Shakespeare
Books / Hardcover
Books › Literary Criticism › Shakespeare
ISBN: 0333904990 / Publisher: Pan Macmillan, September 2002
'What a joy to read such a delightful account of Shakespeare and all he has meant to the world over the centuries' - Dame Judi Dench
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Drawing on a lifetime's experience of studying, teaching, editing and writing about Shakespeare, Stanley Wells combines scholarly authority with authorial flair in a book that will appeal equally to the specialist and the untutored enthusiast. Chapters on Shakespeare's life in Stratford and in London offer a fresh view of the development of the writer's career and personality. At the core of the book lies a magisterial study of the writings themselves - how Shakespeare set about writing a play, his relationships with the company of actors with whom he worked, his developing mastery of the literary and rhetorical skills that he learned at the Stratford grammar school, the essentially theatrical quality of the structure and language of his plays. Subsequent chapters trace the fluctuating fortunes of his reputation and influence. Here are accounts of adaptations, productions and individual performances in England and, increasingly overseas, of great occasions such as the Garrick Jubilee and the tercentenary celebrations of 1864; of the spread of Shakespeare's reputation in France and Germany, Russia and America, and, more recently, the Far East; of Shakespearean discoveries and forgeries; of critical reactions favourable and otherwise, and scholarly activity; of paintings, music, films and other works of art inspired by the plays; vivid portraits of the great Shakespeareans, from Garrick to Irving, from Ellen Terry to Judi Dench and from Laurence Olivier to Kenneth Branagh; of the plays' use in education and the political arena, and of the pleasure and intellectual stimulus that they have given to an increasingly international public.Rich in anecdote and insight, authoritative and informative in equal measure, this magnificent book triumphantly proves Ben Jonson's assertion that Shakespeare 'was not of an age, but for all time'.
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