Literary studies: plays and playwrights Books
Penguin Putnam Inc Troilus and Cressida
Book SynopsisThe acclaimed Pelican Shakespeare series, now repackaged in award-winning modern covers to inspire Shakespearians of all ages.
£8.54
Faber & Faber The Faber Pocket Guide to Shakespeares Plays
Book SynopsisGoing to see a ''Shakespeare'' and want a quick run-down on the plot before you start? Teaching the ''Henry''s'' and need a handy guide to all the histories for the students? A Pocket Guide to Shakespeare''s Plays gives all this and more: an introduction to Shakespeare and his times; a note on the sources; cast lists, synopses; main character descriptions and an essay on each play. It is a concise, readable and essential guide to all 36 plays.
£10.44
Faber & Faber The History Boys With GCSE and A Level study
Book SynopsisDesigned to meet the requirements for students at GCSE and A level, this accessible educational edition offers the complete text of The History Boys with a comprehensive study guide. Highlights of Andrew Bruff''s guide include: detailed analyses of character, theme and structure; a clear introduction to the context of the play and its author; key quotations and activities both for the student working alone and in the classroom.An unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a place at university. A maverick English teacher at odds with the young and shrewd supply teacher. A headmaster obsessed with results; a history teacher who thinks he's a fool.In Alan Bennett's award-winning and hugely popular play, staffroom rivalry and the anarchy of adolescence provoke insistent questions about history and how you teach it, about education and its purpose.
£10.44
Faber & Faber Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Faber
Book SynopsisCelebrating its 50th anniversary in 2017, Tom Stoppard''s witty and exhilarating play is repackaged as a stylish Faber Modern Classic.Tom Stoppard''s reputation as a playwright was made when his dazzling debut, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, opened at the National Theatre. Fifty years later, the play''s wit, stagecraft and verbal verve remain as exhilarating as they were in 1967 as the two ill-fated attendant lords from Shakespeare''s Hamlet take centre stage, musing on the purpose of existence and its end. This new edition was published to coincide with a 50th anniversary production at the Old Vic Theatre, London, and contains a new preface by the author.
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Sweet William: A User's Guide to Shakespeare
Book SynopsisMichael Pennington's solo show about Shakespeare, Sweet William, has been acclaimed throughout Europe and in the US as a unique blend of showmanship and scholarship. In this book, he deepens his exploration of Shakespeare's life and work - and the connection between the two - that lies at its heart. It is illuminated throughout by the unrivalled insights into the plays that Pennington has gained from the twenty thousand hours he has spent working on them as a leading actor, an artistic director and a director - and as the author of three previous books on individual Shakespeare plays. With practical analysis, wonderfully detailed and entertaining interpretations of characters and scenes, and vivid reflections on Shakespeare's theatre and ours, the result is a masterclass of the most enjoyable kind for theatregoers, professionals, students and anyone interested in Shakespeare. This book was published in hardback as Sweet William: Twenty Thousand Hours With Shakespeare. 'A brilliant and intimate insider's guide to Shakespeare from one of our greatest classical actors' Gregory Doran 'Michael Pennington is a great Shakespearian actor who writes with the authority of an academic. His book analyses the plays, the characters and the playwright's life. It will intrigue, entertain and challenge students, actors and their audiences' Ian McKellen 'Rich and informative, and something that will be mined for many years to come by anyone interested in Shakespeare and in British theatre' Professor James Shapiro 'Shakespeare comes wonderfully to life in Michael's beautifully written book' Rupert Everett 'Irresistibly readable' Peter Brook Trade Review'Pennington's blend of scholarship and practical experience gives him an edge over critics with a purely academic knowledge... It's like chatting to an immensely knowledgeable and entertaining actor in The Dirty Duck at Stratford: a raconteur full of theatrical anecdotes, waspish asides, and provocative insights' * Drama magazine *'I can't remember when I learned so much from a single volume as I have from Michael Pennington's engaging, absorbing, congenial, informative new book Sweet William... Sometimes he's anecdotal, often lyrical, always thoughtful and occasionally laugh-aloud funny. Pennington's book is a must-read for anyone interested in Shakespeare from almost any angle - actor, drama student, teacher, director, technician, literature student or audience member' * The Stage *'The most important and best set of original Shakespeare essays that I have read in over thirty years... Pennington is blessed with an ideal combination of talents and experiences... a wonderful book' * Speaking English *
£11.69
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Tis Pity Shes a Whore
Book SynopsisMartin Wiggins is a Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham.
£9.99
Oxford University Press Shakespeare Made Easy Macbeth
Book SynopsisThe Shakespeare Made Easy series aims to take the fear out of Shakespeare. By having Shakespearean and Modern English facing each other, pupils will find it easier to comprehend the text. Through discussion of the life, work and theatre of Shakespeare pupils can gain a more rounded understanding of these classic works.
£16.92
Harvard University Press The Annotated Prison Writings of Oscar Wilde
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
£17.95
Penguin Putnam Inc Coriolanus
Book SynopsisThe acclaimed Pelican Shakespeare series, now repackaged in award-winning modern covers to inspire Shakespearians of all ages.
