FROM THE BLOG — SHAKESPEARE UNRAVELED
The Iconic First Folio Evolves into a Priceless Artifact
To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio, Oxford professor and scholar Emma Smith has revised and re-issued her 2016 study published by Oxford University Press, Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book. Unlike historians who have examined how Hemings and Condell (two of Shakespeare’s fellow King’s Men actors) came to produce a collection of Shakespeare’s plays alongside publishers Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, Smith delves into the reading and collecting habits of those who have bought and sold the First Folio since it debuted in 1623. Smith’s study “begins in the retail bookshop” where early buyers such as Edward Dering may have acquired his first copy. She exhaustively explores how the First Folio… Read More…
DECIPHERING SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS
Understanding Shakespeare’s plays is within everyone’s grasp. In DECIPHERING SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS, author Cynthia Greenwood goes "behind the curtain" to help anyone make sense of Shakespeare on the stage and on the page. This practical guide – nominated for PlayShakespeare’s 2008 Falstaff Award for Best Book– looks at Shakespearean drama as a highly social art form. The book takes a refreshing look at the essence of the Shakespearean spoken word by drawing on the expert perspectives of directors and actors. Read more...
“Greenwood’s informative and eminently readable guide to Shakespeare’s greatest plays [is] a wonderful new resource for Shakespeare beginners, actors, and those who already consider themselves well-schooled in the Bard. . . the book begins with several fascinating and well-researched chapters about Shakespeare’s life and the political and social world in which he and his theatergoers inhabited. …. Greenwood manages to convey the critical information needed to [for the reader to] get an understanding of this material in an easily readable and interesting way. . . What is most remarkable about Deciphering Shakespeare’s Plays is the way in which the author manages to provide a thoughtful, well-researched, and readable analysis of each of these twenty works in a relatively short chapter. [Overall] Deciphering Shakespeare’s Plays is a phenomenal resource for anyone who has an interest in Shakespeare.”
Ben Alper, Reviewer at PlayShakespeare.com
★ 2018 GOLD Winner for Reference
Foreword INDIES
Reflections on Medieval and Renaissance Thought
