Literary studies: plays and playwrights Books

Book SynopsisSalome is Oscar Wilde’s most experimental—and controversial—play. In its own time, the play, written in French, was described by a reviewer as “an arrangement in blood and ferocity, morbid, bizarre, repulsive.” None, however, could deny the importance of Wilde’s creation. Contemporary audiences and reviewers variously regarded Salome as the symbol of a thrilling modernity, a challenge to patriarchy, a confession of desire, a sign of moral decay, a new form of art, and a revolt against the restraints of Victorian society. Less well known than Wilde’s beloved comedies, Salome is as enduringly modern and relevant.This edition uses the English translation done by Wilde’s lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, and overseen and corrected by Wilde himself. Appendices detail the play’s sources and provide extensive materials on its contemporary reception and dramatic productions.Trade Review“Salome illuminated! This edition presents Salome as a formally complex, richly intertextual, and generative phenomenon of international modernism. Kimberly Stern sets a superbly annotated text between an extensive introduction and several appendices documenting the play’s literary, cultural, and visual sources, its reception, and its translation, illustration, and performance histories. The edition offers copious source materials to augment the text, some requisite and some unexpected. Stern’s adept and unprecedented selection of contextual sources enhances the powerful and recurrent fascination of a play that has continuously spawned adaptations as well as controversy. This is where all students of Salome should start.” — Heidi Hartwig, Central Connecticut State UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionOscar Wilde: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextSalomeAppendix A: Sources Matthew 14:1-12, The Bible: Authorized King James Versionwith Apocrypha (2008) “Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World,”The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East (1917) From Heinrich Heine, Atta Troll (1843) From J.C. Heywood, Herodias: A Dramatic Poem (1867) From Oscar Wilde, “Review of J.C. Heywood’s Salome,”Pall Mall Gazette (15 February 1888) From Stéphane Mallarmé, “La scéne: Nourrice—Hérodiade”(1864-67) From Gustave Flaubert, “Hérodias” (1877) William Wilde, “Salome” (1878) From Joris-Karl Huysmans, Á Rebours (1884) From Maurice Maeterlinck, La Princesse Maleine (1889) Appendix B: A Visual History Gustave Moreau, “The Apparition” (1876) Aubrey Beardsley, Design for the Title Page to the English Edition of Salome (1894) Aubrey Beardsley, Final Design for the Title Page (1894) Aubrey Beardsley, “The Woman in the Moon” (1894) Aubrey Beardsley, “The Climax” (1894) Appendix C: Contemporary Responses From Edgar Saltus, Oscar Wilde: An Idler’s Impression (1917) Pierre Louÿs, “Salomé: à Oscar W.” (30 June 1892) Letter from Oscar Wilde to Richard Le Gallienne (22/23 February 1893) From a Letter from Bernard Shaw to Oscar Wilde (28 February 1893) From a Letter from Max Beerbohm to Reginald Turner (February 1893) From “Salomé,” The Times (23 February 1893) From a Review of Salomé, Pall Mall Gazette (27 February 1893) Letter from Stéphane Mallarmé to Oscar Wilde (March 1893) From William Archer, “Mr. Oscar Wilde’s New Play,”Black and White (11 May 1893) From Lord Alfred Douglas, “Salomé: A Critical Overview,” The Spirit Lamp (1893) Appendix D: Translation History Letter from Lord Alfred Douglas to John Lane (30 September 1893) From a Letter from Lord Alfred Douglas to John Lane (16 November 1893) From a Letter from Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas (January-March 1897) From a Letter from Robert Ross to Frank Harris (undated) From Lord Alfred Douglas, Autobiography (1929) Translation Chart Appendix E: Performance History From Charles Ricketts, Self-Portrait (1939) From Graham Robertson, Time Was (1931) Photograph of Sarah Bernhardt in Costume as Salome (1891) From a Letter from Oscar Wilde to William Rothenstein (July 1892) “Mr. Oscar Wilde on Salome,” The Times (2 March 1893) From Oscar Wilde, “The Censure and Salome,” Pall Mall Budget (30 June 1892) Bernard Partridge, “A Wilde Idea,” Punch Magazine (9 July 1892) From a Letter from Max Beerbohm to Reginald Turner (June 1892) Oscar Wilde, “Plan de la scene” (1891) From M.J. du Tillet, “Théâtres” [review of the Paris premiere of Salome], Revue bleue politique et littéraire (1896) From Jean de Tinan, “Théâtre de l’oeuvre: Salomé” [review of the Paris premiere], Mercure de France (March 1896) From “Salome,” The Saturday Review (13 May 1905) Photograph of Alice Guszalewicz in Costume as Salome (c. 1910) “The Cult of the Clitoris,” The Vigilante (16 February 1918) From the Verbatim Report of the Trial of Noel Pemberton Billington, MP, on a Charge of Criminal Libel (1918) Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisEnlivened by rum, mutiny, and buried treasure, Treasure Island is the classic pirates' tale, widely regarded as the forerunner of this genre. After discovering a treasure map, young Jim Hawkins sets off to sea as cabin boy aboard the Hispaniola, where he encounters one of the most unforgettable characters in literary history.

