equivalent of today’s soap opera writers, and this makes for quite a few funny jabs at the expense of our bard. He introduces, in these chapters/acts, the history of the folios, quartos, and how to read Ye Olde English. Which, by the way, did you know that only 5% of words that Shakespeare uses aren’t in our current lexicon? It’s not the language that’s “outdated”, per se, but the definitions–and knowing this helps us read Shakespeare.
The next half is where it gets very interesting, especially from a scholar’s point of view. Now, I’m by no means a Highe Scholar of Ye Bard Shakespeare (read: I took a couple classes on him in college, and I’ve watched his plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival). But, I think that after all of my classes that I know a little more than the average person. So, that being said, it’s nice to get into the semantics of Shakespeare’s works.
What do I mean by semantics? I mean the stuff that I absolutely dreaded learning about some years ago: iambic pentameter. Crystal explains how Shakespeare uses meter so well that all I want to do now is reread all of his plays. He uses both words and graphs to make his points clear: Shakespeare is the Miles Davis of wordplay. Crystal argues that nothing that Shakespeare writes is unintentional, and this makes sense, given that he writes clues in each scene for each actor in his troupe.
In addition to this, he takes the time to explain the difference between prose and verse, and the different types of prose and verse, and when a character might use rhyming verse versus blank verse versus prose. Crystal also points out the differences between “thou” and “you,” and when a character might use one or the other, or when they might switch pronouns. In fact, did you know that Lady Macbeth stops using “thou” to refer to her husband after Macbeth tries to convince her that they shouldn’t kill Duncan (98)? This is just one example of the interesting things I learned whilst reading Crystal’s book.
Complete with a glossary and recommended readings and movies, Crystal’s book is an incredible help to those who enjoy–or want to enjoy–Shakespeare.
Ultimately, the point of Crystal’s book is how to uncover and read these clues. And those clues are the key to unlocking the absolute gold that Shakespeare wrote.
April 26, 2023
“Shakespeare on toast” by Ben Crystal
I started this book a while back, attracted by its unusual title and cover. I liked the easy style and ready wit of the writing. Then I got sidetracked and returned to the book a couple of years or so later.
In between read few books on Shakespeare identity, listened to few podcasts, took a course on Shakespearean theatre then and now, listened to a set of lectures on different types of Shakespeare’s plays, seen few documentaries, plays, movies, ballets and gave few classes for kids on Shakespeare biography, Globe theatre, plays and sonnets. And yes, even wrote a sonnet to adhere to form and rhythm of Shakespearean sonnets to encourage the kids to do the same.
And now circle back to the “Shakespeare on toast” I enjoyed it immensely. And even more now , a year later, when I had a chance to be exposed to more sides of the Shakespearean world.
Audit - derived from Latin, in the meaning of hearing - thus an *audience*. The key is to listen to the plays as primary approach to understanding, not reading. Which what exactly was happening in Shakespeare time, when there was no elaborate stage setup, though costumes were essential for the play. The words were supposed to spark the imagination of the public to “see” in there minds the far lands, magic forests, famous battles.
Fantastically funny, witty and informative book. And it does fit on toast :).
I started this book a while back, attracted by its unusual title and cover. I liked the easy style and ready wit of the writing. Then I got sidetracked and returned to the book a couple of years or so later.
In between read few books on Shakespeare identity, listened to few podcasts, took a course on Shakespearean theatre then and now, listened to a set of lectures on different types of Shakespeare’s plays, seen few documentaries, plays, movies, ballets and gave few classes for kids on Shakespeare biography, Globe theatre, plays and sonnets. And yes, even wrote a sonnet to adhere to form and rhythm of Shakespearean sonnets to encourage the kids to do the same.
And now circle back to the “Shakespeare on toast” I enjoyed it immensely. And even more now , a year later, when I had a chance to be exposed to more sides of the Shakespearean world.
Audit - derived from Latin, in the meaning of hearing - thus an *audience*. The key is to listen to the plays as primary approach to understanding, not reading. Which what exactly was happening in Shakespeare time, when there was no elaborate stage setup, though costumes were essential for the play. The words were supposed to spark the imagination of the public to “see” in there minds the far lands, magic forests, famous battles.
Fantastically funny, witty and informative book. And it does fit on toast :).
