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Title: The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets by Helen H. Vendler ISBN: 0-674-63712-7 Publisher: Belknap Pr Pub. Date: November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.44 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (14 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Shakespeare's Sonnets Anew
Comment: In this invaluable book, Helen Vendler investigates what she finds aesthetically most provocative in each of Shakespeare's beautiful sonnets, i.e., the fact that Shakespeare, himself undertook the writing of the sonnets as a "writer's project invented to amuse and challenge his own capacity for inventing artworks."
The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets is comprised of a single introductory chapter outlining Vendler's own critical perspective and 153 individual sonnets, together with critical commentary. (Sonnets 153 and 154 are presented together in one essay.) Vendler's format seeks to restore "comprehension of the internal logic and old finery of Elizabethan lyric" which has almost completely disappeared from contemporary examinations of these sonnets. Vendler's book will help readers to better understand the language of Shakespeare's sonnets as well as uncover textual clues in a clearer and more deliberate fashion, leading readers to a greater appreciation of the power of language when manipulated by a master poet intent upon expressing the inner life of the speaker.
The author provides fresh and unexpected interpretation of the sonnets based on clear, textual evidence rather than through a dominant theoretical perspective. She also explores linguistic strategies directly from Shakespeare's own compositional acts and then constructs upon them an interpretation of the poet's duty "to create aesthetically convincing representations of feelings felt and thoughts thought." Vendler chooses to concentrate her efforts on Shakespeare's ability to accurately convey the speaker's own misery, torment, joy, wonder, exuberance, etc. within the mere fourteen lines demanded of the sonnet, that most structured of all forms of expression. She points out that it is in the "simultaneous marshaling of temporal continuity, logical discreteness and psychological modeling that Shakespeare's sonnets surpass those of other sonneteers."
Vendler then goes on to assert that Shakespeare, as a writer of sonnets, was seeking as many ways as possible to manipulate the form. His orchestration thus results in vignettes, musings and one-sided conversations with imagined listeners who do not reveal an extended hidden narrative or meaning but do "comprise a virtual anthology of lyric possibility."
Vendler invites the reader to participate in his own exploration of the sonnets. Unlike most critical treatises where the poems appear as a block in front of the text followed by an analysis, in this book each sonnet and its analysis appear together. The reader can formulate his own speculations and check them against Vendler's without even having to turn the page.
For those who want to listen to the beauty of these sonnets, there is a CD bound into the back cover of the book, providing an indispensable tool in helping readers to fully appreciate all the textual and acoustical clues--the allure de la phrase.
This is definitely not a book to read straight through, nor is it intended for the novice. Readers should already have some familiarity with the sonnets and those who do not should keep an annotated edition close by. Familiarity with poetic terms is also a necessity, since Vendler, a splendid poet herself, makes frequent reference to terms which are undoubtedly unfamiliar to those who are not frequently engaged in the study or analysis of the lyric form.
Rating: 5
Summary: Beautifully produced, with critical analysis of each sonnet.
Comment: THE ART OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS. By Helen H. Vendler. 692 pp. 1999. (pbk.)
Shakespeare's 'Sonnets' is a deservedly well-loved body of poetry, and there have been innumerable editions. For the student and enthusiast, however, it's doubtful that there could be a more beautifully produced edition than the present book, although the critical essays that accompany each sonnet will probably prove too difficult for most non-specialists.
One reason that Elizabethan lyrics are so powerful and memorable, is that they were composed in an age when poetry was still linked closely with music. Elizabethans were often competent musicians, and many of their poems were true lyrics or songs. Often their poems were set to music, and all were probably composed while the gentle plucking of a lute or some such instrument was running somewhere through the back of the poet's mind.
Today we live in an age when composers are no longer giving us real songs, songs that stay in the mind and that can be hummed or sung when for some reason or other they rise into consciousness; songs that are always there when we feel like singing, and that can help cheer us up, make us happy, and refresh our spirit; songs, too, for both light and more thoughtful moods.
In contrast to this true type of song, what we seem to be getting today is little more than words with little or no meaning accompanied by noise, the sort of stuff that a machine could write and probably is writing, and profoundly unmemorable.
Shakespeare's 'Sonnets,' however, bring us a world of meaning. The whole of life is in them - its joys and sorrows, its passions and frustrations and torments - and all expressed in some of the most sonorous and beautiful English ever written, and set to powerful rhythms that deeply penetrate the psyche.
Helen Vendler's edition, in addition to the accompanying essays, and like that of Stephen Booth's prize-winning 'Shakespeare's Sonnets,' gives us not one but two texts of the 'Sonnets,' each of which is given on facing pages : a facsimile of the original 1609 Quarto, and Vendler's edited text with modern spelling and punctuation.
Seeing the texts exactly as they were presented to Shakespeare's contemporaries is an interesting experience. Some readers will probably love the antique spellings and typography, other may hate it, but at least we've been given a choice. And having access to the Quarto can lead to a deeper understanding of the poems.
Vendler's commentary is a commentary for the advanced student and the scholar. Some will find it useful and informative, even brilliant. Others will be put off by her post-structuralist approach. But even those who don't care for her densely packed and technical commentary, will certainly be impressed by how beautifully produced this book is - by its excellent printing and smooth high-quality paper, and by the large clear fonts which do justice to Shakespeare's texts, and which make reading the 'Sonnets' such a pleasure in this edition.
The fact that their lines stick so easily in our minds, and that the re-reading of favorites will soon see us having memorized, if not the whole sonnet then certainly substantial portions of it, seems to me proof that the 'Sonnets' are real sustenance for the spirit. They help at different times to to fortify our spirit, to clarify our own thoughts about life, and even on occasions to cheer us up.
As such, and whether we realize it or not, they become a kind of word-music that all of us need. So whether you go for the Vendler or the Booth, or for some other more manageable and less ambitious edition, my advice would be to give Shakespeare's words a chance to work their magic. You may be surprised at what they can do for you.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Most Readable Edition
Comment: Many of the customer reviewers have discussed the merits of this excellent book. I would like to emphasize that of the many editions of Shakespeare's Sonnets, this is the one that is a real pleasure to read. Exactly one sonnet on a page (in Quarto and modern typefaces) with no distracting footnotes or explanations. Keep a dictionary or an annotated edition handy if you're new to these poems.
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Title: Shakespeare's Sonnets by Stephen Booth, William Shakespeare ISBN: 0300085060 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: August, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Shakespeare's Sonnets : Critical Essays (Shakespeare Criticism) by James Schiffer ISBN: 0815338937 Publisher: Garland Publishing Pub. Date: July, 2000 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Cliffs Notes on Shakespeare's Sonnets by Carl Senna ISBN: 0764586173 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: 01 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Coming of Age as a Poet : Milton, Keats, Eliot, Plath by Helen Vendler ISBN: 0674010248 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: 13 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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