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Book SynopsisShakespeare everyone can understandnow in new DELUXE editions! Why fear Shakespeare? By placing the words of the original play next to line-by-line translations in plain English, these popular guides make Shakespeare accessible to everyone. They introduce Shakespeare's world, significant plot points, and the key players. And now they feature expanded literature guide sections that help students study smarter, along with links to bonus content on the Sparknotes.com website. A Q&A, guided analysis of significant literary devices, and review of the play give students all the tools necessary for understanding, discussing, and writing about King Lear. The expanded content includes:Five Key Questions: Five frequently asked questions about major moments and characters in the play. What Does the Ending Mean?: Is the ending sad, celebratory, ironic . . . or ambivalent? Plot Analysis: What is the play about? How is the story told, and what are the main themes? Why do the characters behav

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Book SynopsisIn 1593 Shakespeare awoke and found himself famous. Lines from his comic, erotic, tragic poem Venus and Adonis were on everyone's lips.The appearance in 1594 of the darkly reflective and richly descriptive Rape of Lucrece confirmed his fame as 'Sweet Master Shakespeare', Elizabethan England's most brilliant non-dramatic poet. Shorter poems in this volume testify further to Shakespeare's versatility and to his poetic fame. Some, like the much-debated 'Phoenix and Turtle', pose problems of meaning; others raise questions about authorship and authenticity. Detailed annotation and a full Introduction seek to resolve such difficulties while also locating Shakespeare's poems in their literary context, which includes his own career as a playwright.Trade Review'Shakespeare scholars will be indebted to the editors not only for fine textual and editorial work but also for a number of astute interpretations.' Project Muse (2009)

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Book SynopsisRead Shakespeare's sonnets in all their brillianceand understand what every word means! Don't be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bard's sonnets accessible and enjoyable. This No Fear guide contains:The complete original textAline-by-line translation that puts the words into everyday languagePlenty of helpful commentary

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Book SynopsisThe Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition is part of the landmark New Oxford Shakespeare--an entirely new consideration of all of Shakespeare''s works, edited afresh from all the surviving original versions of his work, and drawing on the latest literary, textual, and theatrical scholarship. In one attractive volume, the Modern Critical Edition gives today''s students and playgoers the very best resources they need to understand and enjoy all Shakespeare''s works. The authoritative text is accompanied by extensive explanatory and performance notes, and innovative introductory materials which lead the reader into exploring questions about interpretation, textual variants, literary criticism, and performance, for themselves.The Modern Critical Edition presents the plays and poetry in the order in which Shakespeare wrote them, so that readers can follow the development of his imagination, his engagement with a rapidly evolving culture and theatre, and his relationship to his literary contemporaries.The New Oxford Shakespeare consists of four interconnected publications: the Modern Critical Edition (with modern spelling), the Critical Reference Edition (with original spelling), a companion volume on Authorship, and an online version integrating all of this material on OUP''s high-powered scholarly editions platform. Together, they provide the perfect resource for the future of Shakespeare studies.Table of ContentsTHE COMPLETE WORKS

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Book SynopsisThis Norton Critical Edition of the world’s first major work of literary criticism is based on James Hutton’s acclaimed translation. The text and explanatory and glossarial notes represent the work of the accomplished Hellenists James Hutton and Michelle

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Book SynopsisFrom The Two Gentlemen of Verona in the early 1590s to The Two Noble Kinsmen at the end of his career around 1614, Shakespeare wrote at least eighteen plays that can be called ''comedies'': a far higher number than that for any other genre in which he wrote. So what is a Shakespearean comedy? We associate these plays with such themes as mistaken identities, happy marriages, and exuberant cross dressing, but how representative are these of the oeuvre as a whole? In this Very Short Introduction, Bart van Es explores the full range of the playwright''s comic writing, from the neat classical plotting of early works like The Comedy of Errors to the corrupt world of the so-called problem plays, written in the middle years of Shakespeare''s life. Examining Shakespeare''s influences and sources, van Es compares his plays to those of his rivals, and looks at the history of the plays in performance, from the biographies of Shakespeare''s original actors to the plays'' endless reinvention in modern stage productions and in films. Identifying the key qualities that make Shakespearean comedy distinctive, van Es traces the changing nature of Shakespeare''s comic writing over the course of a career that spanned nearly a quarter century of theatrical change.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewAimed at a general readership, the slim volume is nonetheless carefully researched and full of original ideas and connections. * Kevin Curran, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *cover[s] an impressive amount of literary and historical ground, and convey[s] a suitably sizeable serving of Shakespeare knowledge. * Shakespeare Magazine *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; World ; Wit ; Love ; Time ; Character ; Endings ; Further Reading ; Index

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Book SynopsisKing John, a play that offers at least three fine acting roles and was once popular in the theatre, has been neglected in recent years. Its treatment of the death of Arthur, claimant to the throne, and the wit of the Bastard, son of Richard Coeur de Lion, make it particularly worthy of reconsideration. The wide-ranging introduction makes original claims for the play''s relevance to Elizabethan political issues and for its aesthetic importance in Shakespeare''s early career as a dramatist. This edition also offers a comprehensive stage history, a thorough bibliographical study of the Folio (1623) text, and a reconsideration of its disputed relationship with the anonymous Troublesome Reign of King John (1591). A.R. Braunmuller provides new information concerning King John''s early stage history, consideration of legal concepts and practices in the play, and a critical study of its presentation of women and of families.Trade Review`The Oxford Shakespeare is an admirably scholarly edition, immaculately presented, offering close attention to possibilities of staging as well as meaning.' Dr D. Sedge, Exeter University`This edition offers the most substantial & one of the most penetrating discussions of the play to date. A remarkable scholarly achievement.' Dr René J.A. Weis, Department of English, University College, London`a most impressive and illuminating edition' R. N. Alexander, Queen Mary Westfield, London`The major strength of Professor Braunmuller's edition is its introduction. He offers a sane review of such difficult questions as the date of the play, and such controversial ones as its relation to "The Troublesome Reign". The evidence is marshalled in a lucid manner and sensible conclusions drawn ... This is a significant contribution to the (now quickly developing) debate on "King John", and a good demonstration that investigations of Shakespeare as a political dramatist (as opposed to a moral sage) need not be critically reductive.' The Review of English Studies`By its 'conventionally ordered introduction' (p.1), A.R. Braunmuller's Oxford King John signals that it is, indeed what the dustjacket claims, 'the most thorough scholarly edition now available' ... his edition foregrounds technical material important to scholars over more general interests ... Braunmuller's approach to editing is as fair-minded and scholarly as his introduction ... the King John that sets out the issues most fully and fairly, the edition I want in my study, is Braunmuller's 'conventionally ordered', scholarly text.' Virginia Mason Vaughan, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, Yearbook of English Studies, 1992'Stanley Wells' OUP Complete Works of Shakespeare is now eight years old and has spawned a new Oxford Shakespeare which appears now in splendidly affordable volumes in that nonpareil of libraries of good reading The World's Classics.' The Oxford Times

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Book SynopsisThe acclaimed Pelican Shakespeare series, now repackaged in award-winning modern covers to inspire Shakespearians of all ages.

