Shakespeare at Work

by John Jones

Why did Shakespeare revise his plays? In a brilliant and pioneering analysis, the distinguished critic John Jones explores the critical and dramatic significance of Shakespeare's revisions. Analyzing such plays as Hamlet , Othello , King Lear , and Troilus and Cressida , he reveals the artistic impact of the revisions and their importance for our understanding of each play's moral and metaphysical foundations.

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1991

About the author

Henry John Franklin Jones (known as John Jones) was an English academic, a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and Oxford University's 38th Professor of Poetry (1978-1983).

Jones wrote books on diverse literary topics including Greek tragedy, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, as well as a novel, The Same God (1972).

Reviews

[Martin Noutch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rather feisty argument that some folio and quarto texts preserve different author's drafts of plays. Goes on a bit with Lear, but a lot of the close reading regarding stagecraft is very convincing. And it does WS the dignity of treating him like a real writer, not a god.