October 4, 2019
I enjoyed this book. It collects the ideas discussed in the author’s various talks to be found on youtube and retains his voice. This is a mixed blessing as a 21st century paraphrase or analogy that works perfectly well in a live talk can seem forced. It is hard to identify his target audience. It is clearly not existing fans like me who don’t have to be persuaded that the vocabulary and poetry of the works is not as daunting as it looks (The idea that Shakespeare is difficult has always struck me as a learned response - I must have been lucky in my teachers.) A good deal of energy is spent in this book persuading the non-Shakespearean to make the effort. But why would a non-Shakespearean read the book in the first place. All in all, however, there is a great deal of valuable insight (and inspiring passion) here. I am sure I will find this book useful if I ever find myself teaching Shakespeare again - and it makes me hope that I will.
April 18, 2017
This book should be added to the text lists for all Year 11/12 English students. Much of what Crystal explained was not news to me... but then I have studied Shakespeare at University level. Had I read this book beforehand I could have skipped most of the lectures on Shakespeare... Had it been required pre-reading we could have launched in confidently at a much higher level.
Light, and funny, but at the same time detailed and mildly technical, this book gave me a number of 'aha' moments that will enlighten my future viewing and reading of Shakespeare. And yes, I will be making my kids read it!
Light, and funny, but at the same time detailed and mildly technical, this book gave me a number of 'aha' moments that will enlighten my future viewing and reading of Shakespeare. And yes, I will be making my kids read it!
February 14, 2021
Ben Crystal and his father David (along with René Girard) have convinced me that Shakespeare is the goat in the West
October 14, 2023
only skimmed over this hoping i would gain some insight into Macbeth but it's more of a general intro. Not what i was hoping to find
May 19, 2017
This is a very accessible introduction to how to enjoy and understand Shakespeare. I really enjoyed the analysis of hidden stage instructions that Shakespeare wrote into his plays. Also, I like that the author emphasizes that Shakespeare should be acted or seen to be truly appreciated. I agree with that sentiment entirely.
December 31, 2012
Now don't get me wrong, I love The Bard, but sometimes, his plays are hard to understand. In fact, without all those explanatory footnotes, I might never understand them (although once you know what he's talking about, you'll love it).
Shakespeare on Toast attempts to demystify The Bard's work without dumbing it down. This means no simpliflying the language (yes!) or talking down.
What this book does do, however, is to first introduce the reader to the Shakespearean time. After you learn about how Shakespear's plays were first experienced, a lot of things make sense. No wonder my favourite play is King Lear, it's the only Shakespearean play I've been able to watch acted out. So if reading the books confuse you, go and watch it! I bet there are videos on youtube of people acting them out.
After that, he teaches you how to appreciate the play. One particularly useful section was the "False Friend", where certain well-known words had different meanings. It's something you should definitely keep in mind, because if you think of the word with it's modern meaning, you risk mis-understanding the whole play.
Of course, he does mention the "Thou" vs "You" thing. Did you know that in Shakespeare's time, "thou" was used as an intimate term? Makes it different when you realise that a lot of people talked to God with the word "thou". In contrast, "you" was a lot more formal. So just by taking note of these two words, you can infer a lot about the relationships between the characters.
Finally, after we go through rythmn (which was actually really useful. He managed to demystify the iambic meter enough that I understood what he was saying), we have an "example" where one scene in Macbeth is analysed. It's awesome. I need to go and watch MacBeth.
The language of the book is generally friendly and accessible. The book itself ends on a very encouraging note:
"No matter how complicated, no matter how ostensibly random, how annoying, boring or just plain bad a scene or a line seems to be, there is always a reason for it being there.
You just have to find out what it is.
And I promise: the search is always worth it."
Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.
First published at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile
Shakespeare on Toast attempts to demystify The Bard's work without dumbing it down. This means no simpliflying the language (yes!) or talking down.
What this book does do, however, is to first introduce the reader to the Shakespearean time. After you learn about how Shakespear's plays were first experienced, a lot of things make sense. No wonder my favourite play is King Lear, it's the only Shakespearean play I've been able to watch acted out. So if reading the books confuse you, go and watch it! I bet there are videos on youtube of people acting them out.
After that, he teaches you how to appreciate the play. One particularly useful section was the "False Friend", where certain well-known words had different meanings. It's something you should definitely keep in mind, because if you think of the word with it's modern meaning, you risk mis-understanding the whole play.
Of course, he does mention the "Thou" vs "You" thing. Did you know that in Shakespeare's time, "thou" was used as an intimate term? Makes it different when you realise that a lot of people talked to God with the word "thou". In contrast, "you" was a lot more formal. So just by taking note of these two words, you can infer a lot about the relationships between the characters.
Finally, after we go through rythmn (which was actually really useful. He managed to demystify the iambic meter enough that I understood what he was saying), we have an "example" where one scene in Macbeth is analysed. It's awesome. I need to go and watch MacBeth.