£8.54
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Timebends
Book Synopsis''A beautifully structured narrative: tough, very moving, a political testimony of considerable force'' - Harold Pinter''As wise and witty and funny and brave as any of his plays'' - Louis Auchincloss''Wholly admirable'' - Anthony Burgess______________Arthur Miller''s plays have held the world''s stages for almost half a century. Among them are Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and All My Sons, which have been read and performed countless times across the world. His memoir, Timebends, shows that the life of the man is as compelling as his plays. With passion, wit and candour, Miller recalls his childhood in Harlem and Brooklyn in the 1920s and the Depression; his successes and failures in the theatre and in Hollywood; the formation of his political beliefs that, two decades later, brought him into confrontations with the House Committee of Un-American Activities; and his later work on behalf of human rights as the pTrade ReviewA book and a half. Arthur Miller is that very rare bird; a truly independent man. His autobiography is a beautifully structured narrative: tough, very moving, a political testimony of considerable force * Harold Pinter *The personality revealed by this fine autobiography is wholly admirable. Miller did more than fracture the American dream and interpret the American nightmare: he dared to enter the fire that surrounded the most potent sexual myth of the century * Anthony Burgess *As wise and witty and funny and brave as any of his plays ... Surely one of the great stories of our time * Louis Auchincloss *Arthur Miller's achievement in this book is to fuse the rhetorical power of his drama with the steely integrity of his life. The result is something pretty close to a masterpiece * Sean French *
£11.24
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC ShakesFear and How to Cure It
Book SynopsisFor teachers and lovers of Shakespeare, ShakesFear and How to Cure It provides a comprehensive approach to the challenge and rewards of teaching Shakespeare and gives teachers both an overview of each of Shakespeare's 38 plays and specific classroom tools for teaching it. Written by a celebrated teacher, scholar and director of Shakespeare, it shows teachers how to use the text to make the words and the moments come alive for their students. It refutes the idea that Shakespeare's language is difficult and provides a survey of the plays by someone who has lived intimately with them on the page and on the stage.Trade ReviewShakesFear and How to Cure It: The Complete Handbook for Teaching Shakespeare is written from the perspective of someone who has seemingly spent his entire adult life entrenched in the world of Shakespeare. Ralph Alan Cohen’s authority is undisputed, and as such, he conveys knowledge that is insightful, practical, and, above all else, immensely useful for teaching and learning. Cohen has taken his decades of experience and created a manual of sorts to help educators learn different (perhaps better) ways to approach teaching Shakespeare in the classroom … [Early] chapters show Cohen’s ability to connect and engage with the reader in a way that feels like talking with a colleague. The content is rich with practical and helpful advice, and his language is comfortable and easy to follow … A fantastic resource for educators. Although new(er) Shakespeare teachers will probably benefit the most, I do believe the book can provide new perspectives and ideas for experienced teachers as well. Cohen has a gift for communication, allowing ShakesFear to be accessible and useful to a wide audience. * American Reference Books Annual *What fun it must be to have Cohen as a teacher! ... [His] compelling book offers us a haven. * Times Higher Education *Table of ContentsPART ONE : The Teacher Chapter 1. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bard Chapter 2. Seven Deadly Misconceptions Chapter 3: Ten Don’ts Chapter 4. Ten Do’s Chapter 5: Shakespeare Is Hard Chapter 6: Shakespeare Is Boring PART TWO: The Plays: 38 short chapters Annotated list of available video Index
£27.54
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Rover
Book SynopsisThe editor, Robyn Bolam, is Professor of literature at St Mary's University College, London.
£9.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC James Graham Plays 1
Book SynopsisThis collection brings together four of Graham''s most successful and entertaining plays, each representing a relationship with a theatre with which he has worked and introduced by the author. One of the plays, Sons of York, has never before been published, but earned James Graham a nomination for the Empty Space Mark Marvin Award.A History of Falling Things is a gentle love story about a young man and woman forced to confront their fears of the outside world and discover what really matters to their lives. Tory Boyz is a fast-paced, political comedy about prejudice and ambition in Westminster, looking at homosexuality in the British Conservative party, both today and in the past.As Ben, self-employed, skint and emotionally vulnerable, begins to stitch together the patchwork quilt that was the Tax Year 2009/2010, he relives a year that was both hilarious and tragic, all mixed up in one shoe box of receipts. The Man is an affectionate and funny portrait of anTrade ReviewThe prodigiously talented James Graham * British Theatre Guide *Table of ContentsIntroduction, A History of Falling Things, Tory Boyz, The Man, The Whisky Taster, Sons of York
