The Friendly Shakespeare: A Thoroughly Painless Guide to the Best of the BardWhat's so friendly about William Shakespeare? Haven't we all spent dutiful hours trying to make ourselves enjoy reading the Bard - with mixed results? The Friendly Shakespeare will change all that - it's a book that will delight anyone who ever shuddered at a soliloquy or nodded off the moment an actor said "doth". It's crammed full of solid but never simplistic information; it's intelligent without being overly intellectual, but with the depth to satisfy even those for whom reading Shakespeare is already a delight. The Friendly Shakespeare is written for people who think Shakespeare is, to quote Laurence Olivier, "not for the likes of them". It includes the major plays - histories, tragedies, comedies, and problem plays - but in between you'll find the real plot of Hamlet; raging controversies - like just who was Shakespeare - and was he actually Queen Elizabeth I? And who was the Dark Lady, anyway?; a look at Shakespeare on film - and a complete filmography; "the most insipid, ridiculous play I ever saw" (Samuel Pepys), and other quotes from Shakespeare haters (like Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw); Shakespeare's ambiguous sexuality - or, was the Bard gay?; a half-dozen ways to say "Scram!" in Elizabethan English, and a glossary of Shakespearean invective; a look at the Elizabethan stage; practical advice from actors on how to read Shakespeare aloud and curious Shakespeareana about the numerous cranks and eccentrics drawn to Shakespeare throughout the ages. Designed to make reading Shakespeare a pleasure, every page of The Friendly Shakespeare is complemented by illustrations, photographs, and sidebars. With infectious enthusiasm and breezy erudition, Norrie Epstein has written acompulsively readable, slightly irreverent book that - at last! - makes Shakespeare not only accessible, but irresistible. |
Contents
On Shakespeare | 1 |
Who Is Shakespeare? | 18 |
Some of Us Uncomfortable 27 Shakespeares Likeness | 30 |
Copyright | |
25 other sections not shown
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The Friendly Shakespeare: A Thoroughly Painless Guide to the Best of the Bard Norrie Epstein No preview available - 1994 |
Common terms and phrases
actor anti-Stratfordians Antony audience Available on video Bard become believe century character Cleopatra comedy comic Cordelia court critic David Suchet death Desdemona director drama Elizabethan English Falstaff father film Folio fool Globe Hamlet Henry Henry IV hero human Iago John Julius Caesar kill King Lear Lady Macbeth Lear's London look Love's Labour's Lost lovers means Merchant of Venice Midsummer Night's Dream modern movie murder never Olivier Olivier's Ophelia Othello performed play's playwright plot poems poet Prince production Prospero quarto Queen reveals revenge Richard Richard III role romantic Romeo and Juliet Rosalind scene scholars sexual Shake Shakespeare's plays Shrew Shylock Sonnets speare speare's speech stage story Stratford tale Tempest theatre thee there's thing thou tion Titus tragedy tragic Troilus and Cressida turn Twelfth Night William Shakespeare woman words writing wrote young