The language of the book is generally friendly and accessible. The book itself ends on a very encouraging note:
"No matter how complicated, no matter how ostensibly random, how annoying, boring or just plain bad a scene or a line seems to be, there is always a reason for it being there.
You just have to find out what it is.
And I promise: the search is always worth it."
Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.
First published at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile
September 23, 2023
A Write to Review
Note: I received this book from Icon Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
If you are apprehensive about reading a work by Shakespeare fear no more as this work takes the reader through five acts of Shakespearian enlightenment. As Crystal says 95% of the words in Shakespeare are common throughout today’s language and that means just 5% of all the words in his plays have to be deciphered in their contextual tones. The book is full of interesting little tidbits and facts that draw the reader in making the whole experience more enjoyable and unfrightening.
Diving headlong into the challenging world of Shakespeare and making it read like a children’s book that is the skill possessed by Ben Crystal in his explanations of what Shakespeare really is. Crystal in a conversational manner is able to beat in the fact that Shakespeare was writing for the everyday people not as many think the elitists of the time and shedding the horrid perspective Shakespeare usually entails putting everything into context is what really matters. I loved how easy it was to understand where the author was coming from and what he was trying to convey. The book demonstrated all of the ease to Shakespeare that every high school student is dreading in English.
Note: I received this book from Icon Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
If you are apprehensive about reading a work by Shakespeare fear no more as this work takes the reader through five acts of Shakespearian enlightenment. As Crystal says 95% of the words in Shakespeare are common throughout today’s language and that means just 5% of all the words in his plays have to be deciphered in their contextual tones. The book is full of interesting little tidbits and facts that draw the reader in making the whole experience more enjoyable and unfrightening.
Diving headlong into the challenging world of Shakespeare and making it read like a children’s book that is the skill possessed by Ben Crystal in his explanations of what Shakespeare really is. Crystal in a conversational manner is able to beat in the fact that Shakespeare was writing for the everyday people not as many think the elitists of the time and shedding the horrid perspective Shakespeare usually entails putting everything into context is what really matters. I loved how easy it was to understand where the author was coming from and what he was trying to convey. The book demonstrated all of the ease to Shakespeare that every high school student is dreading in English.
Read
April 3, 2016Where shall I begin? High school I think...Sister Mary Eleanor...she cheated me. Thanks to this book I realise how much I've missed. However to be fair thanks to Sr ME I saw The Taming of Shrew on stage and Shakespeare did come alive and since then I have always love seeing a play. But thanks to Ben Crystal's book I need to delve again. There was so much I missed.
As an aside... for the writer it is a great way to look at dialogue and writing stories in general. It might just have been that I was in editing mode while I read this but there are many things to take away and look at my own work...
A must read for those who want to delve back into the Bard's work without getting too technical and keeping it light and funny.
As an aside... for the writer it is a great way to look at dialogue and writing stories in general. It might just have been that I was in editing mode while I read this but there are many things to take away and look at my own work...
A must read for those who want to delve back into the Bard's work without getting too technical and keeping it light and funny.
June 11, 2016
Just okay. Lots of enthusiasm and some good basics on getting to grips with Shakespeare and it is a light, easy read. It could have done the same in a quarter of the pages though, and the writing lacks any genuine sparkle or clever nuance. I also personally hate the often claimed and completely absurd and lazy comparison between Shakespeare and modern-day soap writers. How many soap scripts are likely to be turned into best-selling books where readers can cherish their brilliance and uniqueness into the coming centuries? His writing appealed to the masses, but that's where the likeness begins and ends.
September 29, 2021
The book is great and I will recommend it every student always and forever.
It give you the handiwork to understand Shakespeare without dumbing down the text, which in my opinion is very important. We have to take the fear of Shakespeare from the students. He's not that hard to understand but you have to work a bit to get him.
Don't be afraid, he was a human being after all^^
Especially the last scenes with his analysis of a scene from the Scottish play is awesome. He shows you how to decode Shakespeare for yourself and makes the text more interesting than just the dialogue. There's so much more in Shakespeare's plays than only difficult words and weird structures.
It give you the handiwork to understand Shakespeare without dumbing down the text, which in my opinion is very important. We have to take the fear of Shakespeare from the students. He's not that hard to understand but you have to work a bit to get him.
Don't be afraid, he was a human being after all^^
Especially the last scenes with his analysis of a scene from the Scottish play is awesome. He shows you how to decode Shakespeare for yourself and makes the text more interesting than just the dialogue. There's so much more in Shakespeare's plays than only difficult words and weird structures.
