Manga Shakespeare: Henry VIII

Manga Shakespeare

by Richard Appignanesi (Adaptor), Patrick Warren (Illustrator), William Shakespeare

A graphic re-telling of Shakespeare's classic historical play. Henry, a proud and wilful monarch, defies Rome's ban on divorce to marry the beguiling Anne Boleyn. Despite attempts to sway the Pope by Cardinal Wolsley, England's powerful Lord Chancellor, the Catholic Church plunges into chaos, signalling the beginning of the Church of England. Anne, the new queen, gives birth to a girl who will become England's most famous monarch - Elizabeth I.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels, Classics, Retellings

208 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2010

About the author

Richard Appignanesi is a published adapter and an author of young adult books. Published credits of Richard Appignanesi include Manga Shakespeare: Julius Caesar (Manga Shakespeare), Manga Shakespeare: Macbeth (Manga Shakespeare), Manga Shakespeare: Hamlet (Manga Shakespeare), and Manga Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (Manga Shakespeare).

Reviews

[Almir Olovcic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting manga interpretation of Shakespeares novel.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have written about this for publication, so it would not be right to give anything away here beyond the comment, "Beautiful cover."

[Q. · Rating 1 out of 5]

12 out of the 14 books in the Manga Shakespeare series are amazing must reads that deserve far more attention than they've gotten. The remaining two Henry VIII and Richard III however are just plain bad. I'd never seen As You Like It, King Lear, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, or Othello preformed as a play or adapted as a movie so I went into each of these stories blind but could still tell exactly what the plot/conflict was, the character's motivations, etc. But given the exact same circumstances for this book, with a gun to my head I couldn't have told you what going on. Which makes me think either the presentation of play was bad or the original Shakespearean play wasn't that good to begin with. Which strangely enough makes Manga Shakespeare: Richard III superior to this book because at least I could tell you what the plot was. Long story short, skip this book and Richard III but read the remainder of the Manga Shakespeare series.

P.S. Just FYI I've seen the Ian McKellen version of Richard III which was amazing so go see that if the Manga adaptation disappointed you as it did with me.

[sabisteb aka callisto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warum gerade dieses Stück? Obskur und eher so naja. Viel kann man da nicht raus holen.
Der Zeichenstil ist durchschnittlich, uninspiriert aber OK. Die Figuren sind gut zu unterscheiden und die Bösen direkt zu identifizieren.
Das Setting entspricht dem Stück, hier gibt es keinerlei irgendwie moderne oder inspirierte Adaption, einfach nur klassisch gezeichnet, um was es in diesem Stück geht.
Wie immer ist der Originaltext auf die Handlungstragenden Textstellen uzrückgestutzt, so dass man besser versteht, um was es geht und selbst nachdem man das Originalstück gelesen hat, noch einiges Neues an Erkenntnis gewinnt.
So gesehen gut gemacht und hilfreich, aber eben uninspiriert und eines der zu Recht eher obsukren Stücke.

[Sierra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can read old English really well, and usually don't have any problems, but this was a hard read. I understood the majority, but it took a lot of the fun out of it, that I get from other Shakespeare tales.
As a manga is still a hard read but it a little easier with the images. The images give context of environment and tones, that just reading the words wouldn't.
I am very happy for the info at the end of book about Mary the First and Edward the Six, that was pretty fascinating.

[Momina Qureshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

enter the tyrant Henry VIII against a Manga setting: *me*
I NEED MORE.
however, the sparknotes graphic novel is superior. the characters in this one just looked.. the same. that was disappointing, I had to go over to the characters to make sense of them. but overall, Shakespeare graphic novels/mangas are another breed altogether.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll do a fuller review when I actually make it to the original play, but this is the firsts in the Shakespeare Manga series where I haven't actually seen or read the play first.

I do think it's quite fascinating to see the life of propaganda so far past its intended audience.

[Jarod · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars, rounded down.

[Lena · Rating 2 out of 5]

The aspect that stopped this from being a one star for me was the ending, where there was a short description of what happened to the historical figures after the play ends. I honestly found it difficult to engage with this book, as discerning the different characters proved difficult. Admittedly this is a difficult play to transform into manga - however for me, this adaptation was a bit of a let down.

[Mike Curtis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Manga style drawings don't fit the characters or time period. Story is so abridged that key pieces are missing. You can't understand the story if this is the only version of Henry VIII you read.