Essential Shakespeare Handbook

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 480 pages
• Published by: DK ADULT April 19, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0789493330
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0789493330
• Book Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Weighs: 2 pounds

From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up–Organized according to the categories of plays and including a section on his nondramatic poetry, this is an great basic tool for gaining insight into the Bard's poetic genius. Each of the categories–histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances–commences with a well-written essay that explains the nature of the genre (and the place of Shakespeare's works within it) and discusses the themes and ideas that lay behind the poet's words. A more in-depth analysis of each play follows: a look at the sources that inspired it, an act-by-act plot outline (with relevant quotes), an annotated list of the dramatis personae, ideas to ponder when reading/seeing the play, and, finally, a discussion of issues associated with the play and/or its productions. Each treatment is liberally peppered with informative sidebars, as well as with clear, color photographs of relevant people and places. For the poems, similarly organized information is offered. A number of useful discussions help put the pieces into their full literary context. A biography of the playwright, an essay on Elizabethan society and the theater it spawned, a discussion of the overall canon, and an explanation of Shakespeare's language and poetic meters round out the text. This volume is not meant to take the place of more comprehensive reference works, such as Michael Dobson and Stanley Wells's The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (Oxford, 2001), but it isan informative, visually enticing introduction to the world's most famous dramatist.–Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI
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Product Review
"Refreshing and joyful." -- Kenneth Branagh, actor and director

"The Essential Shakespeare Handbook deserves a place next to your edition of Shakespeare's plays." -- The New York Times Book Review

"This is an great tool for gaining insight into the Bard's poetic genius" -- School Library Journal

"[Riding and Dunton-Downer] have taken a heightened visual approach that owes as much to Internet culture as to iconographic travel guides and the increasing popularity of graphic novels." -- The Los Angeles Times

Reader Reviews
Someone once said that no reader ever buys a book because of who the publisher is but DK Books is an exception to that rule. Everythig they publish is wonderfully written, packed with informattion and fun. Essential Shakespeare gives you an overview of Shakespeare's life, looks at the different argurments about his "true" identity and talks about the role and realities of theater life in the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages. Next it launches into in depth discussions about each play, long poem and gives a quick look at the sonnets. The book sumarizes each play, gives you a who's who among the characters and then tells you in detail what happens act by act. Then it talks about how the play has been shown to audiences through out the years. Like all DK books it's full of pictures and sidebars. I spent hours readig this book and only put it down because I had to get up early the next morning. Essential Shakespeare is not only a great gift for a Shakespeare lover but it's a really effective way to itroduce the works of the Bard to someone who didn't know much or anything about them before. Alls well that ends well, this book is most definitely worth the money.