Shakespeare

[gmw]

I've never had much luck with plays of any sort, I'm too conscious of reading the directions etc to really get into the story.

I remember trying to study Shakespeare at school and being totally underwhelmed ... until, very late in high school, we finally got an English teacher that could read. This was a man that could even make Chaucer comprehensible to high school students (albeit in small does, we did still have short attention spans after all ), he was quite brilliant!

That was when I worked out that some things are not intended to be read, they are intended to be performed. To hear this teacher read any part was to hear it come alive, to hear a fellow student take up a corresponding role was to cringe. I do keep a copy of Shakespeare on the shelf - and an ebook or two around because they are easier to search for particular quotes etc - but rarely try to read them. For best effect you need someone that can perform the language so that the rhythms work, but also so that it is not overtly obvious that they are trying to read in rhythm (too many make it all sound so forced as to be painful).

But that's me. Obviously some manage to read plays and enjoy them, maybe one day I'll discover that talent.

[Rizla]

If you find Shakespeare hard to penetrate, I recommend the Barron's versions called either Simply Shakespeare or Shakespeare Made Easy (not to be confused with the study notes of the same name). These have the original text and the modern text side by side.

The only down side is without annotations, you miss a lot of the historical references.

For beginners, I recommend A Midsummer Night's Dream. This is very funny and easy to get into. Macbeth is pretty easy to. Hamlet is the best, but possibly hard... I don't know why, but 12th Night left me bored.

[jgray]

Not being satisfied with the available PD offerings, I decided to look at "The Norton Shakespeare". This seems to be a highly recommended annotated version of all the plays and sonnets.

While looking online for pricing, I found that Norton was available as a single very thick hardback or as two thinner paperbacks. I was going to get the two volume paperback set, as it was not only less expensive, but the pages are thicker than the hardback. The best price I found for the paperback set was $60 shipped.

One frustrating thing about this book is that nowhere online could I find any excerpts. I wanted to make sure that this version used the modern spellings. This fact was not mentioned anywhere.

To settle the question of old/modern spellings, I visited the local Barnes and Noble. The sales person was very helpful. He thought he had a copy, but didn't know if it was in paperback or hardback. It wasn't even on the shelf. After searching the stock room, he returned with the hardback edition, which was the only copy in stock. It was $75. Opening the book, I did find that Norton uses modern spellings.

After some discussion with the sales person, he told me he could match the online B&N price. For some reason, their online price was only $50 for the hardback. I still would have preferred the two volumes in paperback, but for the price, I walked out with the hardback.

I am not too deep into the book yet, but I do like the numerous annotations in the right column and the additional pages of information. Other than having a three inch thick book to deal with, my only real complaint is the small text size, which is necessary to keep the page count to just over 3400.

For the curious, the body text is 9pt, the annotations and footnotes are 8pt. The line numbers (every five lines) are 7pt. As you can see (or not, as in this case) the text is rather small.

This last point (no pun intended) brings up another problem with an otherwise excellent book. I looked everywhere, but this book does not seem to be available in ebook form. A book of this size would have been much preferred as an ebook. Considering the formatting nesessary for the annotations, epub probably would not have worked well. However, I would have gladly welcomed a PDF version. Not only would it weigh less, I would be able to zoom in to make things more readable.

A word of caution to those looking to buy the paperback edition. There are several different paperbacks, with different compilations. What I wanted was the two volume set of "early plays" and "later plays". Other books have the plays broken into genre (tragedy, comedy, history, etc.). If you buy them by genre, you have to buy more books to get all the plays, thus costing more. This is all very confusing and poorly explained in the online descriptions. One further note: the second edition of Norton was just published in 2008. That is the edition I bought.

Joe

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by crich70

Lawrence Oliver's Hamlet made way back in 1948 is one of my favorites. It was one of the first video tape productions I believe. Long before home units were even conceived of. And still as fresh today as the day it was shot (IMO). And there was Orson Welles MacBeth as well which was well done I think. Not sure how many of the plays have ever been put on film or video but there have been a few good ones I think.

Now, when it comes to astonishing Shakespearean acting, one is left speechless following a viewing of the unbelievable performance Keanu Reeves made in Branagh's film production of Much Ado About Nothing. If the playing's the thing, it's also aptly named ... and this ain't no rose, no matter how fondly told.

[crich70]

I saw it yesterday at Amazon now as well.
I have to catch up on my reading, but my copy is on my list of books to read soon.

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Everyone who asked for a copy of 'Shakespare's Will' should have it by now, apart from a couple who sent me an MR PM but forgot to include their email address. Just drop an email to ntmarrATbewrite.net (use the @ sign) and I'll send the book by return in the format of your choice. The offer's still open to all, by the way. Happy reading. Neil

[neilmarr]

A well reasearched, interesting and fun take, Crich. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed editing it and adding some end-notes of my own. Cheers. Neil

[CharlieBird]

Joe, you might want to take a look at no sweat Shakespeare
http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com

I bookmarked it sometime ago w/the intention of making a real effort to read the plays and maybe understand them better. Haven't found time but this thread has inspired me to do so.

I have a bunch of different plays I've downloaded from different sites but I just found this:
http://download.cnet.com/The-Complet...-10908984.html

I installed it and don't know if I'll use it or not but it has all 38 plays in a reader format w/search and note taking.

I'll be watching to see what you think of Shakespeare After All.
d

[jgray]

Originally Posted by CharlieBird

Joe, you might want to take a look at no sweat Shakespeare
http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com

I'll be watching to see what you think of Shakespeare After All.
d

That site looks like a good resource. I've bookmarked it.

See posting 25 in this thread for my impressions of Shakespeare After All. Now that I have The Norton Shakespeare, I don't know if I would have also bought Shakespeare After All. But since I bought it on a free gift card, I don't regret having the additional resource. It is well written.

Joe

[januaryman]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The best annotated Shakespeare is, IMHO, the Arden Shakespeare. I have the entire series as paper books; they aren't available as ebooks unfortunately.

I second that opinion, and have the whole Arden shooting match in paperbacks, found in used condition on eBay - it arrived after a week packaged in a huge box - most were in good to new condition.

That said, I sometimes spend so much time reading the notes that I lose the flow of the play and language. I used to read bare Bard on my iPod Touch while I traveled, and still enjoyed it.