Shakespeare

This exquisitely illustrated and updated edition of Bill Bryson's best-selling biography of William Shakespeare takes the reader on an enthralling journey through Elizabethan England and the eccentricities of Shakespearean scholarship. Includes exclusive audio of Shakespeare's sonnets, read by Sir John Gielgud. Bill Bryson's biography of William Shakespeare pairs the most celebrated playwright in history with one of the most popular writers in the English language today. In this exquisitely illustrated new edition, the age of Shak... read more

A young man and woman meet by chance and fall instantly in love. But their families are bitter enemies, and in order to be together the two lovers must be prepared to risk everything. Set in a city torn apart by feuds and gang warfare, Romeo and Juliet is a dazzling combination of passion and hatred, bawdy comedy and high tragedy.

When Rosalind is banished by her uncle, who has usurped her father's throne, she flees to the forest of Arden where her exiled father holds court. There, dressed as a boy to avoid discovery, she encounters the man she loves now a fellow exile and resolves to remain in disguise to test his feelings for her. A gloriously sunny comedy, As You Like It is an exuberant combination of concealed identities and verbal jousting, reconciliations and multiple weddings.

A popular soldier and newly married man, Othello seems to be in an enviable position. And yet, when his supposed friend sows doubts in his mind about his wife's fidelity, he is gradually consumed by suspicion. In this powerful tragedy, innocence is corrupted and trust is eroded as every relationship is drawn into a tangled web of jealousies.

A young woman flees Athens with her lover, only to be pursued by her would-be husband and by her best friend. Unwittingly, all four find themselves in an enchanted forest where fairies and sprites soon take an interest in human affairs, dispensing magical love potions and casting mischievous spells. In this dazzling comedy, confusion ends in harmony, as love is transformed, misplaced, and ultimately restored.

The bitter, deformed brother of the King is secretly plotting to seize the throne of England. Charming and duplicitous, powerfully eloquent and viciously cruel, he is prepared to go to any lengths to achieve his goal and, in his skilful manipulation of events and people, Richard is a chilling incarnation of the lure of evil and the temptation of power.

Promised a golden future as ruler of Scotland by three sinister witches, Macbeth murders the king to ensure his ambitions come true. But he soon learns the meaning of terror - killing once, he must kill again and again, and the dead return to haunt him. A story of war, witchcraft and bloodshed, Macbeth also depicts the relationship between husbands and wives, and the risks they are prepared to take to achieve their desires. This book includes a general introduction to Shakespeare's life and the Elizabethan theatre, a separate i... read more

This is the first and only edition to be developed by and for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the world's leading Shakespeare theatre company. It is illustrated with photographs of performances chosen by RSC Directors. It is beautifully packaged, with clear, reader-friendly single-column page design on crisp white paper. It features outstanding on-page notes which explain words and phrases unfamiliar to a modern audience, including the slang, political references and bawdy humour often ignored or censored in competing editions. It i... read more

For two hundred years after Shakespeare's death, no one thought to argue that somebody else had written his plays. Since then dozens of rival candidates - including Sir Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford - have been proposed as their true author. "Contested Will" unravels the mystery of when and why so many people began to question whether Shakespeare wrote the plays (among them such leading writers and artists as Sigmund Freud, Henry James, Mark Twain, Helen Keller, Orson Welles, and Sir Derek Jacobi). Shakespeare scholar James ... read more

Part of "The New Penguin Shakespeare" series, this text looks at "Romeo and Juliet" with an introduction, a list of further reading, commentary and a short account of the textual problems of the play. The series is used and recommended by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The King of Britain, enraged by his daughter's disobedience in marrying against his wishes, banishes his new son-in-law. Having fled to Rome, the exiled husband makes a foolish wager with a villain he encounters there gambling on the fidelity of his abandoned wife. Combining courtly menace and horror, comedy and melodrama, Cymbeline is a moving depiction of two young lovers driven apart by deceit and self-doubt.

After squandering his wealth with prodigal generosity, a rich Athenian gentleman finds himself deep in debt. Unshaken by the prospect of bankruptcy, he is certain that the friends he has helped so often will come to his aid. But when they learn his wealth is gone, he quickly finds that their promises fall away to nothing in this tragic exploration of power, greed, and loyalty betrayed.

Leaving behind both home and beloved, a young man travels to Milan to meet his closest friend. Once there, however, he falls in love with his friend's new sweetheart and resolves to seduce her. Love-crazed and desperate, he is soon moved to commit cynical acts of betrayal. And comic scenes involving a servant and his dog enhance the play's exploration how passion can prove more powerful than even the strongest loyalty owed to a friend.

As children, Charles and Mary Lamb took great delight in exploring their benefactor's extensive library; as adults they began writing children's books together that also appealed to all generations. In "Tales of Shakespeare", they wished to bring their favourite plays to life for children too young to read and appreciate Shakespeare's work. This collection of twenty of Shakespeare's stories begins with "The Tempest", which explores themes of magic, power and reconciliation, and ends with "Pericles", "Prince of Tyre", an exotic play... read more

A beautifully brief, important and lasting portrait of a time which Shakespeare made his own. Shakespeare made his unique contribution to British and world culture in the midst of Elizabeth's great reign. Here, the circumstances of each play's composition are acutely described, and set within a masterful portrait of Shakespeare's England - its early capitalism, its court, its bursting population, and its epidemics, as well as its arts - including, of course, its theatre. An important, lasting, and concise companion to Shakespeare... read more

David West is a highly distinguished classicist and literary critic. Here, he explores the sonnets of Shakespeare. The application of the techniques of classical scholarship to the sonnets results in the one of the most impressive and delightful contributions to Shakespeare studies in recent years. At a time when our familiarity with Shakespeare's language is in decline, West restores the full force of the poems' meaning to non-specialist readers with an immediacy and power that will surprise and delight. The context of each poem, ... read more

The question of who wrote Shakespeare's plays has been the subject of furious debate among scholars for over the years. This book offers an answer and a plausible candidate, with all the qualities of a believable author.

This collection contains the texts of all Shakespeare's plays, including