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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
Again, another school-related book
but this one i enjoyed greatly
maybe because they transformed Shakespeare's most amazing plays
into a novel-form .. which i like more :)
has some of Shakespeare's best work!
but this one i enjoyed greatly
maybe because they transformed Shakespeare's most amazing plays
into a novel-form .. which i like more :)
has some of Shakespeare's best work!
This is a very strange book. I read a lot of reviews that said what is the point of reading a book that is just a series of synopses of Shakespeare's plays? But for me the value was first of all when you strip the plays of the beautiful language and just look at the skeleton plots, you realize that most of his plays don't make a lot of sense. Why is it easier to enter a nunnery as in Pericles, Prince of Tyre than to search for your husband, who is a king, and see whether he is alive or not? (spoiler, he is) Secondly, you see the same elements repeated over and over again. Wives who enter nunneries the second they think their husbands are drowned. Women who on a freak decide to dress as men and become pages to this or that person. My husband and I used to look at each other when deciding whether to go to an NJ Shake production and say ok well have we seen that one before? Because the plots are so confusing and the actions of the characters so often random, we really couldn't remember.
And then there's Cymbeline, a problem play. It has so many nutty elements like the old head in a sack gambit; princes stolen from their cribs for no discernible reason; women who are supposed to be murdered but aren't; many dead ghosts appearing to explain things and then the Gods have to sort it all out in the end. When Jupiter showed up in the production we saw to fix everything a woman in the audience moaned out "Oh my god" and she spoke for all of us.
So the play synopses help you understand why you can't remember many of the individual plays -- because they simply don't make sense or because there are too many plays about twins or too many plays where women dress as men and then are revealed hilariously at the end to be women.
But the other service Charles and Mary Lamb is credulity. They justify all the insidious questionable elements that otherwise kind of slide by. Yes we all know Taming of the Shrew is seriously misogynistic, but so are many other plays. The anti semitism is everywhere. The Merchant of Venice is one thing but why do the witches in Macbeth use the liver of Jew? Where did they get it -- from a corpse or someone living? How many Jew livers do they have in their magical stores? So many creepy upsetting questions. And this was a book written for children, so the idea that a Jew is so bad that his liver is required along with other creepy bad things to make an evil potion and that children should be okay with that is interesting. Or the idea that these ideal perfect women who are beautiful and very very good are something girls should strive for is interesting. The morals that the Lambs pull out of these plays are horrifying, but they also sound like the morals that Shakespeare was really going for.
I am personally a huge fan of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and many of the other Shakespeare reimaginings I've read so that aspect of it doesn't bother me at all. Overall, I was glad I read it if only because it might help me keep All's Well That Ends Well and As You Like It straight. And I'm going to have my ears open for the inappropriate and unnecessary use of Jew's livers and other unlikely things in his plays from here on out.
And then there's Cymbeline, a problem play. It has so many nutty elements like the old head in a sack gambit; princes stolen from their cribs for no discernible reason; women who are supposed to be murdered but aren't; many dead ghosts appearing to explain things and then the Gods have to sort it all out in the end. When Jupiter showed up in the production we saw to fix everything a woman in the audience moaned out "Oh my god" and she spoke for all of us.
So the play synopses help you understand why you can't remember many of the individual plays -- because they simply don't make sense or because there are too many plays about twins or too many plays where women dress as men and then are revealed hilariously at the end to be women.
But the other service Charles and Mary Lamb is credulity. They justify all the insidious questionable elements that otherwise kind of slide by. Yes we all know Taming of the Shrew is seriously misogynistic, but so are many other plays. The anti semitism is everywhere. The Merchant of Venice is one thing but why do the witches in Macbeth use the liver of Jew? Where did they get it -- from a corpse or someone living? How many Jew livers do they have in their magical stores? So many creepy upsetting questions. And this was a book written for children, so the idea that a Jew is so bad that his liver is required along with other creepy bad things to make an evil potion and that children should be okay with that is interesting. Or the idea that these ideal perfect women who are beautiful and very very good are something girls should strive for is interesting. The morals that the Lambs pull out of these plays are horrifying, but they also sound like the morals that Shakespeare was really going for.