£20.89
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC A Taste Of Honey
Book SynopsisReissue of the all-time best-selling Methuen Modern Play in the new Methuen Student Edition cover styleTrade Review'Some of Delaney's themes may feel dated but her writing still glitters dangerously and wittily. A Taste of Honey remains a passionate statement about real people trapped in poverty, deprived of ambition and vulnerable to manipulation by the fickleness of others.' Independent, (19 November 2008) 'Brawling, boozing, teenage pregnancy and fractured families: Shelagh Delaney's benchmark drama, first staged by Joan Littlewood in London in 1958, has lost none of its relevance 50 years on... The quirkiness and passion of Delaney's young voice still rings out... It remains passionate and pungent.' The Times, (19 November 2008) 'Its raw eloquence, sometimes almost lyrical, its tough, swaggering humour...its frank brutality and unblinking humanity.' Sunday Times, (23 November 2008)
£13.77
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Philosopher's English King: Shakespeare's
Book SynopsisThe Philosopher's English King offers a close reading of the Henriad, presenting Shakespeare's teaching on political authority and contributing to the burgeoning scholarship on Shakespeare as a political thinker. This book on Shakespeare's Henriad studies the tetralogy as a work of political thought. Leon Harold Craig, author of two previous volumes on Shakespeare's political thought, argues that the four plays present Shakespeare'steaching on the problem of legitimacy, or who has the right to rule -- one of the perennial questions of political philosophy. Offering original interpretations of each of the plays, Craig discusses the demise of divine right inRichard II, political upheaval and disputed rule in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, and the attempt to reestablish legitimacy on a new basis in Henry V. While focusing especially on the plays' various interpretive puzzles,Craig shows how the four plays constitute one narrative, culminating in the rule of England's most famous warrior king, Henry V, whose brilliant achievements were undone by ill fortune. Craig concludes with an epilogue on what might have been had Henry lived to consolidate his conquest of France and unify it with England under a single crown. Supported by a wealth of scholarship, both historical and critical, The Philosopher's English King makes a major contribution to the burgeoning scholarship on Shakespeare as a political thinker, providing further evidence for why the poet deserves to be recognized as a philosopher in his own right. Leon Harold Craig is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alberta.Trade ReviewI consider this one of the best books ever written on Shakespeare's Henriad. The level of scholarship is second to none. Each chapter is as good as the next. The book is never uneven, and Craig's passion for his subject matter and his desire to share his knowledge with his readers is evident throughout. Not only does one gain many valuable insights into these plays, we are also encouraged to read Shakespeare philosophically, as I am certain Shakespeare wished to be read. * VOEGELINVIEW *Supported by the author's learned command of the relevant English history, this analysis not only serves as a comprehensive overview of the plays' events but also shows how paying attention to even the most minute details and minor characters can shed light on Shakespeare's central figures and plot lines. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Dissenting from Craig requires the disputant's exercising his utmost capacities for philosophical reflection. . . . Because Craig rightly conceives the philosophic poet. * REVIEW OF POLITICS *In The Philosopher's English King Leon Craig once again proves the value of taking Shakespeare seriously as a political thinker. Drawing parallels with important political philosophers, such as Plato, Machiavelli, and Hobbes, Craig illumines some of the darker corners of Shakespeare's history plays and offers a comprehensive interpretation of the tough-minded teaching on kingship they embody. -- Paul A. Cantor, University of VirginiaTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Prologue Begins the Woefullest Division: The Tragic Reign of King Richard II A Punishing of Mistreadings: The Turbulent Reign of King Henry IV Proceeds The Noble Change Long Purposed: The Turbulent Reign of King Henry IV Concludes A Curious Mirror of Christian Kings: The Brief Glorious Reign of King Henry V An Alternative Epilogue: Imagining What Might Have Been Notes Bibliography Index of Names
£26.34
Cambridge University Press Much Ado about Nothing
Book SynopsisThis new edition of Much Ado about Nothing is supplemented by an updated introduction which analyses recent stage, television, film and critical interpretations of the play, and considers the play's special interest in language, bodies and gender.Table of ContentsIntroduction; The play; Supplementary notes; Textual analysis; Appendixes: 1. The time-scheme of Much Ado about Nothing, 2. Lewis Carroll's letter to Ellen Terry, 3. Benedick's song, 5.2.18-22; Reading list.
