Shakespeare Histories

The Plantagenets reigned over England longer than any other family - from Henry II to Richard III. Four kings were murdered, two came close to being deposed, and the last - and most notorious, Richard III - was killed in a battle by rebels. Shakespeare wrote plays about six of them, further entrenching them in the national myth. Based on major contemporary sources and recent research, acclaimed historian Desmond Seward provides the first accessible overview of the whole extraordinary dynasty.

Here are 154 poems performed by by the wonderful Sir John Gielgud in this Shakepseare collection of the Sonnets.

Shakespeare's sonnets deal with such themes as the passage of time, love, beauty, and mortality. All but two of the poems were first published in a 1609 quarto entitled Shake-Speares Sonnets: Never before imprinted.

Power, excess and betrayal are played out in these tragedies that continue to hold modern resonance. Performed by an incredible array of the 20th century’s greatest actors, Marlowe alumni including Ian McKellen, Diana Rigg, Derek Jacobi and Prunella Scales can be heard in these recordings.

David Sterling Brown offers nothing less here than a wholesale deconstruction of whiteness in Shakespeare's plays, arguing that the 'white other' was a racialized category already in formation during the Elizabethan era—and also one to which Shakespeare was himself a crucial contributor.

Drawing on her knowledge as director, actor, and teacher, Packer traces the chronological evolution of Shakespeare's female characters and examines Shakespeare's own journey and growth as a writer from feckless misogynist in his youth to committed lover in his middle years to unrepentant feminist in his final years.

Clever Doctor Lily Fairfax is the youngest don at Cambridge... beautiful, too. But does she understand the meaning of love? Leaving her sheltered academic life for a long summer in Tuscany, she finds passion... but is this love or lust? Can it endure? Can she give up everything she has worked for and achieved for a new and different life? Intelligent enough to analyse her own psyche, she still struggles to find the reality that her inner soul is searching for... the complete happiness that only true love can give? '‘Do you think we will be able to think of something to do?’ Charlie ...

In 1612, William Shakespeare gave evidence in a court case at Westminster; it is the only occasion on which his actual spoken words were recorded. The case seems routine - a dispute over an unpaid marriage dowry - but it opens an unexpected window into the dramatist's famously obscure life. Using the court testimony as a springboard, acclaimed nonfiction writer Charles Nicholl examines this fascinating period in Shakespeare's life.

An exciting and authoritative study guide to Richard II in its theatrical, cultural and political contexts. Professor Hattaway's study places Richard II within the contexts of Shakespeare's life and of the strenuous political debates that were taking place at the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. It offers a commentary upon the unfolding action of the play, stressing possible alternative readings of the text, and noting how directors have made particular decisions about these. It ends with two shorter linked chapters on aspects of the play's critical traditions and on selected stage ...

Fugitives from the Queen’s cruel justice, Will, his father (tormented by his own failures) and his uncle (the brave and true Sir Robert) endeavor to flee England. The journey takes Will and his comrades to the distant rocky shores of Denmark following the sorcerer Prospero’s quest to locate Lapis Exillis, the Holy Grail. Dark forces rise as the witch Sycorax tries to snatch the precious mystical stone. Will experiences a tragic lost of a family member in the fight against evil, but vows to continue the quest. In sunny Milan, Will meets Leo, the young nephew of Leonardo da Vinci. The ...

One book above all others has transfixed connoisseurs for four centuries—a book sold for shillings in the streets of London, whisked to Manhattan for millions, and stored deep within the vaults of Tokyo. The book: William Shakespeare’s First Folio of 1623. Paul Collins, lover of odd books and author of the national bestseller Sixpence House, takes up the strange quest for this white whale of precious books.

The focus of the book is on Shakespeare's London, how it influenced his drama, and how he represents it on stage. Taking listeners on an imaginative journey through the city, the book moves both chronologically, from beginning to end of Shakespeare's dramatic career, and geographically, traversing London from west to east.

There are 83 copies of the First Folio in a vault beneath Capitol Hill - the world's largest collection. Well over 150 Indian movies are based on Shakespeare's plays - more than in any other nation. If current trends continue, there will soon be more high school students reading The Merchant of Venice in Mandarin Chinese than in early modern English. Why did this happen, and how? Ranging ambitiously across four continents and 400 years, Worlds Elsewhere is an eye-opening account of how Shakespeare went global.

Welcome to the George Inn near London Bridge; a cosy, wood-panelled, galleried coaching house a few minutes' walk from the Thames. Consider this: who else has made this their local over the last 600 years? Chaucer and his fellow pilgrims almost certainly drank in the George on their way to Canterbury. Shakespeare may have popped in from the nearby Globe, and we know that Dickens definitely did. Mail carriers changed their horses here, while sailors drank here before sailing.

How much do you know about the key role women played in shaping the theatre we all know and love today? Perhaps you know little about the women who made theatre what it is today, and you are searching for a book that will help you improve your knowledge of musicals and their history. Or maybe you already have a strong understanding of the history of Broadway musicals, and you are searching for a book that covers the biographies of women in theatre in great detail. The truth is women’s role in the rise of theatre is greatly underappreciated. That is, until now. Introducing The Wonderful ...

Here are the stories of nine people whose energy, imagination, courage, and determination changed the world.

If you want to discover the captivating history of the Renaissance, then pay attention.

Anne Boleyn has mesmerised the English public for centuries. Her tragic execution, orchestrated by her own husband, never ceases to intrigue. How did this courtier's daughter become the queen of England, and what was it that really tore apart this illustrious marriage, making her the whore of England, an abandoned woman executed on the scaffold? While many stories of Anne Boleyn's downfall have been told, few have truly traced the origins of her tragic fate.

In this witty, iconoclastic book, the bestselling author Fintan O’Toole examines four of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedies: Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear. He shows how their tragic heroes have been over-simplified and moulded to fit restrictive, conservative values, and restores the true heart and spirit of the classics.

Henry VIII folis a plot by the scheming Cardinal Wolsey and rejects his 20-year marriage with the tragic Katherine of Aragon. All the while he is keeping his wandering eye on the beautiful Anne Boleyn.

Unravel the history, themes, and language of Shakespeare's plays, poems, and sonnets with this beautiful guide to his life and works. Comedy and romance, history, and tragedy, Shakespeare's canon has it all. Some 400 years after they were written and first performed, his works remain fresh and relevant today. Shakespeare: his life and works is an accessible and lavish celebration of the Bard himself and his 39 plays, great sonnets, and narrative poems.