Cliffsnotes on Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet by Gary Carey

$6.00 NZD

Category: Shakespeare | Series: Cliffs Notes Series | Reading Level: good

Develop a sense of Shakespeare's rose of a romance with CliffsNotes on Romeo and Juliet -a study guide that can help your understanding (and grades) blossom into the sweet smell of success! Find out all the who, what, when, and wherefores about the famous star-crossed lovers and the family feud between the Montagues and Capulets. Plus, you'll get plenty of background on the life and times of William Shakespeare, and insight into the play's themes and literary devices. CliffsNotes on Romeo and Juliet is the classroom companion you can count on as tackle your reading assignments with confidence. ...Show more

Songs and Sonnets by William Shakespeare

$8.00 NZD

Category: Shakespeare | Series: Golden Treasury Series | Reading Level: very good

Henry V1 Part Two by William Shakespeare

$6.00 NZD

Category: Shakespeare | Reading Level: very good

Henry VI Part Three by William Shakespeare

$6.00 NZD

Category: Shakespeare | Series: The New Penguin Shakespeare | Reading Level: very good

Richard III by William Shakespeare

$6.00 NZD

Category: Shakespeare | Series: The New Penguin Shakespeare | Reading Level: good

Part of "The New Penguin Shakespeare" series, this text looks at "King Richard III" with an introduction, a list of further reading, commentary and a short account of the textual problems of the play. The series is used and recommended by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Henry VI Part One by William Shakespeare; Norman Sanders (Editor)

$7.00 NZD

Category: Shakespeare | Series: The New Penguin Shakespeare | Reading Level: very good

The Oxford ShakespeareGeneral Editor Stanley WellsThe Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative texts from leading scholars in editions designed to interpret and illuminate the plays for modern readers.- a new, modern-spelling text, based on the 1623 First Folio- detailed introduction considers compositio n, sources, historical events, performances and changing critical attitudes to the play- on-page commentary and notes explain meaning, staging, identify historical figures and events, and much else- appendices include extracts from the chronicle sources and new research on the use of boy actors in Elizabethan performance- illustrated with production photographs and related art- full index to introduction and commentary- durable sewn binding for lasting use'not simply a better text but a new conception of Shakespeare. This is a major achievement of twentieth-century scholarship.' Times Literary Supplement ...Show more

The Tempest by William Shakespeare; Stephen Orgel (Editor)

$10.00 NZD

Category: Shakespeare | Series: The\World's Classics Ser. | Reading Level: very good

Shakespeare's valedictory play is also one of his most poetical and magical. The story involves the spirit Ariel, the savage Caliban, and Prospero, the banished Duke of Milan, now a wizard living on a remote island who uses his magic to shipwreck a party of ex-compatriots.]]>

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

$10.00 NZD

Category: Shakespeare | Series: Oxford World's Classics Ser. | Reading Level: very good

Among the most well-loved of William Shakespeare's history plays, Henry V is the gripping conclusion to the story of young 'Prince Hal' begun in Henry IV, edited by A.R. Humphreys with an introduction by Ann Kaegi. 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers For he today that sheds his blood with me Sha ll be my brother' Young King Henry wages war on France. But, tainted by his father's crimes, and with enemies among his own men, he must confront the difficult responsibilities of kingship. In rousing speeches, first at the siege of Harfleur where he urges his men 'Once more into the breach', and again on St Crispin's Day before the Battle of Agincourt, Henry rallies the English troops to spectacular victories which change the course of history. But even with the battles won, the war is not yet over - for to make safe his success, Henry must secure a marriage with the French princess, Catherine of Valois. And can triumph in France prevent civil war in England? This book includes a general introduction to Shakespeare's life and the Elizabethan theatre, a separate introduction to Henry V, a chronology of his works, suggestions for further reading, an essay discussing performance options on both stage and screen, and a commentary. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden some time in late April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. He wrote about 38 plays (the precise number is uncertain), many of which are regarded as the most exceptional works of drama ever produced, including Romeo and Juliet (1595), Henry V (1599), Hamlet (1601), Othello (1604), King Lear (1606) and Macbeth (1606), as well as a collection of 154 sonnets, which number among the most profound and influential love-poetry in English. 'Shakespeare was the greatest humanist who has ever lived' Trevor Nunn, former Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company ...Show more