£9.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Arden of Faversham
Book SynopsisBased on the true story of the murder of Thomas Arden by his wife, her lover and accomplices in 1551, Arden of Faversham is one of the earliest domestic tragedies and a play which has continued to thrill audiences since its first staging. This comprehensive edition situates the play in its social, cultural and political context while exploring its performance and critical history through a range of historical and contemporary productions, including William Poel's Lilies That Fester (1897) and the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2014 production. Throughout, the edition aims to reanimate the play's engagement with the material culture of domestic life, using little-known evidence for the objects and spaces implicated in the murder. The introduction also accounts for recent new thinking about the play's likely authorship, including claims that Shakespeare was a key co-author. The comprehensive, illustrated introduction combined with detailed on-page commentary notes and glosses Trade Review[The editor] combine[s] personal enthusiasm ... with scholarly rigour, and the result is ... useful and enjoyable insights into early modern drama. * The Times Literary Supplement *Richardson’s is a valuable edition of Arden for students, teachers, and scholars, making important contributions to our understanding of the play and no doubt occupying a significant place in editorial history. * Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen *Table of ContentsSeries Preface Introduction Arden of Faversham Appendices Bibliography Index
£14.24
Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Shakespeare’s Dramatic Persons
Book SynopsisIn Shakespeare’s Dramatic Persons, Travis Curtright examines the influence of the classical rhetorical tradition on early modern theories of acting in a careful study of and selection from Shakespeare’s most famous characters and successful plays. Curtright demonstrates that “personation”—the early modern term for playing a role—is a rhetorical acting style that could provide audiences with lifelike characters and action, including the theatrical illusion that dramatic persons possess interiority or inwardness. Shakespeare’s Dramatic Persons focuses on major characters such as Richard III, Katherina, Benedick, and Iago and ranges from Shakespeare’s early to late work, exploring particular rhetorical forms and how they function in five different plays. At the end of this study, Curtright envisions how Richard Burbage, Shakespeare’s best actor, might have employed the theatrical convention of directly addressing audience members. Though personation clearly differs from the realism aspired to in modern approaches to the stage, Curtright reveals how Shakespeare’s sophisticated use and development of persuasion’s arts would have provided early modern actors with their own means and sense of performing lifelike dramatic persons.Trade ReviewIn 1615, John Webster famously observed of 'the excellent actor' that 'whatsoever is commendable to the grave orator is most exquisitely perfect in him.' In this thoroughly persuasive book, Travis Curtright demonstrates that playwrights, like excellent actors, were accomplished rhetoricians; that Shakespeare, in different ways over the course of his career, created dramatic characters from the building blocks of formal rhetorical devices; and that how characters speak and argue and persuade create the illusion of psychology, emotion, inwardness, and subjectivity. There is no other book like it. -- Cary M. Mazer, University of PennsylvaniaTravis Curtright’s book is one of those rare books on Shakespeare that combines the scholar’s understanding of the architecture and language of Shakespeare’s plays with the practitioner’s understanding of how that information is useful to the actor and the director. Here’s a book that teaches you about rhetoric and character at the same time that it teaches you why it matters on the stage. In front of me on my desk I keep a row of books I know I’ll need to dip back into as I work: Shakespeare’s Dramatic Persons will make that row. -- Ralph Alan Cohen, Gonder Professor of Shakespeare and Performance, Mary Baldwin University and Co-founder, American Shakespeare CenterTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction: Actors and Orators 1. King Richard III and Characters as Actors 2. Kate’s Audacious Speech of Submission 3. Much Ado about Personation 4. Iago’s Acting Style 5. Marina as Charorator Conclusion: Direct Address as an “Original Practice” Bibliography Index
£37.05
Vintage Publishing Shakespeare for Grownups
Book Synopsis''Rather jolly and very helpful' The TimesNeed to swot up on your Shakespeare? The ultimate guide to the Bard, perfect for the Shakespeare aficionado and general reader alike. If you've always felt a bit embarrassed at your precarious grasp on the plot of Othello, or you haven't a clue what a petard (as in hoist with his own petard') actually is, then fear not, because this, at last, is the perfect guide to the Bard. From the authors of the number-one bestselling Homework for Grown-ups, Shakespeare for Grown-ups is the essential book for anyone keen to deepen their knowledge of they Trade ReviewRather jolly and very helpful * The Times *This fascinating and fun volume delves into all things Shakespeare and will appeal to novices and experts alike... light, accessible, and engaging... Included in this book are synopses of all of Shakespeare's works and his life and times, key influences, language and style, controversies, and famous quotations. An entertaining and highly informative read, this is essential for students and scholars, theatergoers wanting to familiarize themselves with a particular work, and general readers who are simply curious about one of the most famous and influential playwrights of all time * Library Journal *
£10.44
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Top Girls
Book SynopsisMarlene thinks the eighties are going to be stupendous. Her sister Joyce has her doubts. Her daughter Angie is just frightened. Since its premiere in 1982, Top Girls has become a seminal play of the modern theatre. Set during a period of British politics dominated by the presence of the newly elected Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Churchill's play prompts us to question our notions of women''s success and solidarity. Its sharp look at the society and politics of the 1980s is combined with a timeless examination of women''s choices and restrictions regarding career and family.This new Student Edition features an introduction by Sophie Bush, Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, UK prepared with the contemporary student in mind. METHUEN DRAMA STUDENT EDITIONS are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. A well as the complete text of the play itself, this volume contains: A chronology of the play and the playwTrade ReviewTop Girls has a combination of directness and complexity, which keeps you both emotionally and intellectually alert. You can smell life, and at the same time, feel locked in an argument with an agile and passionate mind. -- John Peter * Sunday Times *The work builds to a superb emotion-draining climax that sent me out of the theatre convinced that this is the best British play ever from a woman dramatist -- Michael Billington * Guardian *[Churchill's] play is brilliantly conceived with considerable wit to illuminate the underlying deep human seriousness of her theme -- Bryan Robertson * Spectator *Table of ContentsChronology (Churchill's life and work, alongside significant political, social and cultural events) Contexts * Historical contexts (women’s rights/advancement; Thatcher’s Britain) * Theatrical contexts (The Royal Court; Max Stafford Clark; production history; critical responses) * The play today (an interview with David Shirley, director of the play in 2014) Themes * Women and work * Female Genealogy: Mothers and daughters (killing your mother; giving up your daughter); sisters (and sisterhood); 'Herstory'/re-finding women's histories * Women’s ability/freedom to occupy multiple/conflicting roles * Women aping masculine behaviour/dress/passing as men * 'Getting away'/freedom/travel/social mobility * Class (individualism vs socialism; economic/social mobility; materialism vs human compassion; 'successful' women ignoring the plight of less fortunate women) Dramatic Technique * Language * Structure * Characterisation/multi-roling Academic Debate (including suggestions for further reading) Related Work Play Text (with on-page glossing/notes) Glossary of Dramatic Terms
£10.99
Union Square & Co. The Winters Tale
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.
