Shakespeare: A Complete Introduction

by Michael Scott

Your complete introduction to Shakespeare
William Shakespeare has been hailed as one of the greatest thinkers of all time, one of the world's finest artists, poets and dramatists.

A Complete Introduction introduces and explains the plays by looking at how they work, taking you on a journey through the genres of comedy, history and tragedy. The best known and most popular plays are discussed in detail and even plays in which Shakespeare may have had only the briefest creative and collaborative interest as a writer, get at least a mention.

With material on his poetry and discussions on aspects of his life too, this truly is a complete introduction to Shakespeare.

'A very lively and enthusiastic introduction to the full range of Shakespeare's plays' John Drakakis, Professor of English, University of Stirling

'A masterpiece of the genre, written as it is with passion, without condescension, without jargon, thoughtful and open to changing critical theories, but always returning to the plays themselves, plays that fully reveal themselves most in performance.' Martin Wine, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)

Genres: Shakespeare

416 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 1, 2016

About the author

Michael Scott is Professor of English and Theatre Studies and Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of Glyndwr University, Wrexham. He has taught Shakespeare for over 35 years and has also tutored A Level students, and for over ten years he worked as a Visiting Lecturer teaching Shakespeare with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has extensive experience also of teaching Shakespeare worldwide, including as Visiting Professor in English at Georgetown University. In Spring 2013 he conducted an extensive lecture tour on Shakespeare in China.

Scott was the founding editor of the influential Text and Performance Series and The Critics Debate Series used extensively in school and university programmes, and he continues to work and lecture on Shakespeare for a variety of audiences both for education and the general public.

source http://www.barnesandnoble.com

Reviews

[Marloes D]

In dit boek vertelt Michael Scott over verschillende types toneelstukken van Shakespeare en gaat hij in op enkele aspecten van specifieke stukken. Hierbij gaat het om een introductie dus niet om uitgebreide analyses van de stukken. Het is dan ook voor beginners. Het is gelukkig goed geschreven en makkelijk te volgen. Je hebt er veel aan als je nog niet zoveel ervaring met Shakespeare hebt.

Voor gevorderden is er "Shakespeare after all" van Marjorie Garber.

(Ik heb alleen de algemene hoofdstukken gelezen en hoofdstukken over toneelstukken die ik gelezen heb. Het zal naar verwachting een goed naslagwerk zijn.)

[Nathan Albright · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of information about Shakespeare in it, but that which would be useful or enjoyable to most readers only takes up part of the book.  This is a book which is really meant for leftist hipsters who want to sound as if they are knowledgeable about textual criticism by knowing all the code language to use to refer to various Shakespeare plays and sound intelligent to their kind and only marginally if at all for those who want to know Shakespeare on his own terms and appreciate his dramas for art's sake.  As a result, this book is somewhat of a tedious chore to read unless you really like hearing about what pointless leftist drama critics and post-colonial thinkers ponder about Shakespeare's plays and their meaning in an overly politicized world.  As someone who has very limited interest in what leftist thinkers have to say, a lot of this book was simply pointless and useless and not very enjoyable at all.  Given the amount of time in this book that was spent on the author's politically motivated interpretations, one might even know less about Shakespeare after reading this book than one did before, which would be disastrous.

This book is about 400 pages log and is divided into 28 chapters.  Th book begins with a look at Shakespeare as an entertainer and businessman (1) and then looks at the Comedy of Errors as a way of framing Shakespare's approach to comedy (2).  After this there is a discussion of neoclassical and romantic approaches to Shakespeare's work (3) as well as discussion of the relationship between A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet as that of a dream to a nightmare (4).  There is a look at Shakespeare's poetic and theatrical language (5), Love's Labour Lost and the Two Gentlemen of Verona (6), As You Like It (7), Twelfth Night (8), as well as a discussion of theatrical influences on Shakespeare (9).  The author returns to discussing Much Ado About Nothing and the Taming Of The Shrew (10), The Merchant of Venice (11), and then there are more discussions of critical perspectives about English history and the writing of the history plays (12), before three chapters discuss those plays (13, 14, 15) and the author returns to discussing modern critical challenges to plays like Titus Andronicus (16), Hamlet (17), Othello (18), King Lear (19), Macbeth (20), and general matters of interpretation (21).  There are two chapters about Greeks (22) and Romans (23) before a discussion of various -isms (24), problem plays (25, 26), The Tempest and collaborative plays (27), and The Winter's Tale (28) after which there is a conclusion, several appendices, and an index.

What is it that has kept Shakespeare relevant for so long?  This book offers at least some hint at the answer.  Shakespeare was a man who kept his own thoughts and opinions about political matters rather close to the vest, something that the author would do well to imitate, and was highly observant about the times in which he lived.  It was his clearsightedness about his own times that allowed him to speak to timeless truths that later generations have found over and over again in his works, no matter the specific issues that have been relevant.  Some plays have depended more on popular tastes, and some aspects of Shakespeare's plays has been troubling differently to different times, but his writings have been subtle enough to draw out what people have thought and believed for themselves.  This is, it should be noted, one of the qualities of good and worthwhile writing, in that they are capable of many layers of meaning and even opposite interpretations that reveal more about the thinker and interpreter than they do about the text itself.  It is a shame that the author cannot understand this and apply this to the limitations of his own and others' interpretations on the text in the present-day, where a great deal is written that says a lot about the interpreter but very little about the true nature of the texts that they struggle with in vain.

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shakespeare: A Complete Introduction is, well, not really a complete introduction. While all the plays are covered, there is an assumption made that the reader is familiar with these works; plot summaries are sparse and confusing at best. The book is really more a history of the critical analysis of Shakespeare's plays and poems.

That being said, there's a lot of interest here. A couple of quotes from the book will help give the tone the author sets:

"...drama is a fluid art form, not entirely owned by the dramatist but in being dynamic, living in performance from age to age, agile enough to be reconstituted for new audiences and new generations (p. 333).

"We enjoy Shakespeare. We are entertained and intellectually and emotionally challenged by him but we project our experiences, ideologies and meanings upon him. We appreciate the ways in which his plays work, drawing us into them, pushing us this way and that, as he varies structural templates for the narratives he imparts. We begin to understand his plays, considering them as complex mechanisms. We locate them in their historical moment, and appreciate them in our own time (p. 378).

[Lena Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sufficient and overwhelming. Fantastic introduction to the works of Shakespeare!

I'll definitely come back to this book again and again when going through Shakespeare's works individually.

[Meet Me For Tea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive, entertaining, and insightful! A great guide to Shakespeare’s works.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basic overview of Shakespeare with sprinkle of literary criticism.