FireFly

Table of Contents

Foreword

Shakespeare for All Time

The World Before Shakespeare
Shakespeare the Man
Canonical Works
Shakespeare or Not?
Language of the Soul
A Universal Phenomenon
Shakespeare's Enduring Appeal

The Plays

The Histories
Henry VI, Part 1
Henry VI, Part 2
Henry VI, Part 3
Richard III
Richard II
King John
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 2
Henry V
Henry VIII

The Comedies
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Comedy of Errors
The Taming of the Shrew
Love's Labor's Lost
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Merchant of Venice
The Merry Wives of Windsor
As You Like It
Much Ado about Nothing
Twelfth Night
All's Well That Ends Well
Measure for Measure

The Tragedies
Titus Andronicus
Romeo and Juliet
Julius Caesar
Hamlet
Troilus and Cressida
Othello
King Lear
Macbeth
Antony and Cleopatra
Timon of Athens
Coriolanus

The Romances
Pericles
Cymbeline
The Winter's Tale
The Tempest
The Two Noble Kinsmen

The Poetry

The Poems
Venus and Adonis
The Rape of Lucrece
The Passionate Pilgrim
The Phoenix and Turtle
A Lover's Complaint

The Sonnets
Introduction
Themes, Allusions, and Imagery
Significance and Influence

Reference

Timeline
Further Reading
Glossary
Index
Acknowledgments

Foreword

Nearly four hundred years after his death in 1616, Shakespeare still speaks to us. His plays are a global phenomenon, on both stage and screen, and his poems are some of the best known in the English language. Not only does he speak to us, he puts words in our mouths. Almost everyone has heard or quoted, "To be or not to be," or "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" Beyond the words, of course, lies the world of characters he created, with all their desires, flaws, and contradictions. Delighting to observe them, we are led to ask questions about ourselves and our world.

Now, perhaps more than ever, people are seeking to find out about the man who fashioned those words and those characters, and how he related to the society for which he created them. Now, as much as ever, people are intensely interested in what Shakespeare has to tell us about the scope, pleasures, and challenges of human experience.

The aim of this book is, then, to offer an illuminating, companionable guide to the life and writings of the most famous of English dramatists. Drawing on some of the best current research, and written by a team of scholars from around the world, it focuses first on Shakespeare's life, and shows how he related to the Elizabethan and Jacobean literary world, especially to the world of the theater.

The book thereafter discusses each of Shakespeare's plays and all his non-dramatic verse. With the assistance of lavish illustrations and useful charts, each of Shakespeare's works is considered in terms of its main themes or preoccupations and its uses of imagery. Stage technique is of course taken into account, as is the survival of the plays in landmark -- particularly, recent -- productions for stage and screen. The account of every work examines both how it connects with events or concerns of Shakespeare's times and how it has something to say to our own. If it is true that Shakespeare still speaks to us, then this book seeks to help us hear more clearly what he is saying.

A.D. Cousins
Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia

 

Single-volume guides to Shakespeare will never go out of style...but they are not all created equal... The large-format The Shakespeare Encyclopedia is the most visually impressive, with full-color photographs from a variety of productions and sections devoted to Shakespeare himself, the plays, the poems, and reference tools... Entries on each play are not padded with extensive plot summaries, instead offering a condensed description with a longer interpretive essay by a Shakespearean scholar. The clearly written essays are designed for nonspecialists but touch on topics of current critical interest and are often supplemented with charts of character relationships and the length of speaking roles. This book should prove helpful for those coming to Shakespeare for the first time or for those who know him already and seek an attractive summary of contemporary ideas about the plays.
- Christopher Baker  American Reference Books Annual  2009

Thoughtfully conceived and attractively produced to appeal to a broad general audience, this abundantly illustrated book results from a collaborative effort of Shakespeare scholars under the leadership of A.D. Cousins.... The first 40 pages or so are devoted to Shakespeare's context and legacy, and the final section contains reference material--a timeline, further reading, glossary, and index. Within this structure the material is organized according to type of work: the plays (comedies, tragedies, romances), and the poetry (poems and sonnets). Individual works are treated in two to ten pages, with photos and other graphics, a plot summary, a listing of "dramatis personae," discussion of themes and context, a few quotes, and discussion of performance and adaptation. The sonnets are treated in a generalized discussion.
-   Book News  2010 02

This large book is loaded with pictures, tables, and all sorts of good extras. It begins with a brief history of Shakespeare's time and a brief biography. The rest of the book is devoted to his works, the plays, and the poetry. It belongs in the library collection because high school students need a book that relates the politics of the time to the literature they are studying. This book gives enough history to relate to the plays, but not so much as to overwhelm students. Each summary gives information so students can see the relationship between two plays. There are also references to modern variations of several plays. Overall, this will be a helpful book in the high school library. Teachers will love it because it presents information from several fields in one concise reference and students will love it because it has the information they need with lavish illustrations. Recommended.
- David Lininger  Library Media Connection  2010 05 01

Shakespeare's themes transcend time and place; though they do not dwell in our age...these characters and their plights continue to speak to our own hopes, desires, and experiences... This text is rich with historical context, as well as analyses of the English language and the social and literary worlds in which Shakespeare dwelled. This text is a must-have for any school library; accessible for students, librarians, and teachers alike, it provides far more than a simple overview of the writer and his work. In fact, it provides detailed histories and summaries of his major works and poems, including lists of characters, depictions of family trees, and analyses of dominant imagery, motifs, themes, and related quotes... Further, the entire text is beautifully constructed with thick, glossy pages and numerous illustrations, classical artwork, photographs, and stills from film adaptations and plays. The encyclopedia is both intellectually and aesthetically pleasing.
- Courtney Huse Wika  VOYA  2010 12