£7.59
Union Square & Co. Two Gentlemen of Verona
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.
£7.59
Cambridge University Press Hamlet
Book SynopsisThe third edition of Hamlet offers a completely new introduction to this rich, mysterious play, examining Shakespeare''s transformation of an ancient Nordic legend into a drama whose philosophical, psychological, political, and spiritual complexities have captivated audiences world-wide for over 400 years. Focusing on the ways in which Shakespeare re-imagined the revenge plot and its capacity to investigate the human experiences of love, grief, obligation, and memory, Heather Hirschfeld explores the play''s cultural and theatrical contexts, its intricate textual issues, its vibrant critical traditions and controversies, and its history of performance and adaptation by celebrated directors, actors, and authors. Supplemented by an updated reading list, extensive illustrationsand helpful appendices, this editionalso features revised commentary notes explicitly designed for the student reader, offering the verybest in contemporary criticism of this great tragedy.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Note on the text; List of characters; The play; Reading list; Appendices.
£9.99
Simon & Schuster A Midsummer Nights Dream
Book SynopsisThe authoritative edition of A Midsummer Night''s Dream from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare stages the workings of love. Theseus and Hippolyta, about to marry, are figures from mythology. In the woods outside Theseus’s Athens, two young men and two young women sort themselves out into couples—but not before they form first one love triangle, and then another. Also in the woods, the king and queen of fairyland, Oberon and Titania, battle over custody of an orphan boy; Oberon uses magic to make Titania fall in love with a weaver named Bottom, whose head is temporarily transformed into that of a donkey by a hobgoblin or “puck,” Robin Goodfellow. Finally, Bottom and his companions ineptly stage the tragedy of “Pyramus and Thisbe.” This edition includes: -Freshly edited text bas
£9.49
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers The Big Picture Who Killed Hollywood and Other
Book SynopsisTHE BIG PICTURE
£13.59
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Shakespeare and London A Dictionary
Book SynopsisShakespeare and London: A Dictionary is a topographical reference book of all the London locations, allusions and colloquial terms mentioned in Shakespeare's complete works. For many years critics have argued that Shakespeare did not engage with the city in which he lived, however London''s topography and life is present in all his work, in its language, its locations and its characters. This dictionary offers a concise and fascinating insight into the city''s impact on the Shakespearean imagination and provides readers with a wide-ranging guide to early modern London, its contemporary meanings and the ways in which Shakespeare employs these throughout the canon.Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Series Editor's Preface List of Abbreviations List of Headwords Introduction A-Z Bibliography Index
£114.00
Hal Leonard Corporation Theatre/Theory/Theatre: The Major Critical Texts
Book SynopsisAvailable for the First Time in Paperback!ÞFrom Aristotle's ÊPoeticsÊ to Vaclav Havel the debate about the nature and function of theatre has been marked by controversy. Daniel Gerould's landmark work ÊTheatre/Theory/TheatreÊ collects history's most influential Eastern and Western dramatic theorists ä poets playwrights directors and philosophers ä whose ideas about theatre continue to shape its future. In complete texts and choice excerpts spanning centuries we see an ongoing dialogue and exchange of ideas between actors and directors like Craig and Meyerhold and writers such as Nietzsche and Yeats. Each of Gerould's introductory essays shows fascinating insight into both the life and the theory of the author. From Horace to Soyinka Corneille to Brecht this is an indispensable compendium of the greatest dramatic theory ever written.