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Book SynopsisHow did Shakespeare sound to the audiences of his day? For the first time this disc offers listeners the chance to hear England's greatest playwright performed by a company of actors using the pronunciation of his time.Trade ReviewAn enthusiastic bunch of actors demonstrate how the Bard s sonnets, songs and various famous scenes from his plays would have sounded to Elizabethan audiences. Pronounce hour as a 16th-century actor would have, that is, to rhyme with whore, and listen to the double entendres multiply. Eng lit aficionados will love it. --Sue Arnold "Guardian "" "An enthusiastic bunch of actors demonstrate how the Bard's sonnets, songs and various famous scenes from his plays would have sounded to Elizabethan audiences. Pronounce 'hour' as a 16th-century actor would have, that is, to rhyme with 'whore, ' and listen to the double entendres multiply. Eng lit aficionados will love it." --Sue Arnold "Guardian "

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Book Synopsis A Midsummer Night''s Dream is one of Shakespeare''s most popular comedies. This accessible introduction offers a springboard into the play, taking a hands-on, performance-based approach, exploring the challenges and the rewards it presents to actors, audiences and students. Springboard Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night''s Dream has a three-part structure: whether you''re watching or reading, Ben Crystal takes you through exactly what you need to know Before, During and After the play. He combines a genuine passion and understanding of Shakespeare with his experience as an actor, giving the reader a clear route to thinking about, understanding and enjoying A Midsummer Night''s Dream.Trade ReviewHaving Crystal as a companion through the stickier parts of Hamlet and Macbeth is like going to the theatre with an intelligent friend. * The Independent *How different it might have been if we’d had Ben Crystal’s sparky little books to introduce us. My Shakespearean epiphany would have come much sooner...[the books] lead newcomers into the play in question in a gentle, upbeat, unpretentious way. Fresh and slim, they’re about as far as could be from dusty, dry study guides relating to school exams...much better than the average theatre programme...I’d like to see them on sale in theatre bookshops, and/or wherever there’s a production of one of these plays...I’d also recommend them for classroom use. -- Susan Elkin * The Independent on Sunday *A highly worthwhile series, which should prove to be valuable for directors, actors and students…This formula really works. As an experiment, your dedicated reviewer tried out Macbeth in preparation for and following on from the Eve Best production of the Globe. The experience was definitely improved, with some of the tips on words and language proving especially helpful and enlightening… These really are excellent little guides that will prove informative to almost anybody with an interest in the subject. -- Philip Fisher * British Theatre Guide *

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Book SynopsisThis guide helps make Shakespeare's play more accessible. It contains a complete text of the original work, along with a line-by-line modernisation and plenty of helpful commentary.

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Book SynopsisMartin Wiggins is a Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham.

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Book SynopsisServing prison time with hard labor for the crime of gross indecency, Oscar Wilde wrote some of his most powerful works. A savage indictment of society, and testimony to private sufferings, his prison writings illuminated by Nicholas Frankel's notes reveal a different man from the dandy and aesthete who shocked or amused the English-speaking world.Trade ReviewA welcome gathering of Wilde’s most humane work, with choice illustrations, where the self-proclaimed ‘lord of language’ gives voice to the poor, the disaffected. * Irish Times *Frankel has…done us a favor to annotate such material with such labor and such learning…Wilde comes out of this volume with all his follies flying as an extraordinarily impressive human being. -- Peter Craven * Sydney Morning Herald *With headlines of police brutality and judicial immorality as relevant today as back then, creative works which remind audiences of Wilde’s timeless moral principles remain vital. -- John L. Murphy * PopMatters *De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading Gaol are canonical Victorian literature, and Frankel’s precise and well-informed notes will raise readers’ awareness of Wilde’s thinking on morality, crime, religion, sexuality, aesthetics, and prison reform. -- Ellis Hanson, Cornell UniversityFrankel provides a valuable service in comprehensively editing these works for a fresh generation of readers. -- Joseph Bristow, University of California, Los Angeles

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Book SynopsisThis new edition of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus offers the complete 1604 A-text with embedded selections from the 1616 B-text. Its innovative format will make it easier for readers to note differences between these texts and to consider what is gained and lost in viewing them both separately and together. A full Introduction to the play, notes, and a rich selection of related texts further enhance the value of this edition to students of Renaissance drama, Reformation theology, magic, and occult philosophy.Trade Review“This most recent edition of Doctor Faustus is guaranteed to appeal to a fresh, widespread audience of students and scholars. Uniquely combining the full A- and B-texts of the play, the edition offers new possibilities for analysis and interpretation. In addition to a generous introduction, replete with crucial data, the edition supplies readers with a bibliography, notes, and an abundant selection of related texts, including the Faustbook. The range of valuable information will surely attract not only Marlovians and all those interested in Renaissance drama and related, historical contextual matters, but anyone interested in accounting for how Doctor Faustus has achieved its enduring fame.” —Robert A. Logan, Emeritus Professor of English, University of Hartford

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Book SynopsisThis refresher reference volume features concise character and plot summaries for 12 of Shakespeare's best-known plays, drawn from the SparkNotes website and illustrated with colourful infographics. Each of the 12 chapters in this volume runs 6 to 8 pages of text taken from the SparkNotes website, and is illustrated with colourful infographics for easy consumption. The 12 plays featured six comedies and six tragedies are among the most famous and most taught of Shakespeare's dramas, including Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and Julius Caesar.

