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Shakespeare: A Playgoer's & Reader's Guide
A Playgoer's & Reader's Guide is your essential companion to all Shakespeare's extant works (as well as those known to be lost). Two of our most eminent Shakespeare scholars guide us through his sonnets, his poems, and his plays, providing the reader with detailed scene-by-scene plot synopses, cast lists, notes on the texts and sources, discussions of artistic features, and accounts of significant productions on stage and screen.
Derived from the acclaimed Oxford Companion to Shakespeare , and fully updated to reflect the latest scholarship and most recent notable productions, it is the ideal compact guide for students and theatre-goers needing a helpful plot summary, or readers wishing to browse on fascinating background information.
Derived from the acclaimed Oxford Companion to Shakespeare , and fully updated to reflect the latest scholarship and most recent notable productions, it is the ideal compact guide for students and theatre-goers needing a helpful plot summary, or readers wishing to browse on fascinating background information.
- GenresShakespeare
384 pages, Paperback
Published December 15, 2020
2 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Michael Dobson
214 books6 followersSee also:
Michael S. Dobson for the author of non-fiction works on business, alternate history fiction, and RPG books.
Michael B. Dobson for medical works.
Mike J. Dobson for historical works on the Romans and food.
Michael S. Dobson for the author of non-fiction works on business, alternate history fiction, and RPG books.
Michael B. Dobson for medical works.
Mike J. Dobson for historical works on the Romans and food.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 21, 2021
Fascinating overview of the plays and poems, including their critical history and history of performance on stage and screen, along with insights into the complexities and controversies of composition and texts, leads on many likely or claimed sources, and thoughts on key artistic features.
Many intriguing tidbits surface along the way: e.g. a benefit performance of Julius Caesar took place in NY in 1864 to pay for the statue of Shakespeare in Central Park (p. 117); and "Bottom's anxiety about bringing a lion among ladies [in A Midsummer Night's Dream] may derive from a real incident at the Scottish court ... when a lion was excluded from the entertainments at Prince Henry's baptismal feast because its presence 'might have brought some fear to the nearest'" (p. 179).
The authors slip in a few delicious little zingers from time to time, such as the claim that Titus Andronicus is "currently very popular [as a subject of literary criticism] thanks to the advent of critical and cultural theories, the greater attention devoted to issues of gender, sexuality, and race, and a general sense that we are much closer to barbarism now than we have been for many years" (p. 291).
And I absolutely love this item concerning Love's Labour's Won: "no copies of the quarto have yet come to light. Anyone finding one should contact the editors of this volume immediately" (p. 143). Duly noted, Messrs Dobson & Wells, duly noted.
I'll surely re-read this in my next read-through of Shakespeare's works.
Many intriguing tidbits surface along the way: e.g. a benefit performance of Julius Caesar took place in NY in 1864 to pay for the statue of Shakespeare in Central Park (p. 117); and "Bottom's anxiety about bringing a lion among ladies [in A Midsummer Night's Dream] may derive from a real incident at the Scottish court ... when a lion was excluded from the entertainments at Prince Henry's baptismal feast because its presence 'might have brought some fear to the nearest'" (p. 179).
The authors slip in a few delicious little zingers from time to time, such as the claim that Titus Andronicus is "currently very popular [as a subject of literary criticism] thanks to the advent of critical and cultural theories, the greater attention devoted to issues of gender, sexuality, and race, and a general sense that we are much closer to barbarism now than we have been for many years" (p. 291).
And I absolutely love this item concerning Love's Labour's Won: "no copies of the quarto have yet come to light. Anyone finding one should contact the editors of this volume immediately" (p. 143). Duly noted, Messrs Dobson & Wells, duly noted.
I'll surely re-read this in my next read-through of Shakespeare's works.
Displaying 1 of 1 review