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Title: Lectures on Shakespeare by W. H. Auden, Arthur C. Kirsch ISBN: 0-691-10282-1 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 09 September, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Auden's lectures are enjoyable conversations on the plays
Comment: Reading each of Auden's lectures will not make you an expert on any aspect of the plays or poems - he doesn't aim to be comprehensive. Instead, Auden engages you in one or two key aspects from each play. Subsequently, the book could have been called "Conversations about Shakespeare."
Occasionally, as in "Julius Caesar" or "King Lear," Auden is direct and focused. Here you will get a good, general view of these plays. But more often he dives into a theme, leaving the specifics of the play far behind. Reading some lectures I would ask myself, "Is he going to talk about the play or is he going to stick with this?" In the lecture about "As You Like It," he goes on for the first seven pages about the pastoral play. You would think this would be annoying, but Auden's easy manner keeps you hooked. Then in the end you will have learned something new, something special to Auden's perspective.
Some of the themes can be pretty high brow, but usually the are educational and entertaining. And this off-the-beaten-path approach is what makes the lectures unique.
If you're looking for the exact historical context of a play or a lengthy essay about some character, read the introduction from a paperback copy of a play. Auden's lectures will teach you a little extra you won't find anywhere else.
Rating: 5
Summary: An astonishing piece of literary detective work
Comment: Imagine trying to assemble lectures made close to 50 years ago from assorted notes and other papers. This is what Kirsch has managed to achieve in an excellent book that is superbly edited and written. W.H. Auden appears as a sensible and balanced critic of Shakespeare and his observations are always telling. I really like his chapter on Macbeth even though Auden claims that he has nothing to offer. I am just so pleased that Kirsch took the time to research and compile this book. An intense labour of love that will repay countless readings.
Rating: 3
Summary: Refreshing but not as impressive as I thought it would be
Comment: Although we should all be grateful to have WH Auden's thoughts on the Bard - and they are very novel observations - I can't help but feel slightly disappointed by this collection of lectures. It is amazing that his students took such diligent notes and that Arthur Kirsch managed to transcribe them so that we can almost feel Auden talking to us. However, I was forced to give it three stars because (and this is irrational) I just didn't feel like I connected with his ideas. His analysis of the characters is very modern and is definitely a new and refreshing perspective from what we all learned. His lecture on the Merchant of Venice, I thought, was the most interesting. However, I think that it was maybe a little too novel and provoking, a little too detached from the actual symbolism of the plays. I enjoyed this book, but I'm just not sure I have been convinced or particularly impressed with these lectures. Maybe it's just me...
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Title: The Sea and the Mirror : A Commentary on Shakespeare's The Tempest by W. H. Auden, Arthur C. Kirsch ISBN: 0691113718 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 07 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Dyer's Hand by W.H. Auden ISBN: 0679724842 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 February, 1990 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Shakespeare's Language by Frank Kermode ISBN: 0374226369 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Forewords and Afterwords by W.H. Auden ISBN: 0679724850 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 February, 1990 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Meaning of Shakespeare by Harold Clarke Goddard ISBN: 0226300412 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: September, 1960 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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