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Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive guide to Elizabethan ideas about the mindTrade Review“An outstanding achievement: broad-ranging, intelligently synthetic and written in unflaggingly lucid prose. . . . Helen Hackett shows us over and again that the inability of the Elizabethans to know themselves as fully as they wanted to mattered to them a great deal. Discomfited though this state of affairs could leave them feeling, it explains why their literature still matters to us today.”—Rhodri Lewis, Times Literary Supplement“Hackett reads a breathtaking diversity of literature with great sensitivity. . . . The Elizabethan Mind . . . is an impressive achievement.”—P. Kishore Saval, Australian Book Review“This enthralling study captures the changing ways in which the mind was understood, and the thought processes of a society that continues to captivate today.”—BBC History Revealed“Hackett callipers her subject with shrewd delicacy, arranging interventions and insights along a line of recognisable topoi—the role of women, attitudes towards race, Shakespeare, demonic possession.”—Madoc Cairns, The Tablet“Hackett’s extraordinary achievement in The Elizabethan Mind combines learning and empathy as she ranges across cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and physiological approaches. Come for Hamlet, stay for female complaint, Catholic poetics, sonnets, psychomachia, and much more.”—Emma Smith, author of This is Shakespeare“Hackett has synthesized an extraordinary range of books to illuminate aspects of the Elizabethan mind. She offers excellent readings of familiar works such as Shakespeare’s tragedies as well as little-known gems such as women’s translations of the Psalms. Readers will come away equipped to read Shakespeare and his contemporaries with renewed understanding.”—Jonathan Bate, author of Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare“Wonderfully perceptive and illuminating. If you want to understand how the Elizabethans viewed themselves, each other, and the world, read this book.”—Elizabeth Goldring, author of Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist

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Book SynopsisThe last book written by the most famous literary critic of his generation, on the sustaining power of poetryTrade Review“A magnificent meander through the flames and the breezes, by the waters and over the earth of those creations, intimations and thoughts that most matter. There will be few grand streams-of consciousness like this in the future.”—Stoddard Martin, Jewish Chronicle “An extraordinary testimony to a long life spent in the company of poetry and an affecting last declaration of his passionate and deeply unfashionable faith in the capacity of the imagination to make the world feel habitable”—Seamus Perry, Literary Review “Profound…Draws more deeply on [Bloom’s] scholarly expertise….Shows his readers how even literary criticism must be decoded like a dramatic poem or a novel before we can consume it.”—Eileen M. Hunt, Times Literary Supplement “In the end, only words have a chance of outliving us, and Bloom records his best guesses at the words that might endure. Until the end, Bloom was a man of incessant curiosity, with more questions than answers about an essential poetic imagination.”—Thylias Moss, Professor Emerita, University of Michigan “This book is superb, utterly convincing, and absolutely invigorating. Bloom’s final argument with mortality ultimately has a rejuvenating effect upon the reader, and is nothing short of a revelation.”—David Mikics, author of Slow Reading in a Hurried Age "I felt reading this book the way Virginia Woolf in her diary describes her feeling about reading Shakespeare: 'I never yet knew how amazing his stretch and speed . . . is, until I felt it utterly outpace and outrace my own.'"—Laura Quinney, author of William Blake on Self and Soul “Bloom helps us grasp what Dickinson calls ‘vaster attitudes,’ allowing us to take a proud flight and to disdain, for a time, our own mortality.”—William Flesch, Brandeis University "Bloom! The life, the voice, the sorrowful countenance, the Emersonian swoon, the feasting intellect, the daemonic rapture. His I is an Eye, all-seeing, a container of multitudes, a volcanic primer on the crisis of enchantment in what he dares to name ‘a universe of Death.’ And here, in this last masterwork—an impassioned meditation on the poets who made him—his living breath is indomitably felt.”—Cynthia Ozick

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Book SynopsisRomeo and Juliet is routinely called “the world’s greatest love story”, as though it is all about romance. The play features some of the most lyrical passages in all of drama, and the lovers are young, beautiful, and ardent. But when we look at the play, the lyricism and the romance are not really what drive things along. It is true that Romeo, especially early on in the play, acts like a young man determined to take his place in an immortal tale of love. Everything he says is romantic – but rather like an anniversary card is romantic. His words propel nothing, or nothing but sarcastic admonitions from his friends to forget about love and to treat women as they should be treated, with careless physical appetite. The world we have entered is rapacious more than romantic. Everyone knows something of this, from the film versions of the story if nothing else. Romeo and Juliet must fight for their love inside a culture of stupid hatreds. But it is not a simple case of love versus war, or the city against the couple. If it were, it would nicely reinforce clichés about true love, fighting against the odds. In this book Simon Palfrey suggests that the play Shakespeare actually wrote is more troubling than this. Juliet’s passion – for all her youth, for all its truth – is at the very cusp of murderousness. Juliet is the world’s scourge, in the sense that she will whip and punish and haunt it; she is also its triumph, in the sense of its best and truest thing. The deaths her love leads to are in no way avoidable, and in no way accidental. They are her inheritance, the thing she was born to. Of course she takes Romeo with her. But it is at heart her play.