July 25, 2009
I'm a huge fan of the Crystals, father and son- that is no news. But I think this book is about the best thing either of them has ever published- this transcends the whole "Shakespeare for Dummies" frame of mind and brings you closer to feeling, and loving,the Shakespearean worldview. Ben Crystal is an actor, so he tells you about intonation, silences, beats and breaths- rather than puns, metaphors and wordplay. Even for Shakespeare freaks, a surprising book that brings the bard very much to life.
January 10, 2017
This was a pretty nifty, chipper little book. I have read what seems like fifty million "introductions" and "guides" to Shakespeare. Thankfully SOME things have finally sunk in and become repetitious, but there is far, far, far more I don't know, so I always learn. Nice dissection of a scene in Macbeth, I'd love a whole play done the same.
January 12, 2017
Picked up because Crystal's enthusiasm is always rather delightful. Not too much new here to glean...but a fun read (one admirer to another). The insight into Crystal's techniques of breaking down a passage and 'reading' the meter was interesting.
September 17, 2016
Thoroughly enjoyed this read. I learned so many tricks about how to discuss Shakespeare in my classes from the author's understanding of the purposes behind Shakespeare's meter!
July 14, 2018
Now I want to read ALL the Shakespeare.
March 13, 2021
Shakespeare on Toast is like sawdust on rye
Posted on March 13, 2021 by michellelovatosbookreviews, world's first book color commentator, book reviews with a twist
I’m not gunna lye. I didn’t ‘reed’ Shakespeare on Toast.
The idea of Ben Crystal’s mercifully thorough tome on how to break-down and understand Shakespeare’s classic work seems like something I should know. But I can’t seem to get interested enough to read it.
To give you an idea of my predicament, I’ve had this book in my review folder since August 2012. That’s not 2021. That’s nine years ago. Hmm. Maybe I should wait and make it an even ten.
Snooze …
Shame on me. How dare I call myself a writer without having keen respect and admiration for William Shakespeare, who I am told, is credited for putting on paper a bagillion different forms of storytelling the rest of us ripped off repeatedly as soon as the ink dried from his quill – or chalk – or coal – or whatever. I know some people claim he created storytelling’s foundational archetypes, but, I’m sorry. He isn’t the first. What about the Illiad, the Oddesy, the Bible? Shakespeare had to rip off someone. He was just an outstanding marketer.
Those darn marketers rule the world with their sleight of hand. And let’s face it. Shakespeare was a great marketer. Really great.
Author Ben Crystal is, however, a proper authority on this subject and his book “should be required high school reading,” according to his reviews.
In this book, Crystal breaks down Shakespeare’s stuffy attitude to reveal “plays for what they really are: modern, thrilling, uplifting drama.”
Thank God Crystal did this. All you high school students need to get this book. Spend your allowance. Do what you have to do. Invest in this book and your mandatory dive into Shakespeare will be easier on your brain. Not to mention, you won’t be inspired by that tired old “Romeo” story and kill yourself over a girl. Believe me. There are plenty more.
Well, maybe I shouldn’t say that so fast. My first love – though he was a boy – is still pretty important.
Just don’t kill yourself over it. Life is still full of way fabulous experiences.
You know what, reader. Suddenly I feel like I am back in high school. This is exactly how I got through that grueling four years of fear and hiding from bullies and gang members. I won’t even mention the pain I endured not using the school bathroom my entire high school career. How did I do it? Create a distraction, pave the road with baloney, run as fast as you can and learn everything you were supposed to learn in high school over the next 40 years. Ya. That did not serve me very well.
My advice? Just read Shakespeare on Toast, grab every Cliff Note-type book you can find, and hold on for the ride. I guarantee. A small percent of you will actually like this stiff stuff and learn something that cuud turn U into a righter sum day.
BoutiquePublishingService@hotmail.com
BoutiqueBooks@hotmail.com
Happy are those who respect the Lord and obey him. You will enjoy what you work for, and you will be blessed with good things. Psalm 128: 1-2
Posted on March 13, 2021 by michellelovatosbookreviews, world's first book color commentator, book reviews with a twist
I’m not gunna lye. I didn’t ‘reed’ Shakespeare on Toast.
The idea of Ben Crystal’s mercifully thorough tome on how to break-down and understand Shakespeare’s classic work seems like something I should know. But I can’t seem to get interested enough to read it.
To give you an idea of my predicament, I’ve had this book in my review folder since August 2012. That’s not 2021. That’s nine years ago. Hmm. Maybe I should wait and make it an even ten.