Who's Who in Shakespeare by Peter Quennell & Hamish Johnson

$25.00 NZD

Category: Shakespeare | Reading Level: very good

From Antonio to Yorrick, Macbeth to Mercutio, this book presents a handy A-Z guide to the men and women who throng Shakespeare's plays. It includes quotations from famous critics. It provides detailed biographical information on each leading figure; analyses the role and significance of each minor figur e; and, offers useful information. ...Show more

Shakespeare by Bill Bryson

$10.00 NZD

Category: Shakespeare | Reading Level: very good

William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself. Bryson documents the efforts of earlier scholars, from today's most respected academics to eccentrics like Delia Bacon, an American who developed a firm but unsubstantiated conviction that her namesake, Francis Bacon, was the true author of Shakespeare's plays. Emulating the style of his famous travelogues, Bryson records episodes in his research, including a visit to a bunkerlike room in Washington, D.C., where the world's largest collection of First Folios is housed. Bryson celebrates Shakespeare as a writer of unimaginable talent and enormous inventiveness, a coiner of phrases ("vanish into thin air," "foregone conclusion," "one fell swoop") that even today have common currency. His Shakespeare is like no one else's--the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time. ...Show more

Contested Will - Who Wrote Shakespeare? by James S. Shapiro

$12.00 NZD

Category: Shakespeare | Reading Level: very good

For two hundred years after William Shakespeare's death, no one thought to argue that somebody else had written his plays. Since then dozens of rival candidates - including The Earl of Oxford, Sir Francis Bacon and Christopher Marlowe - have been proposed as their true author. Contested Will unravels th e mystery of when and why so many people began to question whether Shakespeare wrote the plays (among them such leading writers and artists as Sigmund Freud, Henry James, Mark Twain, Helen Keller, Orson Welles, and Sir Derek Jacobi) Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro's fascinating search for the source of this controversy retraces a path strewn with fabricated documents, calls for trials, false claimants, concealed identity, bald-faced deception and a failure to grasp what could not be imagined. If Contested Will does not end the authorship question once and for all, it will nonetheless irrevocably change the nature of the debate by confronting what's really contested: are the plays and poems of Shakespeare autobiographical, and if so, do they hold the key to the question of who wrote them? '[Shapiro] writes erudite, undumbed-down history that . . . reads as fluidly as a good novel.' David Mitchell, the Guardian. ...Show more

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

$8.00 NZD

Category: Shakespeare | Series: Oxford World's Classics Ser. | Reading Level: good

Because Orsino is hopelessly in love with the aloof Countess Olivia, he doesn't notice Viola, who, disguised as a boy, is in love with him. This comedy's plot bristles with intrigues galore, but all finally ends happily as lovers are paired. Books in this new, illustrated series present complete texts o f Shakespeare's plays. However, the lines are set up so students can see the bard's original poetic phrases printed side-by-side and line-by-line with a modern "translation" on the facing page. Starting in the late 1580s and for several decades that followed, Shakespeare's plays were popular entertainment for London's theatergoers. His Globe Theatre was the equivalent of a Broadway theater in today's New York. The plays have endured, but over the course of 400+ years, the English language has changed in many ways--which is why today's students often find Shakespeare's idiom difficult to comprehend. Simply Shakespeare offers an excellent solution to their problem. Introducing each play is a general essay covering Shakespeare's life and times. At the beginning of each of the five acts in every play, a two-page spread describes what is about to take place. The story's background is explained, followed by brief descriptions of key people who will appear in the act, details students should watch for as the story unfolds, discussion of the play's historical context, how the play was staged in Shakespeare's day, and explanation of puns and plays on words that occur in characters' dialogues. Identifying icons preceding each of these study points are printed in a second color, then are located again as cross-references in the play's original text. For instance, where words spoken by a person in the play offer insights into his or another character's personality, the "Characters" icon will appear as a cross-reference in both the introductory spread and the play proper. Following each act, a closing spread presents questions and discussion points for use as teachers' aids. Guided by the inspiring format of this fine new series, both teachers and students will come to understand and appreciate the genius of Shakespeare as never before. ...Show more