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.All the world''s a stage,And all the men and women merely players.'Featuring Rosalind, one of Shakespeare's most likeable and strong female protagonists, As You Like It is a comedic play centred around concealed identity, love, exile and artifice. Banished from the court by her uncle, Rosalind flees to the forest with her cousin Celia and her jester, joining her already exiled father, and disguising herself as a boy. In the guise of a young man, she instructs her would-be lover Orlando in the ways of love and in doing so allows Shakespeare to explore the dynamics of the city and the country as well as the sexual politics of the time.

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Book SynopsisExam Board: EdexcelLevel: GCSE Grade 9-1Subject: English LiteratureSuitable for the 2024 examsEverything you need to revise for your GCSE 9-1 set text in a snap guideEverything you need to score top marks on your GCSE Grade English Literature exam is right at your fingertips! Revise Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare in a snap with this new GCSE Grade 9-1 Snap Revision Text Guide from Collins. Refresh your knowledge of the plot, context, characters and themes and pick up top tips along the way to ace your Edexcel exam. Each topic is explained in an easy-to-read format so you can get straight to the point. Then, put your skills to the test with plenty of practice questions included in every section. The Snap Text Guides are packed with every quote and extract you need. We've even included examples of how to plan and write your essay responses! For more revision on Shakespeare, check out our Snap Revision Text Guide on Macbeth (9780008353025).

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Book SynopsisThe true biography of Shakespeare - and the only one we really need to care about - is in the plays. Sir Frank Kermode, Britain''s most distinguished literary critic, has been thinking about them all his life. This book is a distillation of that lifetime''s thinking. The great English tragedies were all written in the first decade of the seventeenth century. They are often in language that is difficult to us, and must have been hard even for contemporaries. How and why did Shakespeare''s language develop as it did? Kermode argues that the resources of English underwent major change around 1600. The originality of Kermodes''s writing, and the intelligence of his discussion, make this book a landmark.

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Book SynopsisWilliam Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born to John Shakespeare and mother Mary Arden some time in late April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. He wrote about 38 plays (the precise number is uncertain), a collection of sonnets and a variety of other poems.

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Book SynopsisIn 1612 Shakespeare gave evidence at the Court of Requests in Westminster it is the only occasion his spoken words are recorded. The case seems routine a dispute over an unpaid marriage-dowry but it opens up an unexpected window into the dramatist's famously obscure life-story. Charles Nicholl applies a powerful biographical magnifying glass to this fascinating episode in Shakespeare's life. Marshalling evidence from a wide variety of sources, including previously unknown documentary material on the Mountjoys, he conjures up a detailed and compelling description of the circumstances in which Shakespeare lived and worked, and in which he wrote such plays as Othello, Measure for Measure and King Lear.

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Book SynopsisThe acclaimed Pelican Shakespeare series, now repackaged in award-winning modern covers to inspire Shakespearians of all ages.

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Book SynopsisA book on the experience of reading Honoré de Balzac's La Comédie humaine which recounts the process of Peter Brooks's own discovery of Balzac.Trade ReviewBrooks never ceases to intrigue readers by his deeply probing work of literary and critical scholarship. * Dana Vuckovic, French Studies *Table of Contents1: Balzac: Reading for More 2: Fangs and Kisses 3: Making Books, Devouring Presses 4: The Shape of Time 5: To Say Everything

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Book SynopsisOxford Student Texts offer an accessible route into the study of texts for A Level including line-by-line notes, and detailed sections covering key themes, issues and contexts. This edition focuses on The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

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Book SynopsisEasy to use in the classroom or as a tool for revision, Oxford Literature Companions provide student-friendly analysis of a range of popular A Level set texts. Each book offers a lively, engaging approach to the text, covering characterisation and role, genre, context, language, themes, structure, performance and critical views, whilst also providing a range of varied and in-depth activities to deepen understanding and encourage close work wtih the text. Each book also includes a comprehensive Skills and Practice section, which provides detailed advice on assessment and a bank of exam-style questions and annotated sample student answers. This guide covers Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, is suitable for all exam boards and for the most recent AS/A level specifications.

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Book SynopsisEasy to use in the classroom or as a tool for revision, Oxford Literature Companions provide student-friendly analysis of a range of popular A Level set texts. Each book offers a lively, engaging approach to the text, covering characterisation and role, genre, context, language, themes, structure, performance and critical views, whilst also providing a range of varied and in-depth activities to deepen understanding and encourage close work wtih the text. Each book also includes a comprehensive Skills and Practice section, which provides detailed advice on assessment and a bank of exam-style questions and annotated sample student answers. This guide covers Hamlet by William Shakespeare, is suitable for all exam boards and for the most recent AS/A level specifications.

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Book SynopsisGet to grips with set texts and be fully prepared for the AS/A Level exam with the Modern Languages Oxford Literature Companions. The Companions are written by experienced lecturers, teachers and examiners and provide comprehensive coverage of characters, themes, plot, language and context with activities in Spanish to consolidate your knowledge of the text. There are also extensive sections on exam preparation and response planning, with a bank of annotated sample answers and practice questions. This guide covers La casa de Bernarda Alba by Federico García Lorca. Modern Languages Oxford Literature Companions are also available for selected French and German set texts.

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Book SynopsisPlease note this title is suitable for any student studying: Exam Board: AQA Level: AS/A Level Subject: Drama and TheatreFirst teaching: 2015First exams: 2017This student book comprehensively covers both the AQA AS and A Level Drama and Theatre specifications and has been approved by AQA. It provides coverage of the set texts, guidance on interpretations and support for studying a range of practitioners, advice on approaching and assessing theatre visits and support for creating original drama and the Working Notebook. Structured so as to allow for co-teachability of AS and A Level and developed from OUP''s well-loved resources for the previous specification, this new student book will provide all the support and guidance students need as they engage in their studies and prepare for assessments.