£17.09
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC American Moor Modern Plays
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewSpellbinding….a Must See! …. Anyone who covers it for a living has to believe that theater is among the necessities of existence. Otherwise, why bother? There are plenty of other ways to fill the nights and weekends. But some plays, and some performances, take the idea of necessary to a deeper level. In those rare cases, the critic’s adjectival exhortation “must-see’’ can almost border on the literal. “American Moor’’ is one such play and one such performance. * Boston Globe *After American Moor, you may not see Shakespeare — and a lot of roles played by black actors — quite the same way. * Washington Post *I have spent my life thinking about Shakespeare, but that did not prepare me for the depth of thinking and feeling that this play provokes. * Michael Witmore, Director, The Folger Shakespeare Library *A witty, passionate, furious, and movingly intimate record of an African-American actor’s often unrequited love for Shakespeare. * New York Review of Books *Shakespeare’s plays have long been revised, reimagined, and retold to speak to a particular historical situation and purpose, including anti-racist activism … American Moor embodies this innovative spirit, resonating powerfully for the twenty-first century. * Shakespeare *
£11.99
Union Square & Co. Tempest No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student
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 Tempest. 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 behave
£9.49
CONNELL PUBLISHING LTD The Connell Short Guide To Samuel Beckett's
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£6.93
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Julius Caesar: Third Series
Book SynopsisThis edition of one of Shakespeare's best known and most frequently performed plays argues for Julius Caesar as a new kind of political play, a radical departure from contemporary practice, combining fast action and immediacy with compelling rhetorical language, and finding a clear context for its study of tyranny in the last decade of the reign of Elizabeth 1. The richly experimental verse and the complex structure of the play are analysed in depth, and a strong case is made for this to be the first play to be performed at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.'Daniell's edition is a hefty piece of serious scholarship that makes a genuine contribution.'Eric Rasmussen, University of Nevada at Reno, Shakespeare Survey'This is a stimulating new look at a play which is too often exhibited in a critical museum.' Paul Dean, English Studies
£10.63
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Merchant Of Venice
Book SynopsisThe Merchant of Venice is perhaps most associated not with its titular hero, Antonio, but with the complex figure of the money lender, Shylock. The play was described as a comedy in the First Folio but its modern audiences find it more problematic to categorise. The vilification of Shylock 'the Jew' can be very uncomfortable for a post-holocaust audience and debates continue as to whether Shakespeare's portrayal of this complex man is sympathetic or anti-semitic. John Drakakis' comprehensive introduction traces the stage history of the figure of the Jew and looks boldly at twenty-first century issues surrounding it. He also explores other themes of the play such as father/daughter relations, the power of money and the forceful character of Portia, to offer readers an energetic, original and revelatory reading of this challenging play.
£9.99
CONNELL PUBLISHING LTD The Connell Guide To Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
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£8.54
Greenwich Exchange Ltd Student Guide to Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of
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£11.99
Granta Books Coda
Book SynopsisCoda is Simon Gray's powerful account of the year in which he struggled to come to terms with terminal lung cancer. Darkly comic depictions of the medical team are set against joyful accounts of sunlit days with his beloved wife, Victoria. Written with exceptional candour and a poignant reluctance to leave this world behind, Simon Gray's Coda is as life-affirming as it is heart-rending. Sadly, Coda was published posthumously: Gray died in August 2008.Trade Review'I can't imagine a finer book for a writer to go out on - An absolutely extraordinary achievement' Front Row 'Few books have ever been more immediate, more rooted in the present tense' Mail on Sunday 'The effortless, rambling style he's accidentally found himself cultivating here reaches its zenith - He finishes not in ugly mid-sentence but clearly, cleanly, perfectly. A casually perfect but unexpectedly painful early full stop to a life and a mind for which we are immeasurably richer' Observer 'His beautifully written, addictively readable, unsparingly honest journals are his greatest achievement - and will survive the test of time' Telegraph 'Those many readers who have enjoyed the three previous volumes of The Smoking Diaries will find this one every bit as compelling: less funny, despite frequent shafts of wit, considerably more moving' Scotsman 'Mordantly funny, unsparing of himself and others, desperately brave, it is both compulsive and agonising to read' Sunday Telegraph An Evening Standard 'Best Book of 2008': 'Wittily digressive, deeply humane and excruciatingly honest' 'An effortlessly astonishing piece of writing that established Gray without a doubt among the great autobiographers' Literary Review
£7.59
Stanford University Press Shakespeare's Mad Men: A Crisis of Authority
