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Loading... The Norton Shakespeare: Based on the Oxford Edition (Second Edition) (Vol. 1: Early Plays and Poems)by William Shakespeare, Stephen Greenblatt (Editor)
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The attractive print and digital bundle offers students a great reading experience at an affordable price in two ways-a hardcover volume for their dorm shelf and lifetime library, and a digital edition ideal for in-class use. Students can access the ebook from their computer, tablet, or smartphone via the registration code included in the print volume at no additional charge. As one instructor summed it up, "It's a long overdue step forward in the way Shakespeare is taught." No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)822Literature English & Old English literatures English dramaLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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TITUS ANDRONICUS
***1/2
Shakespeare's first tragedy, and some say his worst play, makes up what it lacks in high poetry with base vengeance and nonstop bloodshed and gore. As tragic as a mangling highway accident, Shakespeare allows not a soul to be spared in this completely fabricated and historically inaccurate fall of Rome. I make it sound like this is a horrible read, but I underplay its clever turns and wordplay which abound throughout. If not Shakespeare's best play, that hardly means anything within the wider context of modern drama. It's bloody and witty in a way that few could pull off.
RICHARD II
****
On reading Richard's monologue in III.ii.140 two things occurred to me. The first was that this was by far the most deftly poetic monoluge I've encountered in our reading this semester. Richard is a character with great psychological depth that Shakespeare forges this through carefully crafted and emotive language, and this speaks to his development as a playwright. You don't see those dimensions in Titus, for example. The other thing that this monologue and the play as a whole demonstrates is a critique of the monarchy's claim to divine and infallible power. Richard is flawed and corrupt ruler who is usurped by another that is foreshadowed to be no better. I found it surprising that this play has a fairly detailed performance history from Shakespeare's day because of such connotations. Was the performance of the play utilized as critique in specific political contexts at later points perhaps? How were these received?