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Book SynopsisThe Oxford Companion to Shakespeare is the most comprehensive reference work available on Shakespeare''s life, times, works, and his 400-year global legacy. In addition to the authoritative A-Z entries, it includes nearly 100 illustrations, a chronology, a guide to further reading, a thematic contents list, and special feature entries on each of Shakespeare''s works. Tying in with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare''s death, this much-loved Companion has been revised and updated, reflecting developments and discoveries made in recent years and to cover the performance, interpretation, and the influence of Shakespeare''s works up to the present day. First published in 2001, the online edition was revised in 2011, with updates to over 200 entries plus 16 new entries. These online updates appear in print for the first time in this second edition, along with a further 35,000 new and revised words. These include more than 80 new entries, ranging from important performers, directors, and sTrade ReviewThe Companion is a neatly prepared one-stop shop for a wealth of basic information about Shakespeare's works, then, and now. * Kevin Curran, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *Table of ContentsContents ; Foreword ; Preface to the 1st edition ; Preface to the 2nd edition ; Acknowledgements ; Contributors ; Thematic listing of entries ; List of plays ; Note to the reader ; The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare ; Map of British Isles and France in English Histories and Macbeth ; Family tree of the royal family in Shakespeare's English Histories ; Shakespeare's life, works, and reception: a partial chronology, 1564-1999 ; Further reading ; Picture acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisGreat Shakespeare Actors provides a series of well-informed, well-written, illuminating, and entertaining accounts of many of the most famous stage performers of Shakespeare in both England and America, offering a concise, actor-centred history of Shakespeare on the stage.Trade ReviewWells's vignette reports will make you wish you had been there... Eye-witness accounts are good, and especially when they are by actors such as Helen Faucit in the 19th century and by such academics as Stanley Wells in the 20th century, are invaluable. * Robert Tanitch, Mature Times *Wells's book is a mentor and companion to the Shakespeare lover. It can be dipped into at leisure as each chapter is complete in itself, but the text is so diverting and compulsive, so utterly knowledgeable and incisive, that it is difficult to find an easy pause. It is a book to cherish, to laugh with and to wonder at. * Sandra Callard, On: Yorkshire Magazine *Aimed at a broad readership, the book offers short biographies of "great Shakespeare actors" from Shakespeare's time to our own ... the book will very likely prove a helpful and entertaining resource for many. * Kevin Curran, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *Great Shakespeare Actors is most impressive when quarrying the more remote past, and, although it is suitable for dipping into, reading it straight through conveys a sense of how acting styles and actors' careers have changed. * Henry Hitchings, Spectator *[A] fascinating book. * Benedict Nightingale, New Statesman *Stanley Wells has his work cut out in Great Shakespeare Actors as he assesses around forty performers over the past four centuries, from Richard Burbage to Simon Russell Beale, offering brisk career summaries with a dash of scholarship and plenty of anecdote ... There's no shortage of excellent stories. * David Collard, The Times Literary Supplement *... Wells' passion is infectious. * New Republic, Charles Shafaieh *This collection is not only a useful source in itself, but opens up many other routes into theatre commentary, both historical and contemporary. * Heather Neill, Around the Globe *What could easily have been a repetitive book, as a series of actors is connected to a limited number of distinguished roles, is so well written that this never becomes the case. The writing is assured and never flags in an unexpected volume that is well worth dipping into. * British Theatre Guide, Philip Fisher *There's so much more in this fascinating book that I haven't been able to cover, so I can only urge you, if this kind of thing interests you, to go out and get a copy soon. You won't regret it. * Shiny New Books, Harriet Devine *Stanley Wells has written a book which is a total delight... unputdownable. * The Journal (Newcastle), Richard Edmonds *There is deep research here, lightly worn but nevertheless offering clear pointers for those who wish to study individual performers more closely, and for the great majority of the book there is also an engaging tone * Lisa Hopkins, Sheffield Hallam University, Times Higher Education *a brisk, fascinating theatrical voyage through more than four centuries * The Independent, Nicholas De Jongh *There is deep research here, lightly worn Wells is judicious and restrained and has a dry, crisp style. * Times Higher Education, Lisa Hopkins *Stanley Wells - Shakespeare's brightest and best champion for decades - has produced an absolutely wonderful and wildly readable survey of Shakespearean acting. With tremendous flashes of insight, Wells illuminates not just the staging and the modes of acting that predominated over the centuries, but also the true nature of Shakespeare as a provider of play scripts for actors and audiences. Superbly researched, this is a book that I shall revisit time and time again. * Stephen Fry *This astonishing book fills a vital gap on the shelves. Stanley Wells combines the detailed knowledge of a Shakespeare scholar with the sharp eye of a dramatic critic in a book that makes great performances come resonantly alive. If future generations want to know what Olivier or Dench really were like in Shakespeare, it is to this book that they will turn. * Michael Billington *In his own day, and ever since, Shakespeare's plays have been staged by some of the worlds most extraordinary actors. Stanley Wells, who knows these plays and their fascinating histories as well as anyone, offers here incisive portraits of exceptional actors who have performed Shakespeare over the past 400 years, from Burbage and Kemp up through Olivier, Dench, McKellen, and Beale. It's a thrilling and captivating account. * James Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare *Stanley Wells's Great Shakespeare Actors is a companionable tour through the encyclopaedic knowledge of our greatest Shakespeare scholar, full of anecdote, erudition, and intimate firsthand observation. It's a tribute to a life of devotion to the theatre, on the page and on stage, informed by a living sense of what actors do, and who they are, and how they work. There are many classic lives here, but also, to me, some enjoyable surprises. * Margaret Drabble *a highly enjoyable book, clearly and pungently written. ... it will be of great help to the general reader, to Shakespeare students and to theatre historians alike as it allows us to reflect on the very essence of theatre * Sophie Chiari, Cercles *As well as drawing effectively on significant written accounts by actors and critics, Wells is particularly persuasive in analyses of visual and aural evidence * Russell Jackson, The Year's Contribution to Shakespeare Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction Prelude: William Shakespeare 1: Richard Burbage 2: Will Kemp 3: Robert Armin 4: Thomas Betterton 5: Charles Macklin 6: David Garrick Who Was the First Great Shakespeare Actress? 7: Sarah Siddons 8: George Frederick Cooke 9: John Philip Kemble 10: Dora Jordan 11: Edmund Kean 12: William Charles Macready 13: Helen Faucit Who Was the First Great American Shakespeare Actor? 14: Ira Aldridge 15: Charlotte Cushman 16: Edwin Booth 17: Henry Irving 18: Ellen Terry 19: Tommaso Salvini Times of Change 20: Edith Evans 21: Sybil Thorndike 22: Charles Laughton 23: Donald Wolfit 24: Ralph Richardson 25: John Gielgud 26: Laurence Olivier 27: Peggy Ashcroft 28: Michael Redgrave 29: Paul Scofield 30: Donald Sinden 31: Richard Pasco 32: Ian Richardson 33: Judi Dench 34: Derek Jacobi 35: Ian McKellen 36: Janet Suzman 37: Antony Sher 38: Simon Russell Beale 39: Kenneth Branagh