Book SynopsisThis book is about a mad king and a mad duke. With original and iconoclastic readings, Richard van Oort pioneers the reading of Shakespeare as an ethical thinker of the "originary scene," the scene in which humans became conscious of themselves as symbol-using moral and narrative beings. Taking King Lear and Measure for Measure as case studies, van Oort shows how the minimal concept of an anthropological scene of origin—the "originary hypothesis"—provides the basis for a new understanding of every aspect of the plays, from the psychology of the characters to the ethical and dialogical conflicts upon which the drama is based. The result is a gripping commentary on the plays. Why does Lear abdicate and go mad? Why does Edgar torture his father with non-recognition? Why does Lucio accuse the Duke in Measure for Measure of madness and lechery, and why does Isabella remain silent at the end? In approaching these and other questions from the perspective of the originary hypothesis, van Oort helps us to see the ethical predicament of the plays, and, in the process, makes Shakespeare new again.Trade Review"This is criticism of the highest order, whose long, careful readings of King Lear and Measure for Measure are in dialogue with the finest readers of Shakespeare for the past century." —Blair Hoxby, Stanford University"A rigorous yet highly readable attempt to understand Shakespeare and neoclassical drama in general in new terms, Shakespeare's Mad Men demonstrates in admirable detail the analytical power of generative anthropology wielded by a powerful intelligence."—Eric Gans, University of California, Los Angeles"Attentive to both the ruses of bad faith and the truths disclosed by Shakespeare's language, van Oort addresses our human predicament as symbol-making creatures whose search for love is troubled by the ceaseless drive for mastery."—Julia Reinhard Lupton, University of California, Irvine"van Oort's reading is nothing less than a stunning provocation."—Amir Khan, Shakespeare Quarterly"[R]eaders... will find value and pleasure in van Oort's compelling readings, and his clear style makes complex concepts pleasingly accessible."—Molly G. Yarp, Times Literary Supplement"Eminently readable, Shakespeare's Man Men attempts to engage and explain the larger questions the plays raise, particularly why characters behave the way they do and make the choices they do. The readings are original and offer exciting ways to engage with the plays. Highly recommended."—K. J. Wetmore Jr., CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The King's Last Potlatch 2. The Judge, the Duke, His Wife, and Her Lover Conclusion
£23.39
Hackett Publishing Co, Inc Doctor Faustus: With Related Texts
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
£13.49
Oneworld Publications The Great White Bard
Book SynopsisShakespeare: increasingly irrelevant or lone literary genius of the Western canon?Trade Review'Vivid… a thorough analysis but also a kind of love letter… Karim-Cooper sees Shakespeare as holding a mirror to this society, with his plays interrogating live issues around race, identity and the colonial enterprise. Her critique is at its most absorbing and original when she shows how complicated his approach was… Her arguments come to feel essential and should be absorbed by every theatre director, writer, critic, interested in finding new ways into the work.’ —Guardian'Anyone reading the contents page alone of Dr Farah Karim-Cooper's The Great White Bard will have their minds blown. Dive in and your whole cultural landscape will be refreshed and reframed. A book of great scholastic yet accessible detail, demanding that we pay attention with new understanding to the work of our greatest playwright, to the staging of that work and its unacknowledged impact on the 21st-century lives of all of us who unwittingly absorb its cultural norms – for good and ill. A challenging, riveting read, The Great White Bard reminds us how powerful the stories we tell can be on our lives.' —Adjoa Andoh'This glorious book… is insightful, passionate, piled with facts and has a warm, infectious love for theatre and Shakespeare running through every chapter. Thank you to Farah Karim-Cooper for underlining the fact that we all have a right to claim Shakespeare’s work.' —Adrian Lester CBE'Farah Karim-Cooper has long been at the center of conversations about race in Shakespeare’s plays, drawing on her experiences as a woman of color, director of research and education at the Globe Theatre, and Shakespeare professor. The Great White Bard is a powerful and illuminating result of this sustained engagement, grappling with how Shakespeare can be reimagined as a playwright who speaks to (and is spoken by) those excluded from the dominant culture. Historically grounded, engagingly written, richly informed by stage history, and always attuned to the "form and pressure" of our time, The Great White Bard could not be more timely.' —James Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare'There are plenty of books on Shakespeare: but this one is different. This is Shakespeare as we’ve (most of us) never been willing to see him – and the works emerge from the analysis as newly complicit, powerful and yet recuperative.' —Emma Smith, author of Portable Magic'The Great White Bard is conscientiously constructed and vitally important. The book is pitched perfectly for the general reader, and it provides clear and compelling models for how to read Shakespeare with race in mind.' —Ayanna Thompson, author of Blackface'The Great White Bard contributes to an essential discussion on Shakespeare and race, one that must include literary scholars, historians, etymologists, audiences and, yes, even actors. Let us all debate and think critically about the issues Karim-Cooper raises. At the end of the day, such tough love can guide us to truly love Shakespeare.' —New York Times'Suffused with genuine passion.' —The Times‘She concludes… “We all have the right to claim the Bard.” Amen to that.’ —Daily Telegraph'Insightful… Karim-Cooper’s chapter on Antony and Cleopatra tackles with clarity and energy the question of why the Queen of Egypt's racial difference, though flagged in the text, has been consistently ignored in the play’s production history until quite recently… Karim-Cooper provides a good discussion of Othello and a helpfully provocative reading of The Tempest.' —New Statesman‘[The book] opens up territory that [Karim-Cooper] explores with unfailing dexterity. Karim-Cooper thus puts herself in dialogue with much of the excellent work on Shakespeare and race published over the past 30 years. Still, the examination of Shakespearean drama through the lens of race has seldom been achieved with the verve, clarity and attention to textual detail that she displays here. Her love for the plays is everywhere apparent.’ —Prospect'Farah Karim-Cooper's analysis comes from a wide and fascinating perspective. This is an accessible yet scholarly book guiding the reader through essential questions about race, gender and so much more in Shakespeare’s plays. It is personal, refreshing and necessary. She has helped me reframe and understand Shakespeare in a different way. Read it and learn!' —Lolita Chakrabarti OBE'The Great White Bard is essential reading for teachers, students, practitioners and artists. It makes clear why the exploration of Shakespeare’s plays must expose the 400-year-old cultural attitudes contained in them if we are to discover their real relevance and resonance. Farah Karim-Cooper has written an important, illuminating and accessible work that invites our active participation in debate about the plays; to interpret and interrogate them, not to venerate. It belongs in every Shakespeare classroom.' —Jacqui O’Hanlon, Director of Learning, Royal Shakespeare Company‘A bracing and illuminating read.’ —The Bookseller'The rigorous and nuanced analysis stimulates, and Karim-Cooper’s evenhanded approach refuses to excuse Shakespeare’s racism while insisting that his plays still have much to offer modern audiences. This is a vital contribution to the shelf on Shakespeare.' —Publishers Weekly, starred review'Illuminating both words and performance – [The Great White Bard is] an essential addition to Shakespeare studies.' —Kirkus, starred review