Snooze …
Shame on me. How dare I call myself a writer without having keen respect and admiration for William Shakespeare, who I am told, is credited for putting on paper a bagillion different forms of storytelling the rest of us ripped off repeatedly as soon as the ink dried from his quill – or chalk – or coal – or whatever. I know some people claim he created storytelling’s foundational archetypes, but, I’m sorry. He isn’t the first. What about the Illiad, the Oddesy, the Bible? Shakespeare had to rip off someone. He was just an outstanding marketer.
Those darn marketers rule the world with their sleight of hand. And let’s face it. Shakespeare was a great marketer. Really great.
Author Ben Crystal is, however, a proper authority on this subject and his book “should be required high school reading,” according to his reviews.
In this book, Crystal breaks down Shakespeare’s stuffy attitude to reveal “plays for what they really are: modern, thrilling, uplifting drama.”
Thank God Crystal did this. All you high school students need to get this book. Spend your allowance. Do what you have to do. Invest in this book and your mandatory dive into Shakespeare will be easier on your brain. Not to mention, you won’t be inspired by that tired old “Romeo” story and kill yourself over a girl. Believe me. There are plenty more.
Well, maybe I shouldn’t say that so fast. My first love – though he was a boy – is still pretty important.
Just don’t kill yourself over it. Life is still full of way fabulous experiences.
You know what, reader. Suddenly I feel like I am back in high school. This is exactly how I got through that grueling four years of fear and hiding from bullies and gang members. I won’t even mention the pain I endured not using the school bathroom my entire high school career. How did I do it? Create a distraction, pave the road with baloney, run as fast as you can and learn everything you were supposed to learn in high school over the next 40 years. Ya. That did not serve me very well.
My advice? Just read Shakespeare on Toast, grab every Cliff Note-type book you can find, and hold on for the ride. I guarantee. A small percent of you will actually like this stiff stuff and learn something that cuud turn U into a righter sum day.
BoutiquePublishingService@hotmail.com
BoutiqueBooks@hotmail.com
Happy are those who respect the Lord and obey him. You will enjoy what you work for, and you will be blessed with good things. Psalm 128: 1-2
January 9, 2019
oof. alright. wow. i don't usually read books that make me check how many pages there are left because i want them to be over...
this was most certainly not what i expected - though maybe my expectations were wrong, then, because i was hoping for something more fun and less... pedantic and less scientific. to be also fair, the whole metre thing has always been my big issue with shakespeare, because sure, it tells you a lot, but... g o d it's boring to talk about and analyse and assess and discuss and talk about even more. unfortunately, a good quarter of the book was all about metre, so not for me.
the first third (?) i really liked, because there crystal was really getting into what life and acting was like during elizabethan times and i really learned things there / started thinking about shakespeare and his plays differently and could just imagine better what time they're from.
and then he lost me. firstly because of the metre thing (which is a me problem), and then secondly because he started more and more presenting himself as the one and only shakespeare-interpreter. his reasons for why i should believe that he really knows better than anyone else weren't clear at all, it was more of a "i'm right because i said so" argumentation.
oh, and the part where he printed a whole scene from one publisher / editor, only to then say "actually, they wrote it all wrong (because i said so), and here's the one that is correct (because i say so)" and print the scene again, but with a different format and slightly different spelling. i mean, that's a good way to make sure your book has more pages!
also i had really hoped the sonnets would come up more. or, um, be actually talked about more than once. sure, shakespeare was a playwright etc.... but the sonnets are also nice :( i like them better than the plays...
overall, if the book's goal was to make me say "hey, imma read some shakespeare plays before bed now!" then it failed. if the book's goal was to bore me and make me abhor metre even more, then it succeeded.
in conclusion: probably not a downright awful book, but not at all a book for me. *shrugs*
this was most certainly not what i expected - though maybe my expectations were wrong, then, because i was hoping for something more fun and less... pedantic and less scientific. to be also fair, the whole metre thing has always been my big issue with shakespeare, because sure, it tells you a lot, but... g o d it's boring to talk about and analyse and assess and discuss and talk about even more. unfortunately, a good quarter of the book was all about metre, so not for me.
the first third (?) i really liked, because there crystal was really getting into what life and acting was like during elizabethan times and i really learned things there / started thinking about shakespeare and his plays differently and could just imagine better what time they're from.
and then he lost me. firstly because of the metre thing (which is a me problem), and then secondly because he started more and more presenting himself as the one and only shakespeare-interpreter. his reasons for why i should believe that he really knows better than anyone else weren't clear at all, it was more of a "i'm right because i said so" argumentation.