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Book SynopsisJames Joyce's only surviving play has divided Joyceans for a century. Illuminating the themes of performance that are so prominent throughout Joyce's fiction, Exiles sees Joyce staking his claim definitively within the European theatrical tradition.Trade ReviewThe book is complete with Walsh's useful notes and a well-established text and can safely be recommended to students. * Valérie Bénéjam, James Joyce Quarterly *Table of ContentsIntroduction Composition and Publication History Select Bibliography A Chronology of James Joyce EXILES Appendix A: 'Ibsen's New Drama' Appendix B: 'The Day of the Rabblement' Explanatory Notes

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Book SynopsisGeorge Bernard Shaw has been called the second greatest playwright in English (after William Shakespeare) and one of the inventors of modern celebrity as the most famous public intellectual of his time. Beginning in the 1880s, as a critic and as a playwright, he transformed British drama, bringing to it intellectual substance, ethical imperatives, and modernity itself, setting the theatrical course for the subsequent century. That his legacy endures seventy years after his death is testament to the prescience of his thinking and his prolific creativity. This Very Short Introduction looks at Shaw''s life, starting with his upbringing in Ireland, and then takes a chronological approach through his works. Considering Shaw''s committed antagonism on behalf of a range of socio-political issues; his use of comedy as a mode for communicating serious ideas; and his rhetorical style that pushes conventional boundaries, Christopher Wixson provides an overview of the creative evolution of core themes throughout Shaw''s long career. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of ContentsIntroduction "Shavian" 1: "GBS" 2: "Unpleasant" 3: "Pleasant" 4: "Puritan" 5: "Political" 6: "Extravagant" 7: "Farfetched"

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Book SynopsisThe Oxford ShakespeareGeneral Editor: Stanley WellsThe Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative texts from leading scholars in editions designed to interpret and illuminate the plays for modern readers- a new, modern-spelling text, collated and edited from all existing printings- On-page commentary and notes explain meaning, staging, language, and allusions- Detailed introduction considers the first performance in 1592 in relation to the 1623 folio, structure, theatrical history, and the role of women in the play- Illustrated with production photographs and related art- Full index to introduction and commentary- Durable sewn binding for lasting use''not simply a better text but a new conception of Shakespeare. This is a major achievement of twentieth-century scholarship.'' ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the

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Book SynopsisThis new edition is based on the 1623 First Folio text and challenges conventional thinking about the nature and relationship of the earliest texts. It contributes substantial new evidence about Shakespeare's revision of the plays and the introduction and commentary focus on stage-oriented discussions of the play's meaning and reception.

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Book SynopsisThe story of modern drama is a tale of extremes, testing both audiences and actors to their limits through hostility and contrarianism. Spanning 1880 to the present, Kirsten E. Shepherd-Barr shows how truly international a phenomenon modern drama has become, and how vibrant and diverse in both text and performance. This Very Short Introduction explores the major developments of modern drama, covering two decades per chapter, from early modernist theatre through post-war developments to more recent and contemporary theatre. Shepherd-Barr tracks the emergence of new theories from the likes of Brecht and Beckett alongside groundbreaking productions to illuminate the fascinating evolution of modern drama.ABOUT THE SERIES:The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewShepherd-Barr manages to survey over a hundred years of Western drama in this pocket-sized book ... Providing a cursory, but considered, overview that introduces the reader to the richness and diversity of the topic in an engaging and readily comprehensible manner. That is no mean feat. * Adrian Curtin, Studies in Theatre and Performance *an excellent and insightful short introduction to modern drama * Adrian Curtin, Studies in Theatre and Performance *Modern Drama: A Very Short Introduction, is something of a marvel. A clear case is made for each of the eras of modern drama while also demonstrating the lasting influence of directors, playwrights, and styles. * Lee Jacobus, Emeritus Prof. of English, UConn, Storrs *Table of Contents1. 1880-1900: realism, naturalism and symbolism ; 2. 1900-1920: sex, suffrage, and scandal ; 3. 1920-1940: metatheatre and modernity ; 4. 1940-1960: salesmen , southerners, anger and ennui ; 5. 1960-1980: absurdism, protest and commitment ; 6. 1980-2000: bearing witness ; 7. 2000-present: contemporary theatre

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Book SynopsisFrom the stages of Broadway and London to university campuses, Paris, and the bourgeoning theaters of Africa, Greek tragedy remains constantly in production. This title explains how Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles conceived their works in performance. It summarizes what we know about how their tragedies were actually staged.Trade Review"Simon Goldhill's new book is enthralling. A 'can't put down' and a 'forever reread.' His detailed analyses of so many past productions are rare and exciting. His unfolding of the Greek texts and the many different translations is both instructive and exhilarating. He reveals the contradictions within the specific structures of the characters, and also of the chorus, in a way that every actor will be grateful for. I never saw any of the productions he describes, explains, and analyzes, but I have an unforgettable secondhand memory of them, thanks to his own knowledge and keen joy in his subject." - Vanessa Redgrave"

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Book SynopsisWith outstanding on-page explanatory notes, an in-depth scene-by-scene summary and fascinating interviews with actors David Tennant and AlexandraGilbreathanddirector Michael Attenborough, this fresh edition from the Royal Shakespeare Companyoffers enlightening new approaches to Shakespeare''s tragic love story.

