Shakespeare: A Complete Introduction

Michael Scott

• Publisher: Teach Yourself
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781473612785
• eBook ISBN: 9781473612792
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Shakespeare Drama
• Index: Literature

Your complete introduction to Shakespeare
William Shakespeare has been hailed as one of the greatest thinkers of all time, one of the world's finest artists, poets and dramatists. Shakespeare: A Complete Introduction introduces and explains the plays by looking at how they work, taking you on a journey through the genres of comedy, history and tragedy. The best known and most popular plays are discussed in detail and even plays in which Shakespeare may have had only the briefest creative and collaborative interest as a writer, get at least a mention. With material on his poetry and discussions on aspects of his life too, this truly is a complete introduction to Shakespeare.'A very lively and enthusiastic introduction to the full range of Shakespeare's plays' John Drakakis, Professor of English, University of Stirling'A masterpiece of the genre, written as it is with passion, without condescension, without jargon, thoughtful and open to changing critical theories, but always returning to the plays themselves, plays that fully reveal themselves most in performance.' Martin Wine, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Title
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Contents 
• Preface
• 1 Releasing Shakespeare
• 2 The framing of Shakespearean comedy: The Comedy of Errors (1594)
• 3 Critical perspectives 1: Neoclassical and Romantic approaches
• 4 A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) and Romeo and Juliet (1595–6)
• 5 Shakespeare’s poetic and theatrical language
• 6 Love’s Labour’s Lost (1595) and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1591–2)
• 7 Living up to its title: As You Like It (1599–1600)
• 8 Twelfth Night; or, What You Will (1601)
• 9 Critical perspectives 2: Theatrical Influences on Shakespeare in performance and interpretation
• 10 Much Ado About Nothing (1598–9) and The Taming of the Shrew (1589–92?)
• 11 The Merchant of Venice (1596–8)
• 12 Critical perspectives 3: Reading history, writing history and the English history plays
• 13 The English history plays 1: The Henry VI plays (1591–2); Richard III (1592–4); King John (1595–7)
• 14 The English history plays 2: Richard II (1595–6)
• 15 The English history plays 3, plus a comedy: 1 Henry IV (1596–7); 2 Henry IV (1597–8); Henry V (1599); and The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597–1601)
• 16 Critical perspectives 4: Tragedy – some modern critical challenges; Titus Andronicus (1591–2)
• 17 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1600–1601)
• 18 Othello (1604)
• 19 King Lear (1605–6)
• 20 Macbeth (1606)
• 21 Critical perspectives 5: Searching for and interpreting the text
• 22 Greeks and Romans 1: Timon of Athens (1605) and Troilus and Cressida (1601–2)
• 23 Greeks and Romans 2: Julius Caesar (1599); Antony and Cleopatra (1606–7); Coriolanus (1608)
• 24 Critical perspectives 6: Some ‘isms’; a glossary; and selected biographies
• 25 All’s Well That Ends Well (1605) and Measure for Measure (1604)
• 26 Cymbeline (1609–10) and a note on the poems
• 27 The Tempest (1611) and the collaborative plays: Henry VIII (1613); The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613–4); Pericles (1608); and The Shakespeare Apocrypha
• 28 The Winter’s Tale (1610–11)
• Conclusion
• Appendices
• Copyright