COMP WORKS

COMP WORKS
Author: William 1564-1616 Shakespeare
Publisher:
Total Pages: 486
Release: 2016-09-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781360788944

The History Plays

The History Plays
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Total Pages: 987
Release: 2014-10-28
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1466884363

It is part of Shakespeare's extraordinary contribution to our culture that, through his dramas based on English history, he played a unique part in forming our view of ourselves and our nationhood. From King John, in which through Magna Carta the king's absolute power was first limited and the people's freedoms assured, to--almost in his own lifetime--Henry VIII, Shakespeare wrote a series of ten plays portraying the course of history. It represents almost one third of his entire dramatic output. The overarching theme of these plays is the vital importance of the sovereign's legitimacy if the nation is to be stable. They cover revolutionary times and events--the deposition and murder of Richard II, the Wars of the Roses, the usurping of the throne by Richard III--but they always affirm the principle that a legitimate king, circumscribed by an agreed constituion, is the only proper guarantee of the nation's liberties. There are many other ways in which Shakespeare's patriotism has become definitive. In Henry V's St. Crispin's Day speech to the troops before Agincourt, for example, or John of gaunt's 'scepter'd isle' speech, a sense of Englishness is expressed which still lives in English minds today. The E;izabethan's pride in nationhood was perfectly embodied by Shakespeare, but the poetry of it transcends its own time. In this edition the history plays are brought together with a large group of illustrations which echo and amplify their themes. Gloriously vivid images of England's story are presented here, putting the great plays in a magnificent setting.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Other Tales

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Other Tales
Author: Lewis Carroll
Publisher: Chartwell Books
Total Pages: 570
Release: 2016-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0785834192

Delve into this stunning gift edition boasting the complete collection of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Other Tales and original, iconic illustrations by John Tenniel. The next edition in the Knickerbocker Classic series, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Other Tales features the writings of Lewis Carroll, the master of puns, puzzles, and fantasy that have been delighting adults and children alike for over 150 years.This volume is comprised of both Alice books (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass); the nonsense poems, including "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky"; the novels Sylvie and Bruno and Sylvie and Bruno Concluded; and essays and other miscellaneous writings of this prolific writer. For Lewis Carroll fans worldwide, this stunning gift edition with an elegantly designed cloth binding features a slipcase, ribbon marker, and a new introduction by Lori Campbell.

The Oxford Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Oxford Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
Total Pages: 290
Release: 1998-04-02
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0192834207

A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the best loved of Shakespeare's plays. It brings together aristocrats, workers, and fairies in a wood outside Athens, and from there the enchantment begins. In the introduction to this edition, Peter Holland pays particular attention to dreams and dreamers, and to Shakespeare's construction of a world of night and shadows. Both here and in his commentary he explores the play's extensive performance history to illustrate the wide range of interpretations of which it is capable. - ;A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the best loved of Shakepeare's plays. It brings together aristocrats, workers, and fairies in a wood outside Athens, and from there the enchantment begins. Simple and engaging on the surface, it is none the less a highly original and sophisticated work, remarkable for both its literary and its theatrical mastery. It is one of the very few of Shakespeare's plays which do not draw on narrative sources, which suggests that it reflects his deepest imaginative concerns to an unusual degree. In his introduction Peter Holland pays particular attention to dreams and dreamers, and to Shakespeare's construction of a world of night and shadows. Both here and in his commentary he explores the play's extensive performance history to illustrate the wide range of interpretations of which it is capable. -

The Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Shakespeare

The Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Shakespeare
Author: Bruce R. Smith
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: LITERARY CRITICISM
ISBN: 9781107057258

This transhistorical, international and interdisciplinary work will be of interest to students, theater professionals and Shakespeare scholars.

Mapping Shakespeare's World

Mapping Shakespeare's World
Author: Peter Whitfield
Publisher: Bodleian Library
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Cartography
ISBN: 9781851242573

The locations of Shakespeare s plays range from Greece, Turkey and Syria to England, and they range in time from 1000 BC to the early Tudor age. He never set a play explicitly in Elizabethan London which he and his audience inhabited, but always in places remote in space or time. How much did he and his contemporaries know about the foreign cities where the plays took place? What expectations did an audience have if the curtain rose on a drama which claimed to take place in Verona, Elsinore, Alexandria or ancient Troy? This fully illustrated book explores these questions, surveying Shakespeare s world through contemporary maps, geographical texts, paintings and drawings. The results are intriguing and sometimes surprising. Why should Love s Labour s Lost be set in the Pyrenean kingdom of Navarre? Was the Forest of Arden really in Warwickshire? Why do two utterly different plays like The Comedy of Errors and Pericles focus strongly on ancient Ephesus? Where was Illyria? Did the Merry Wives have to live in Windsor? Why did Shakespeare sometimes shift the settings of the plays from those he found in his literary sources? It has always been easy to say that wherever the plays are set, Shakespeare was really writing about human psychology and human nature, and that the settings are irrelevant. This book takes a different view, showing that many of his locations may have had resonances which an Elizabethan audience would pick up and understand, and it shows how significant the geographical background of the plays could be. "