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Book SynopsisJONATHAN BATE is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Warwick, UK, and the editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Yale and UCLA and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Cambridge, and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A prominent critic, award-winning biographer and broadcaster, he is the author of several books on Shakespeare, including The Genius of Shakespeare (Picador), which was praised by Sir Peter Hall, founder of the RSC, as 'the best modern book on Shakespeare.' In June 2006 he was awarded a CBE by HM The Queen 'for services to Higher Education'. ERIC RASMUSSEN is Professor of English at the University of Nevada, USA, and the Textual Editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He is co-editor of the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama and

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Book SynopsisFrom the Royal Shakespeare Company a modern, definitive edition of Shakespeare''s anarchic comedy. With an expert introduction by Sir Jonathan Bate, this unique edition presents a historical overview of The Comedy of Errors in performance, takes a detailed look at specific productions, and recommends film versions. Included in this edition are interviews withthree leading directors Paul Hunter, Nancy Meckler and Tim Supple providing an illuminating insight into the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible. This edition also includes an essay on Shakespeare's career and Elizabethan theatre, and enables the reader to understand the play as it was originally intended as living theatre to be enjoyed and performed.Ideal for students, theatre-goers, actors and general readers, the RSC Shakespeare editions offer a fresh, accessible and contemporary approach to reading and rediscovering Shakespeare's works for the twenty-first century.Trade Review'A triumphant addition to our times.' - Fiona Shaw, The TimesTable of ContentsIntroduction About the Text Key Facts The Comedy of Errors Textual Notes Scene-by-Scene Analysis The Comedy of Errors in Performance: The RSC and Beyond Four Centuries of The Comedy of Errors: An Overview At the RSC The Director's Cut: interviews with Paul Hunter, Nancy Meckler and Tim Supple Shakespeare's Career in the Theatre Shakespeare's Works: A Chronology Further Reading and Viewing References Acknowledgements and Picture Credits

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Book SynopsisJONATHAN BATE is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Warwick, UK, and the editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Yale and UCLA and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Cambridge, and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A prominent critic, award-winning biographer and broadcaster, he is the author of several books on Shakespeare, including The Genius of Shakespeare (Picador), which was praised by Sir Peter Hall, founder of the RSC, as 'the best modern book on Shakespeare.' In June 2006 he was awarded a CBE by HM The Queen 'for services to Higher Education'. ERIC RASMUSSEN is Professor of English at the University of Nevada, USA, and the Textual Editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He is co-editor of the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama and has edited volumes in both

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Book SynopsisDrawing on a range of material by and about J.M. Barrie, this is a biography of the novelist, playwright, and author of "Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up". It includes material from recorded interviews with the Llewelyn Davies family and is reissued to mark the centenary of "Peter Pan".Trade Review"Mr. Birkin writes that he has tried to create ‘a documentary account,’ not an interpretive biography. He offers such a wealth of firsthand information that the book holds up 25 years after it was first published (it was reissued last year) and becomes a rich complement to the film. Beautifully designed, the book reproduces letters and diary entries from Barrie and his circle, as well as dozens of photographs."—Caryn James, New York Times"His most acute biographer, Andrew Birkin, whose, J. M. Barrie and the Lost Boys, has been granted a timely reissue. [It] digs up some astounding entries from Barrie’s private notebooks. Some are composed in the third person, as jottings toward a possible novel."—Anthony Lane, New Yorker"A psychological thriller . . . one of the year’s most complex and absorbing biographies."—Gerald Clarke, Time"A terrible and fascinating story."—Eve Auchincloss, Washington Post"It’s a brave biographer that takes on James Barrie…because Andrew Birkin’s extraordinary book about Barrie’s relationship with the Llewelyn Davies family, J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys, though more than a quarter-of-a-century old, continues to stick as firmly to Barrie’s identity as the shadow that Wendy sews back onto Peter." —Mark Bostridge, Independent on Sunday

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Book SynopsisPresents a study of Shakespeare's intellectual preoccupations. This book offers guidance to Shakespeare's plays and sheds light on questions that engrossed Shakespeare from his early plays to the late romances: the nature of motive, cause, personal identity and relation, the proper status of imagination, and ethics and subjectivity.Trade Review"'The delight of Nuttall's book springs not just from the incisiveness of his ideas but from the deftness with which he unfolds scenes and speeches. It is like walking through the countryside with someone who recognises every bird's song and each wild flower.' John Carey, The Sunday Times 'Shakespeare was above all interested in the process of making sense of life... A.D. Nuttall's Shakespeare the Thinker is a marvellously wise and humane account of that mind at work. Always highly intelligent and effortlessly readable, it is a book that draws a firm line under the age of 'theory' in Shakespeare studies.' Jonathan Bate, The Sunday Telegraph '... wonderfully incisive and unstuffy look at the Bard's ideas.' The Sunday Times 'A.D. Nuttall is an attentive, intelligent, common-sense reader of the plays. He has a good ear and a subtle mind, and delights in words and the placement of words.' A.S. Byatt, The Guardian"

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