I am personally a huge fan of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and many of the other Shakespeare reimaginings I've read so that aspect of it doesn't bother me at all. Overall, I was glad I read it if only because it might help me keep All's Well That Ends Well and As You Like It straight. And I'm going to have my ears open for the inappropriate and unnecessary use of Jew's livers and other unlikely things in his plays from here on out.
I find Shakespeare’s stories pretty hit or miss. Here is my ranking based on the retellings in this book: Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, The Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Pericles, The Tempest, Measure For Measure, Hamlet, Timon Of Athens, Romeo and Juliet, Cymbeline, King Lear, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, The Winter’s Tale, Othello, The Merchant Of Venice, and lastly, The Taming Of The Shrew.
These stories are a perfect way to introduce children to Shakespeare’s plays. I loved this book when I was 10, and I’m convinced it’s one of the main reasons I was a Shakespeare fanatic well before I entered high school.
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
fast-paced
A very engaging overview of some of Shakespeare's plays. I appreciated how the synopses covered plot action yet still included key lines from each play in the dialogue. Be forewarned that, naturally, these synopses only have time to cover plot lines, not analyze themes. It is amazing how this was written over 200 years ago yet is done so well it is still intelligible and helpful today. Highly enjoyable read!
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My first acquaintance with Shakespeare, back when I was 16 years old. I was not so fond of it at the time, but later reading made me appreciate these beautiful prose stories much better!
Shakespeare is so difficult to wade through. Charles and Mary Lamb took difficult language and made the stories accessible enough that my 6 year old and I have enjoyed getting to know these classics. Of course, we used Barbie dolls and stuff animals to represent all the different characters so that we wouldn't get completely lost, but still... :)
I'm blessed enough to have my grandmother's 1923 edition published by The MacMillan Company. Not sure if the illustrations the same as the original first edition from 1807, but definitely representative of older books.
I'm blessed enough to have my grandmother's 1923 edition published by The MacMillan Company. Not sure if the illustrations the same as the original first edition from 1807, but definitely representative of older books.
I enjoyed reading this book. It contains most of Shakespeare's plays which are given as more than just summaries. They are tales which are give the whole story of the play, many time quoting parts of it, too.
Even though, I learnt the plot of all these plays that doesn't stop me from reading them myself. I think it actually helped me pick which ones I want to read first. For example, having read Hamlet and As You Like It already and currently reading Romeo and Juliet, I would like to read next The Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale, Much Ado About Nothing, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, Measure for Measure, The Comedy of Errors, and the Twelfth Night.
I am not sure I want to read Pericles, Prince of Tyre, and Macbeth so much. I guess the plays are good but for some reason the tales bored me. Also, I guess I don't want to read The Taming of the Shrew because I found so annoying the whole concept of the obedient wife.
As I said, the book was really nice. It can help people familiarize themselves with Shakespeare's plays. However, I think it's better if each tale is read before or after reading the play because if you read them all together, in the end you confuse yourself. For example,I have a hard time bringing to mind the plot of some tales.
Even though, I learnt the plot of all these plays that doesn't stop me from reading them myself. I think it actually helped me pick which ones I want to read first. For example, having read Hamlet and As You Like It already and currently reading Romeo and Juliet, I would like to read next The Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale, Much Ado About Nothing, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, Measure for Measure, The Comedy of Errors, and the Twelfth Night.
I am not sure I want to read Pericles, Prince of Tyre, and Macbeth so much. I guess the plays are good but for some reason the tales bored me. Also, I guess I don't want to read The Taming of the Shrew because I found so annoying the whole concept of the obedient wife.
As I said, the book was really nice. It can help people familiarize themselves with Shakespeare's plays. However, I think it's better if each tale is read before or after reading the play because if you read them all together, in the end you confuse yourself. For example,I have a hard time bringing to mind the plot of some tales.