£19.80
Yale University Press Second Chances
Book Synopsis
£19.00
HarperCollins Publishers Mad about Shakespeare Life Lessons from the Bard
Book SynopsisEnlightening, moving' SIR IAN MCKELLEN From the acclaimed and bestselling biographer Jonathan Bate, a luminous new exploration of Shakespeare and how his themes can untangle comedy and tragedy, learning and loving in our modern lives.Trade Review‘Many of us are mad about Shakespeare, whether as audience, actor or scholar. Jonathan Bate represents us all in his enlightening, moving report of his own personal “madness”. Reading it is an education’Sir Ian McKellen ‘A startlingly original journey into the soul of Shakespeare by one of his greatest living interpreters’Sir Anthony Seldon ‘Jonathan Bate’s Mad About Shakespeare offers a series of moving lessons in the complex grammar of life. Speaking as student and teacher, son, husband, father and dramaturge, Bate produces a work of significant cultural and familial history that runs through the language and scenery of Shakespeare. Tying and untying knots, Bate asks how we might live alongside literature as a source of knowledge, comfort and hope.Shakespeare’s expansive plots and wise conceits offer extra space and time in which to live and breathe in the face of emergency; a literary bloodline offering wisdom, insight and consolation’Sally Bayley ‘An encouraging and welcome reminder of the importance of reading and talking about reading with young people … I hope lots of English teachers will read it and take heart’Dr Katy Ricks, Chief Master of King Edwards School ‘Ranges elegantly over a range of literary figures … A very readable account of the thrill of discovering literature … It is a touchingly reticent and romantic book’Literary Review
£10.44
Not Stated David Ireland Plays 1 Half a Glass of Water The
Book Synopsis'Playwright David Ireland challenges people to draw lines between what they find funny and what they find outrageous' (Sydney Morning Herald) This first collection of plays by David Ireland brings together three of his most successful hits that have enjoyed numerous productions around the world alongside two previously unpublished plays: Half a Glass of Water: 'The dialogue is brutal and tender, horrific and humorous ... this is a tough, challenging work, undercut by Ireland's trademark black humour, which asks questions of what a successful post-conflict society looks like.' (Independent) The End of Hope: 'A freewheeling, majestically entertaining, all-too-brief hour that touches on everything from religion and identity to body dysmorphia' (Times) Cyprus Avenue: 'The most shocking play on the London stage ... a blackly comic examination of sectarian hatred and a subversive drama that has never been more relevant' (Gu
£18.99
Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies,US Henry VIII
Book SynopsisTable of ContentsAct 1Act 2Act 3Act 4Act 5
£9.46
Union Square & Co. TLDR Shakespeare
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.
£11.69
Yale University Press The Elizabethan Mind
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
£23.75
Yale University Press Take Arms Against a Sea of Troubles
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
£19.00
Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies,US Richard III
Book SynopsisPlaywright Migdalia Cruz breathes new life intoRichard III. Nuyorican playwright Migdalia Cruz unpacks and repositions Shakespeare'sRichard IIIfor a twenty-first-century audience. She presents a contemporary English verse translation, faithfully keeping the poetry, the puns, and the politics of the play intact, with a rigorous and in-depth examination ofRichard IIIthe man, the king, the outsiderwho is still the only English king to have died in battle. In the Wars of the Roses, his Catholic belief in his country led to his slaughter at Bosworth's Field by his Protestant rivals. In reimagining this text, Cruz emphasizes Richard III's outsider statusexacerbatedby his severe scoliosis, which twisted his spineby punctuating the text with punk music from 1970s London. Cruz's Richard is no one's fool or lackey. He is a new kind of monarch, whose dark sense of humor and deep sense of purpose leads his charge against the society which never fully accepted him because he looked different.
£7.60
Random House USA Inc Hamnet
Book Synopsis
£14.41
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Red
Book SynopsisSmart and scintillating. Red deftly conjures what most plays about artists don''t: The exhilaration of the act. The New YorkerUnder the watchful gaze of his young assistant and the threatening presence of a new generation of artists, Mark Rothko takes on his greatest challenge yet: to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting.A moving and compelling account of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century whose struggle to accept his growing riches and praise became his ultimate undoing.Nominated for 7 Olivier Awards (2009) and winner of 6 Tony Awards (2010) including Best New Play, Red is published in Methuen Drama''s Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Michael Grandage.Trade ReviewA fresh, exciting portrait of a brilliant mind. * Ben Brantley, The New York Times *Smart and scintillating. Red deftly conjures what most plays about artists don't: The exhilaration of the act. * The New Yorker *Plays about painters are fraught with difficulty. Either the hero preaches about art without practicing it, or the Bohemian lifestyle supersedes the work. But John Logan's play about Mark Rothko overcomes these obstacles with finesse... It's a measure of the play's success that it makes you want to rush out and renew acquaintance with Rothko's work.' * Michael Billington, The Guardian *
£10.44
