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Originally Posted by b0ned0me
If an awareness of Shakespeare is important, why not just watch and discuss a DVD of one of the many, many, many, many well-executed performances of the plays that have been staged over the years? He wrote his stuff to be performed and seen, not to be read. It's like studying The Simpsons by reading the scripts.
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Certainly, for a play it should be seen, and a DVD is a good way to do this. But there's still an awful lot to be learned from studying the use of language, and for that you need to read it.
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For Dickens etc. - unless you are explicitly interested in his WRITING I'm not sure there's much to be gained by reading Great Expectations or A Christmas Carol versus working through the films. The famous quotes and characters will all the there - because they are nowadays mostly famous from the films not the books.
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I completely disagree. A film - no matter how good - is no substitute for a book. It's a different medium entirely.