Shakespeare's Lives PDF Download

Author: Samuel Schoenbaum
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198186185
Category : Biography (as a literary form)
Languages : en
Pages : 658

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Book Description
This volume presents a study of the changing images and differing ways that the life of English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has been interpreted throughout history. The author takes readers on a tour of the countless myths and legends which have arisen to explain the great dramatist's life and work, bringing the story right up to 1989. He reconstructs as much of the elusive author's life as possible, considering his family history, his economic standing, and his reputation with his peers; the Shakespeare who emerges may not always be the familiar one.

Author: Richard Dutton
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349141437
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
William Shakespeare is the best-known writer in the English-speaking world. Contrary to popular myth, we actually know more about him and his career than we do about most dramatists of his era - the fruits of three hundred years of fascinated research. Whilst we know less than we would like about Shakespeare's private life, we do have a far clearer picture of his professional career, and of the theatres and social structures with which he was involved. And yet the significance of what we know is fiercely contested and we are challenged by a host of contradictions. Elizabethan actors were often classed as vagabonds yet some were also servants to royalty who performed at court. All the roles in Shakespeare's plays were acted by men, yet he wrote strong roles for women from Lady Macbeth to Rosalind. So was Shakespeare a feminist before his time? Richard Dutton tackles these and other issues which keep Shakespeare, the most influential literary life in literary history, at the centre of our cultural life today.

Author: Paul Franssen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781316410851
Category : Dramatists in literature
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
"This book is not about Shakespeare. That is to say, it is not concerned with the playwright, born in 1564, who made a career in London, and died in his native Stratford- upon-Avon in 1616; nor does it deal with his works. At best, Shakespeare, thus understood, plays a marginal role in this study. What I am concerned with, in other words, is not essential Shakespeare, but his fictional afterlives: how subsequent generations of creative writers have tried to make sense of his life, his works, and the interrelationship between them. Shakespeare, thus understood, is truly 'myriad- minded', and has led an infinity of lives. He has been a Protestant, a Catholic, a Jew and an agnostic; a philanderer and a faithful husband; gay, bisexual, and straight; revolutionary and conservative; black and white; male and female. As one of the icons of Western literature, multiple, often diametrically opposite fictions have been devised around his name. Some of these have been disguised as facts, but most fictional representations are easy to distinguish from serious biographical studies"--

Author: Ari Berk
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763647942
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 17

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Book Description
Describes Shakespeare's experiences in London and his retirement to the country in a fictional account that includes excerpts from his works.

Author: Richard Dutton
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312030919
Category : Dramatists, English
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
A history of Shakespeare's literary career rather than a biography. Dutton (English, U. of Lancaster) is an expert on Ben Jonson, and one of the approaches of his study is asking why Shakespeare wrote differently from Jonson and other contemporary playwrights. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Author: Richard Dutton
Publisher: Palgrave Schol, Print UK
ISBN: 9780333665480
Category : Dramatists, English
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
William Shakespeare is the best-known writer in the English-speaking world. Contrary to popular myth, we actually know more about him and his career than we do about most dramatists of his era - the fruits of three hundred years of fascinated research. Whilst we know less than we would like about Shakespeare's private life, we do have a far clearer picture of his professional career, and of the theatres and social structures with which he was involved. And yet the significance of what we know is fiercely contested and we are challenged by a host of contradictions. Elizabethan actors were often classed as vagabonds yet some were also servants to royalty who performed at court. All the roles in Shakespeare's plays were acted by men, yet he wrote strong roles for women from Lady Macbeth to Rosalind. So was Shakespeare a feminist before his time? Richard Dutton tackles these and other issues which keep Shakespeare, the most influential literary life in literary history, at the centre of our cultural life today.

Author: Leslie Dunton-Downer
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0744055962
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
A comprehensive collection of the life and works of a literary great — William Shakespeare! The beautifully illustrated guide unravels the life and works of Shakespeare and his plays, from language, history, and themes to plays, poems, and sonnets. Explore the art of this famous playwright and his enduring legacy through the stunning gift format. Celebrate one of the theaters most influential contributors through his legendary works of comedy, tragedy, romance, and poetry. Inside this playbook, you’ll find: • A clear and accessible format. • Plot summaries of all 39 plays with lists of characters. • Guidance on how to read and interpret his great sonnets and narrative poems. • Plays ordered by time and genre, helping readers trace the development of Shakespeare’s topics, themes, and artistry. • Sidebars that clarify the mythological, geographical and historical context of each play and decode its language, dramatic action, and themes. • Illuminated guidance on how to approach reading the play and seeing it perform. Shakespeare fans will revel in the marvelous depiction of the Stratford-upon-Avon born Bard himself! His drama book allows you to dive into famous works like Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and explore Shakespeare’s sources and inspirations for each! Themes, plots, characters, and language are brought to life with act-by-act plot summaries, resumes of main characters, and in-depth analysis of Shakespeare’s use of the English language. Shakespeare: His Life and Works is a wonderful exploration of plays, poems, and sonnets in the context of his life and the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre, further enriching your on the page (or stage, or screen!) experience.

Author: Elliot Engel
Publisher: Gallery Books
ISBN: 9780743448970
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
• GEOFFREY CHAUCER • WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE • JANE AUSTEN • ROBERT BROWNING & ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING • EDGAR ALLAN POE • CHARLES DICKENS • CHARLOTTE & EMILY BRONTË • EMILY DICKINSON • MARK TWAIN • GEORGE ELIOT • THOMAS HARDY • OSCAR WILDE • SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE • D. H. LAWRENCE • F. SCOTT FITZGERALD • ERNEST HEMINGWAY • ROBERT FROST They are icons of the literary world whose soaring works have been discussed and analyzed in countless classrooms, homes, and pubs. Yet for most readers, the living, breathing human beings behind the classics have remained unknown...until now! In this utterly captivating book, Dr. Elliot Engel, a foremost authority on the lives of great authors, illuminates the fascinating and flawed men and women of literature's elite. In lieu of stuffy biographical sketches A Dab of Dickens & A Touch of Twain reveals dozens of fascinating anecdotes: • Why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle blamed his wife's death on Sherlock Holmes • How Charles Dickens' pet launched Edgar Allan Poe on his way to literary immortality • The strange connection between Jane Austen and Ernest Hemingway • How Louisa May Alcott's attempt to get Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn banned backfired...and more! You'll never look at these literary giants the same way again.

Author: John James Ross
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0312600763
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
The Bard meets "House" in this illumination of the medical mysteries surrounding 10 of the English language's most heralded writers, including John Milton, Jonathan Swift, and Jack London.

Author: Kevin Gilvary
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351186051
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Modern biographies of William Shakespeare abound; however, close scrutiny of the surviving records clearly show that there is insufficient material for a cradle to grave account of his life, that most of what is written about him cannot be verified from primary sources, and that Shakespearean biography did not attain scholarly or academic respectability until long after Samuel Schoenbaum published William Shakespeare A Documentary Life in 1975. This study begins with a short survey of the history and practice of biography and then surveys the very limited biographical material for Shakespeare. Although Shakespeare gradually attained the status as a national hero during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there were no serious attempts to reconstruct his life. Any attempt at an account of his life or personality amounts, however, merely to "biografiction". Modern biographers differ sharply on Shakespeare’s apparent relationships with Southampton and with Jonson, which merely underlines the fact that the documentary record has to be greatly expanded through contextual description and speculation in order to appear like a Life of Shakespeare.