The Complete Works of Shakespeare

by Bevington, David

• ISBN13: 9780321886514
• ISBN10: 0321886518
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780321886514PR
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780205606283
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-12-29
• Publisher: Pearson
• More Book Details

Summary

A balanced editorial approach, a highly respected editor, and comprehensive glosses, footnotes, and historical and cultural essays make this the most reader-friendly introduction to Shakespeare available today. The seventh edition of this comprehensive anthology addresses the two key issues confronted by readers approaching Shakespeare today: a lack of knowledge about the historical period and difficulty with the language of Shakespeare's plays. A richly illustrated general introduction offers insight into Shakespeare's England and background on the literary and cultural contexts in which Shakespeare wrote and produced plays. Each play is introduced by a descriptive essay designed to help the reader appreciate the cultural contexts and interpretive issues raised by the play -- without dictating their interpretations. Thoroughly revised and updated notes and glosses provide additional support to understanding the language of Shakespeare's time.

Author Biography

David Bevington is a highly respected editor and Shakespearean scholar. He is Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus. He taught drama at the University of Chicago, focusing on Shakespeare and his contemporaries (Jonson, Marlowe, Webster, Middleton, Dekker, etc.), as well as medieval drama and then the entire sweep of Western drama from Aeschylus and Sophocles down to Caryl Churchill and Tom Stoppard. In addition to courses on Shakespeare, Renaissance drama, and medieval drama, he co-taught in Theater and Performance Studies ((variously with Heidi Coleman, Director of University Theater, John Muse, English  Department, and Drew Dir, resident dramaturg at Court Theatre) a two-quarter sequence called The History and Theory of Drama from the 5th century B.C. down to the present day. "One of the most learned and devoted of Shakespeareans," so called by Harold Bloom, he specializes in British drama of the Renaissance, and has edited and introduced the complete works of William Shakespeare in both the 29-volume, Bantam Classics paperback editions and the single-volume Longman edition. He also edits the Norton Anthology of Renaissance Drama and an important anthology of Medieval English Drama. Bevington's editorial scholarship is so extensive that Richard Strier, an early modern colleague at the University of Chicago, was moved to comment: "Every time I turn around, he has edited a new Renaissance text. Bevington has endless energy for editorial projects." In addition to his work as an editor, he has published studies of Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and the Stuart Court Masque, among others, though it is for his work as an editor that he is primarily known.

Table of Contents

Preface.

 

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

Reading Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century

Life in Shakespeare's England.

Shakespeare's World: A Visual Portfolio.

The Drama Before Shakespeare.

London Theaters and Dramatic Companies.

Shakespeare's Life and Work.

How to Read Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Language

Shakespeare Criticism.

 

THE COMEDIES.

The Comedy of Errors.

Love's Labor's Lost.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

The Taming of the Shrew.

A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The Merchant of Venice.

Much Ado About Nothing.

The Merry Wives of Windsor.

As You Like It.

Twelfth Night; or, What You Will.

All's Well That Ends Well.

Measure for Measure.

Troilus and Cressida.

 

THE HISTORIES.

The First Part of King Henry the Sixth.

The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth.

The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth.

The Tragedy of King Richard the Third.

The Life and Death of King John.

The Tragedy of King Richard the Second.

The First Part of King Henry the Fourth.

The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth.

The Life of King Henry the Fifth.

The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth.

 

THE TRAGEDIES.

Titus Andronicus.

Romeo and Juliet.

Julius Caesar.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

Othello, the Moor of Venice.

King Lear.

Macbeth.

Timon of Athens.

Antony and Cleopatra.

Coriolanus.

 

THE ROMANCES.

Pericles.

Cymbeline.

The Winter's Tale.

The Tempest.

The Two Noble Kinsmen.

 

THE POEMS.

Venus and Adonis.

The Rape of Lucrece.

The Phoenix and Turtle.

A Lover's Complaint.

Sonnets.

Appendix 1: Canon, Dates, and Early Texts.

Appendix 2: Sources.

Appendix 3: Shakespeare in Performance (co-authored with Lois Potter).

The Royal Genealogy of England.

Maps.

Bibliography: Suggestions for Reading and Research.

Textual Notes.

Glossary: Shakespearean Words and Meanings of Frequent Occurrence.

Index.