oh, and the part where he printed a whole scene from one publisher / editor, only to then say "actually, they wrote it all wrong (because i said so), and here's the one that is correct (because i say so)" and print the scene again, but with a different format and slightly different spelling. i mean, that's a good way to make sure your book has more pages!
also i had really hoped the sonnets would come up more. or, um, be actually talked about more than once. sure, shakespeare was a playwright etc.... but the sonnets are also nice :( i like them better than the plays...
overall, if the book's goal was to make me say "hey, imma read some shakespeare plays before bed now!" then it failed. if the book's goal was to bore me and make me abhor metre even more, then it succeeded.
in conclusion: probably not a downright awful book, but not at all a book for me. *shrugs*
October 7, 2019
My top three thoughts on 'Shakespeare on Toast':
1. I mainly picked this book because of Dame Judi Dench. Her quote on the cover made me pick this one up (I would have otherwise given a pass on it). I'll admit it, I am not a huge fan of Shakespeare. I acknowledge, appreciate and respect his huge contribution to the English language and to storytelling. But I've never been one to select any of his books when I read classic Literature novels. Part of my bias comes from being underwhelmed all the times I had critically studied his texts in high school or college. I often felt his works were overrated and too much attention was given to his contributions. This book almost makes me want to read Shakespeare again; this time through a different, more mature lens.
2. The book looks at Shakespeare's works in a modern and uplifting way. Ben Crystal is funny, witty and knowledgeable. He doesn't get into if Shakespeare actually wrote his works nor does he look at studying his texts in an academic context. He focuses more on when the Bard was and what he did. By that I mean, Crystal concentrates on what Elizabethan life was like in Shakespeare's time, the environment that existed when going to the theatre back in the day, why Shakespeare wrote poetry and the importance of that poetry in his plays. I especially enjoyed reading about the parallels between Hamlet and The Terminator as well as the potential in iambic pentameter parallel to programmers seeing the same in basic search engines and inventing Google.
3. I studied English Literature in my Bachelors and I can't honestly say how much of this added to my feelings about the book. At times I had to pause and take in some of the points Crystal was saying and wished I had known this when I was studying Shakespeare's plays, prose and poetry. At other times I felt my attention wanning as it felt like most of the explanations were written in an oversimplistic and basic way. e.g. The cost of a theatre ticket being compared to the price of loaves of bread. Still, I didn't expect to, but I actually ended up really enjoying this book.
1. I mainly picked this book because of Dame Judi Dench. Her quote on the cover made me pick this one up (I would have otherwise given a pass on it). I'll admit it, I am not a huge fan of Shakespeare. I acknowledge, appreciate and respect his huge contribution to the English language and to storytelling. But I've never been one to select any of his books when I read classic Literature novels. Part of my bias comes from being underwhelmed all the times I had critically studied his texts in high school or college. I often felt his works were overrated and too much attention was given to his contributions. This book almost makes me want to read Shakespeare again; this time through a different, more mature lens.
2. The book looks at Shakespeare's works in a modern and uplifting way. Ben Crystal is funny, witty and knowledgeable. He doesn't get into if Shakespeare actually wrote his works nor does he look at studying his texts in an academic context. He focuses more on when the Bard was and what he did. By that I mean, Crystal concentrates on what Elizabethan life was like in Shakespeare's time, the environment that existed when going to the theatre back in the day, why Shakespeare wrote poetry and the importance of that poetry in his plays. I especially enjoyed reading about the parallels between Hamlet and The Terminator as well as the potential in iambic pentameter parallel to programmers seeing the same in basic search engines and inventing Google.
3. I studied English Literature in my Bachelors and I can't honestly say how much of this added to my feelings about the book. At times I had to pause and take in some of the points Crystal was saying and wished I had known this when I was studying Shakespeare's plays, prose and poetry. At other times I felt my attention wanning as it felt like most of the explanations were written in an oversimplistic and basic way. e.g. The cost of a theatre ticket being compared to the price of loaves of bread. Still, I didn't expect to, but I actually ended up really enjoying this book.
March 10, 2020
As I began to read Ben Crystal's 'guide book to Shakespeare' I was rather discouraged. The book, like Shakespeare's plays is divided into five acts (rather than parts), and then further into scenes (rather than chapters). Act I was a disappointment rehearsing information that I already knew. For anyone unfamiliar with the life of England's greatest dramatist, I should say that almost nothing is known. That may be rather an overstatement, but truly the definite facts could be summarized on a double-sided page of A4 paper. The rest is speculation. This of course, has not discouraged many leading scholars and others from writing book-length biographies based on suppositions and possible happenings.
