Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Robin
Ben Crystal and his father David have done good work"replebeianizing" Shakespeare with their productions presented in the "original" English, or a very well-researched and documented facsimile thereof. No plummy RADA accents, just English as she was spoke, and the impact is quite surprising.
Shakespeare fits as a classic from the point of view of breadth of appeal, too. A LOT of posts in these threads apparently define "classics" as "books mandated by the US educational system". Shakespeare otoh has been adopted the world over, in many different cultures and languages. Zeffirelli, Kurosawa and Bhardwaj all represent very different literary and cultural traditions, but all three have produced interpretations of Shakespeare's work. That sort of universality suggest a true "classic" for me.
|
Of course. If old Bill isn't a classic, then no one is.
I read most of Shakespeare's work (translated into Estonian) during my "classics" period (early twenties). Some of it was pretty interesting. (To those of you who complain about the olde English, the Estonian translation has also been criticized as "too inaccessible".)