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Title: Shakespeare: For All Time by Stanley W. Wells ISBN: 0-19-516093-2 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: January, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Shakespeare: For All Time
Comment: Stanley Wells' latest book combines two genres: Biography (Shakespeare), and History of Theatre (Shakespeare). It is a history of Shakespeare from his time to ours, including Shakespeare's life and subsequent theatrical performance, but excluding critical analysis and interpretation of the plays.
The first 100 pages present a minimalist biography of the great playwright - "minimalist" in the sense that Wells sticks close to the (relatively few) facts that are known, or can be judiciously inferred, about Shakespeare's life, avoiding any temptation to pad out or speculate where the facts will not stretch. I found this approach to be refreshing and useful; it clarified for me what is actually known about Shakespeare's life, versus what has been inferred (or imagined) in other biographies.
The remainder of the book deals with the history of Shakespeare in performance, from the playright's time down to the present day, both in England and (in less detail) abroad. The history of the original texts of the plays, their theatrical revisions (or mutilations), the theatres, producers, actors, and critical and popular responses (including Hollywood) are discussed. Given the potentially unlimited scope of this topic, Wells' treatment is brief, selective, and to the point (for example, Joseph Papp's seminal New York "Shakespeare in the Park" is given one sentence in the book.)
To summarize, Wells has, a bit unusually, combined a brief but thoughtful biography of Shakespeare, with an introductory history of Shakespeare in performance. It's a fluently written and engaging overview, and as such, I think that many Shakespeare aficionados, as well as students of the history of theatre, will want to have it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Not for an age, but for all time
Comment: This is a physically beautiful volume. It's an oversize book printed on thick, glossy paper. It's filled with illustrations, both works of art and photographs, from Shakespeare's time to our own.
It's also packed with solid information that's easy to digest. Wells tells everything that's known about Shakespeare's life and speculates on additional possibilities. All that could have made a book by itself, but it's only about a third of this volume.
He also goes on to tell about the writing of the plays and their staging through the centuries. Something I've not seen elsewhere in one volume is a discussion of the many famous actors who've played the major Shakespearean roles.
Above all, this book goes down easily. It's perfectly easy to understand. There is no deep and esoteric Freudian, feminist, postmodern whatever discussion of individual plays or characters.
Rating: 5
Summary: Invaluable insights into the man and his plays
Comment: Shakespeare For All Time by Stanley Wells (Emeritus Professor of Shakespeare Studies, University of Birmingham, and General Editor of the Oxford Shakespeare series) is an inherently fascinating and extensively informative biography and analysis of the life and work William Shakespeare, piecing together all that is known and much that is speculated about one of the greatest playwrights who ever lived. Illustrated with both black-and-white and color plates, and written in down-to-earth terms for all students and enthusiasts of Shakespeare's work (regardless of their level of familiarity with the plays themselves), Shakespeare For All Time is an excellent read and an especially recommended addition for personal, academic, and community library systems for offering informed and invaluable insights into the man and his plays.
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Title: Shakespeare by Michael Wood ISBN: 0465092640 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Imagining Shakespeare by Stephen Orgel ISBN: 1403911770 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Pub. Date: 06 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: The Age of Shakespeare by FRANK KERMODE ISBN: 0679642447 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 03 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, Edith Grossman, Harold Bloom ISBN: 0060188707 Publisher: Ecco Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Washington's Crossing (Pivotal Moments in American History) by David Hackett Fischer ISBN: 0195170342 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: February, 2004 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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