Act II was, for me, a distinct improvement. Ben Crystal, who is a professional actor (as well as being the son of a very distinguishes linguist) does not engage in any such speculations, but rather shows us Shakespeare from an actor's viewpoint. He does this over the succeeding Acts, showing how Shakespeare encodes stage directions for his actors within the script, and explains how the use of metre (when the script is in verse) determines momentum for the actor. One significant example was the explanation that the actors in Shakespeare's troupe would each have their own scroll which would contain just their own part, together with a cue telling them when to speak. With the lack of time to rehearse, the players may not have initially had a clear picture of the whole plot, therefore the script had to encode the necessary information that an actor needed to play his part. This could be done by varying the metre, or by using the physical layout of the script etc.
I found that as I moved through Acts III to V, my engagement with the book improved almost exponentially, and not only did I learn a lot, but the approach that Ben offers for Macbeth (or should I say 'The Scottish Play') can be applied to any of the bard's other plays (or indeed any dramatic composition).
I highly recommend this book to anyone with any interest in Shakespeare, poetry or the stage.
Act II was, for me, a distinct improvement. Ben Crystal, who is a professional actor (as well as being the son of a very distinguishes linguist) does not engage in any such speculations, but rather shows us Shakespeare from an actor's viewpoint. He does this over the succeeding Acts, showing how Shakespeare encodes stage directions for his actors within the script, and explains how the use of metre (when the script is in verse) determines momentum for the actor. One significant example was the explanation that the actors in Shakespeare's troupe would each have their own scroll which would contain just their own part, together with a cue telling them when to speak. With the lack of time to rehearse, the players may not have initially had a clear picture of the whole plot, therefore the script had to encode the necessary information that an actor needed to play his part. This could be done by varying the metre, or by using the physical layout of the script etc.
I found that as I moved through Acts III to V, my engagement with the book improved almost exponentially, and not only did I learn a lot, but the approach that Ben offers for Macbeth (or should I say 'The Scottish Play') can be applied to any of the bard's other plays (or indeed any dramatic composition).
I highly recommend this book to anyone with any interest in Shakespeare, poetry or the stage.
June 1, 2019
This book didn't give me a lot of new information, but, honestly, that's on me for picking it up, because it's kind of billed as an introduction to Shakespeare for those who are intimidated by him, a target audience of which I decidedly do not belong to. I got it because it seemed fun to read and I like reading about Shakespeare. I liked his style, and despite the fact that I know how to deal with iambic pentameter and how it varies, I found this book gave me a new insight into verse, so much so that I got really excited and immediately pulled out the monologue I'm considering using for my next audition and started doing linework on it right there in the airport.
My biggest complaint with the book lies in the attitude Crystal presents in an earlier chapter. He compares Shakespeare's plays to a soap opera, which, fine, and says they aren't meant to be pulled apart in a classroom, basically implying they're not worth studying. I think that's going way, way too far in an attempt to appeal to people who read Romeo and Juliet in high school and didn't studying it. It's an affront to Shakespeare scholars everywhere, and a completely entitled attitude. Shakespeare can appeal to the masses and be fun to watch AND be worth poring over with a magnifying glass and writing a 40 page paper on. They're not mutually exclusive, and honestly, as someone who wants to go to graduate school to study Shakespeare, I kind of feel personally insulted. This isn't the focus of the book, though, so I still enjoyed it. I'm just kinda mad.
My biggest complaint with the book lies in the attitude Crystal presents in an earlier chapter. He compares Shakespeare's plays to a soap opera, which, fine, and says they aren't meant to be pulled apart in a classroom, basically implying they're not worth studying. I think that's going way, way too far in an attempt to appeal to people who read Romeo and Juliet in high school and didn't studying it. It's an affront to Shakespeare scholars everywhere, and a completely entitled attitude. Shakespeare can appeal to the masses and be fun to watch AND be worth poring over with a magnifying glass and writing a 40 page paper on. They're not mutually exclusive, and honestly, as someone who wants to go to graduate school to study Shakespeare, I kind of feel personally insulted. This isn't the focus of the book, though, so I still enjoyed it. I'm just kinda mad.
January 17, 2019
A very readable and informative introduction to interpreting Shakespeare like an actor. I read this book because in high school I never liked Shakespeare, but I was interested in giving him a second chance. Instead of trying to work out how to interpret themes in the play and figure out their meaning, Crystal gives solid advice on what to look for to find what the characters' emotions are supposed to be. For instance, if the characters' thoughts keep on ending in the middle of their lines, the actor is probably supposed to agitated. Crystal's motivation is to make reading the plays more like seeing them in person.
