Shakespeare’s Wife, Germaine Greer’s biography of Ann Hathaway has been placed on the short list for the 2008 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in Australia. The awards are a new initiative celebrating the contribution of Australian literature to that nation’s cultural and intellectual life.
It’s time to take stock of the latest crop of Shakespeare books. Some of the highlights from this past month include a new work by Shakespearean scholar David Bevington and the latest installments from the Oxford Shakespeare and the Arden Shakespeare, Third Series. Jess Winfield, the co-founder of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, has published his debut novel. And Naxos Audiobooks released a CD recording of the Donmar Warehouse’s award winning production of Othello.
It’s just a coincidence that the new Arden edition of “Timon of Athens” is being released at the same time that the Globe Theatre in London is premiering a major new production of the play. But both make the case that Timon, one of Shakespeare’s least read and least performed plays, still has something to offer to 21st century audiences. The latest Arden edition of “Timon of Athens,” was edited by Anthony B. Dawson and Gretchen E. Minton. In the opening pages of the volume, they warn readers, “Timon of Athens is a peculiar and to some an unpalatable play.”
Cover of of My Name is Will by Jess Winfield
As co-founder of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, Jess Winfield managed to distill the complete plays of Shakespeare down to a single, two-hour production. Now, in his first novel, “My Name Is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare,” Winfield has once again taken an unconventional [...]
The Royal Shakespeare Company is expanding its reach into publishing this fall with a new series of individual editions of Shakespeare’s plays. Last year, The Royal Shakespeare Company published the “RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works“ based on the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays. The new standalone series will be available in the Unites States on August 12, 2008 through Modern Libary [...]
“British writer Vanessa James may have written the longest book on Shakespeare with her 17-foot long fold out edition of “Shakespeare’s Genealogies.” James will be speaking on Shakespeare and his 1,000 characters at the Atheneum [in Nantucket, Massachusetts] on Sunday, July 6 at 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. ” Source: The Nantucket Independent
James is the chair of [...]
Shakespeare Criticism
Shakespeare as Children’s Literature: Edwardian Retellings in Words and Pictures (Paperback) -Available in the UK
by Velma Bourgeois Richmond (Author)
Publisher: McFarland & Co Inc
ISBN-10: 0786437812
ISBN-13: 978-0786437818
Shakespeare’s Literary Authorship (Hardcover) -Available in the UK
by Patrick Cheney (Author)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN-10: 0521881668
ISBN-13: 978-0521881661
Hamlet: Character Studies (Hardcover)
by Michael Davies (Author)
Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group
ISBN-10: 0826495915
ISBN-13: 978-0826495914
Shakespeare and European [...]
In a sign that the market for comic book versions of Shakespeare is growing, the UK publisher Classical Comics has announced that it will begin distributing graphic novel adaptations of “Henry V” and Macbeth” in the U.S. and Canada this fall. The comics were first released late last year in the UK. Now, Classical Comics [...]
Victoria A. Brownworth and Ishita Singh have written an article for “The Baltimore Sun” examining the pros and cons of manga comic book versions of Shakespeare’s plays. Brownworth and Singh asked teens and educators whether, “Manga is the way to bring Shakespeare or other classics to the masses of kids moaning at the thought of [...]
Since women were not allowed to perform on the Elizabethan stage, boy actors played some the most important roles created by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Juliet, Desdemona, Lady Macbeth and Beatrice are just a few of the characters first brought to life by young boys. Now, author John Pilkington is taking his readers into the [...]
