The Complete Idiot's Guide to Shakespeare

by Rozakis, Laurie E.

• ISBN13: 9780028629056
• ISBN10: 0028629051
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-04-01
• Publisher: DK Publishing, Inc.

Summary

The famous playwrite won't be a mystery with this guide that explains the meanings behind his sonnets and plays and the history of his life in easy terms. Supplemented with a character list.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Shakespeare's Life and Times	1	(82)
Whose Life Is It Anyway?	3	(10)
The Renaissance 101	13	(12)
All the World's a Stage: Shakespeare's Theater	25	(12)
The Play's the Thing	37	(12)
Brush Up on Your Shakespeare	49	(14)
Something Fishy About the Man from Stratford: The Authorship Question	63	(10)
Shakespeare's Literary Reputation	73	(10)
Part 2: The Comedies (or ``Love Makes the World Go `Round'')	83	(62)
The Comedy of Errors and Two Gentlemen of Verona	85	(12)
The Taming of the Shrew and Love's Labor's Lost	97	(12)
A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merchant of Venice	109	(14)
As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing	123	(12)
Twelfth Night and The Merry Wives of Windsor	135	(10)
Part 3: Problem Plays	145	(26)
All's Well That Ends Well	147	(8)
Troilus and Cressida	155	(8)
Measure for Measure	163	(8)
Part 4: Tragedies	171	(96)
Titus Andronicus	173	(8)
Hamlet	181	(12)
Romeo and Juliet	193	(10)
Julius Caesar	203	(10)
Othello, the Moor of Venice	213	(12)
King Lear	225	(10)
Macbeth	235	(12)
Antony and Cleopatra	247	(10)
Coriolanus and Timon of Athens	257	(10)
Part 5: Romances	267	(24)
The Tempest and The Winter's Tale	269	(12)
Pericles, Prince of Tyre and Cymbeline	281	(10)
Part 6: Histories	291	(50)
King Henry VI, Part I: King Henry VI, Part II; King Henry VI, Part III	293	(12)
King Richard III, King Richard II	305	(10)
King John; King Henry IV, Part I	315	(12)
King Henry IV, Part II; King Henry V; King Henry VIII	327	(14)
Part 7: Poems and Sonnets	341	(30)
The Battle of the Sexes Told in Rhyme	343	(10)
The Sonnets	353	(18)
Appendices
A Elizabethan English	365	(4)
B Further Reading	369	(2)
Index	371