After I finished the book, I read Richard III to see if it had changed my perspective. Some of the techniques really worked. I found I had a much clearer perspective of what was going on, and how the characters felt. One of the things that stuck out most was how much of the dialog was dictated by the limits of iambic pentameter. Many of the strange contractions and words that Shakespeare invented were there only to ensure that every line had ten syllables.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone just getting into Shakespeare. My only criticism is that Crystal has a lot of fluff before he starts getting down to the substance of the book, but it is still a short, entertaining read.
After I finished the book, I read Richard III to see if it had changed my perspective. Some of the techniques really worked. I found I had a much clearer perspective of what was going on, and how the characters felt. One of the things that stuck out most was how much of the dialog was dictated by the limits of iambic pentameter. Many of the strange contractions and words that Shakespeare invented were there only to ensure that every line had ten syllables.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone just getting into Shakespeare. My only criticism is that Crystal has a lot of fluff before he starts getting down to the substance of the book, but it is still a short, entertaining read.
December 12, 2023
We all know Shakespeare in one way or another, even without reading one of his plays. He was the one who popularized the English language by redefining the meanings of the words. And yet, the very thought of the Bard seems overwhelmingly grand and scholarly to burden the minds of the uninitiated. That is the very reason Crystal put pen to paper. That the Bard is for everyone -except for his quaint use of the Elizabethan English parlance - for every age is the author’s attempt to deconstruct academic elitism and to democratize understanding of classical literature.
Shakespeare wasn’t a stuffy academic writer whose ambition was to imprint indelible footprints in the path of humankind. Instead, he was a playwright, a modern-day screenwriter who was more interested in attracting audiences to his plays as much as possible. His characters are timeless and boundless, transpiring in every human face from all races and cultures because they are universal. The plays are dramatic portrayals of what it is to be human. King Lear, played by a Korean veteran actor, begets the same level of emotions as his English peer has demonstrated because it is the heart that spurs the mind to speak.
Crystal is a knowledgeable writer who wears his knowledge on the subject from the studies lightly with the general public in mind. His endeavor to bring the figure of the literary giant is magnanimously noble and altruistic. Perhaps Crystal might have been the one who was disaffected with those elitist writers and pedantic academics claiming Shakespeare as one of their own, only to be appreciated by the literati. In sum, if you are interested in reading Shakespeare for the first time or discovering who he was, this book is a commendable read and a good primer for further reading about his plays and more.
Shakespeare wasn’t a stuffy academic writer whose ambition was to imprint indelible footprints in the path of humankind. Instead, he was a playwright, a modern-day screenwriter who was more interested in attracting audiences to his plays as much as possible. His characters are timeless and boundless, transpiring in every human face from all races and cultures because they are universal. The plays are dramatic portrayals of what it is to be human. King Lear, played by a Korean veteran actor, begets the same level of emotions as his English peer has demonstrated because it is the heart that spurs the mind to speak.
Crystal is a knowledgeable writer who wears his knowledge on the subject from the studies lightly with the general public in mind. His endeavor to bring the figure of the literary giant is magnanimously noble and altruistic. Perhaps Crystal might have been the one who was disaffected with those elitist writers and pedantic academics claiming Shakespeare as one of their own, only to be appreciated by the literati. In sum, if you are interested in reading Shakespeare for the first time or discovering who he was, this book is a commendable read and a good primer for further reading about his plays and more.
April 18, 2018
As the title suggests, this book aims to introduce its readers to the technical side of Shakespeare's language by giving a taster of how the language is constructed and how it felt to perform the plays. Ben Crystal reminds us of the context of Elizabethan theatre and its audiences, and analyses the use of metre and verse - not only what Shakespeare does, but why he does it.
Crystal's enthusiasm for Shakespeare shines through in this work and is infectious. His analysis is logical and convincing, and his style is accessible and informal. The early sections, where he lays the basis of his explanations, are rather repetitive - however, this is helpful when he moves on to more complicated analysis as it embeds the principles in the reader's mind.
I feel this book would be appreciated more by students or young actors than the general Shakespeare admirer, but it is certainly a valuable contribution to an understanding of Shakespeare's craft as a playwright.
Crystal's enthusiasm for Shakespeare shines through in this work and is infectious. His analysis is logical and convincing, and his style is accessible and informal. The early sections, where he lays the basis of his explanations, are rather repetitive - however, this is helpful when he moves on to more complicated analysis as it embeds the principles in the reader's mind.
I feel this book would be appreciated more by students or young actors than the general Shakespeare admirer, but it is certainly a valuable contribution to an understanding of Shakespeare's craft as a playwright.
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