I love the Folger Shakespeare Library Editions. The e-book editions of the individual plays are inexpensive, and the copious annotations can be accessed by a simple touch of the finger to the word in question. Bingo! Instant elucidation!
Yay! I've been hoping you would do a Shakespeare starter kit forever! =D I'm loving Garber's Shakespeare After All so far. It has great insights on every page, and I think it's part of the reason I enjoyed reading Henry IV part 1 this time so much.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford upon Avon have a First Folio on display. It is the most important book ever published (IMO) I read the Arden editions when I read them The Marjorie Garber lectures are on UA-cam and are fantastic lectures/classes on the late play. I have a copy of AC Bradley's book on the tragedies and it is fantastic
I still have my old brown used Riverside Shakespeare from college. It has all my notes in it too. I’m going to try to read the three plays out of this huge book. Looking forward to it! -Amy
Miracle! I borrowed Shakespeare After All through Overdrive and already read her chapters on Julius Caesar and Titus Andronicus, the two I have for Week One of ShakeTube. I could NOT stop reading it. Thanks!
“The brown one...”. 😂 Also I read The Quality of Mercy when it came out. I remember being struck by it then, I wonder if I’d have the same reaction today.
Wonderful starter kit! I’ve hoped you would do this for a long time. Vendler’s The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets is indispensable. Have a lovely day, Steve 😊
I was surprised by the omission of one book from your list of guides: Mark Van Doren's Shakespeare, first published in 1939 and reprinted as a New York Review Classic (paperback) in 2005. Van Doren, the revered teacher at Columbia University, wrote so passionately, so lovingly of the plays and their essentials that it would be difficult for even a casual reader to avoid the impulse to run out and buy them and spend the next year of one"s life reading them. A bonus of the book is that it also examines the sonnets and the narrative poems--which he does not love--and makes a case that they are not first-rate poetry, a case that even Vendler has not satisfactorily responded to. I share the view of one of your other commentators that the paperbacks in the Arden Shakespeare series are the ones to have, particularly the earlier editions of most of them, before they, like the Riverside one-volume edition, became too bloated.
Thanks for this starter kit :) I have Shakespeare after all and I'm loving it. I didn't know there was a poetry part of Shaketube, I've been meaning to read the sonnets for a while, so this is perfect. Completely out of topic, could you make a Homer starter kit? I am taking a greek language and culture class, and if everything goes well in the language part, my final is going to be to talk about the Iliad.
In the category of "Characters from Shakespeare's Plays," I'd like to add a further recommendation: Alan Gordon's Fool's Guild Mysteries. They start off with Feste and Viola reuniting many years after the end of 12th Night, in the book Thirteenth Night. The premise of the series is that Feste belongs to the secretive Fool's Guild, a band of entertainers that has been trained to be a hidden subversive element for good within medieval society. The series of 8 books intertwines some of the characters backstories cleverly into several of Shakespeare's plays indirectly (offhand, Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and 12th night). They don't seem to be in print any longer (the author is a lawyer as his day job) but they are entertaining.
I am lucky enough to have The Riverside Shakespeare, 1st edition, and it is one of my greatest treasures. I also agree with you that there is no satisfactory biography of Shakespeare, they mostly consist of conjecture with very little factual content.
So much bad advice here, let me help you: 1. "scholarly editions": Unless you're going for a degree, there's no reason to bother with this mountain of crap - "scholarly" theories age like milk and have the life expectancy of a fruit fly. Other than to look up some words or certain references, anyone with decent reading comprehension skills can, with a little practice and determination, read Shakespeare without a problem. 2. Watch/listen to the plays first - there are tons of good movie, TV and audio versions. Find something that you personally will like - if you hate costume drama, find a "modern dress" version, if you hate current-year politics, find a "traditional" version, if you like action movies find action versions of the plays that have action (battles, duels) etc. Reading the plays is 100% easier once you've seen/heard some version of them. 4. If you're new to Shakespeare it's a moot point - but if you really get into it then the alternate versions of the plays, even earlier "anonymous" versions are 90% likely to be Shakespeare originals and you should read them as well as the so-called Apocrypha. There's no good reason to exclude this work and many great reasons to include them in the canon. The "authorities" don't even bother with these texts, they're full of shit & lying when they say they've been vetted, they really haven't been, and when they are, they are always shown to be more likely WS's work than anyone else's. The experts just don't want to be bothered with them. 5. Best editions to start with are the cheap Dover paperbacks: use the internet & library, make your own notes, come to your own conclusions, let the so-called authorities pound sand, they don't know anything more about these words than you can teach yourself, for all they know (or surmise) about Shakespeare's time period. It's okay to "misread" Shakespeare, it's okay to form your own opinion, it's okay to interpret them any way you like - no one has the final word except WS himself. In brief: have fun, enjoy Shakespeare, go your own way.
Harold Jenkins' edition of Hamlet!!! My goodness! I bought his long-awaited Arden edition the week it came out in 1982 when I was studying English at Cambridge. It is basically old-school scholarly crap that cobbles together all three or so printed editions. It most certainly does NOT support your contention that there is only one version of Shakespeare's plays. There is an inconsistency here.
Oh, the things my wallet will have to say about THIS!
Yet my wallet can shut up because reading, especially Shakespeare, is priceless!
Wilson's powerful gaze is stern, yet reassuring
All these starter kits are just so great! Thank you!
All them penguin classics!
I love the Folger Shakespeare Library Editions. The e-book editions of the individual plays are inexpensive, and the copious annotations can be accessed by a simple touch of the finger to the word in question. Bingo! Instant elucidation!
Yay! I've been hoping you would do a Shakespeare starter kit forever! =D
I'm loving Garber's Shakespeare After All so far. It has great insights on every page, and I think it's part of the reason I enjoyed reading Henry IV part 1 this time so much.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford upon Avon have a First Folio on display. It is the most important book ever published (IMO)
I read the Arden editions when I read them
The Marjorie Garber lectures are on UA-cam and are fantastic lectures/classes on the late play. I have a copy of AC Bradley's book on the tragedies and it is fantastic
I still have my old brown used Riverside Shakespeare from college. It has all my notes in it too. I’m going to try to read the three plays out of this huge book. Looking forward to it! -Amy
Miracle! I borrowed Shakespeare After All through Overdrive and already read her chapters on Julius Caesar and Titus Andronicus, the two I have for Week One of ShakeTube. I could NOT stop reading it. Thanks!
Thank you!! No such thing as too many Shakespeare recommendations!
Absolutely loving reading Spy of Venice! Such a joy :D
I’m reading The Lodger; what an absolutely fascinating book! Thanks for the recommendation.
Philip Burton's You, My Brother is wonderful in it's fictional evocation of Shakespeare's life and times.
I kind of miss the Harold Bloom impersonations.
Is that a Twelfth Night quote? Malvolio? Just guessing off the top of my head... the 'cross gartered' character! Methinks
Lukas Erne is fantastic.
“The brown one...”. 😂
Also I read The Quality of Mercy when it came out. I remember being struck by it then, I wonder if I’d have the same reaction today.
I SPY A WEE PENGUIN!
Better than spying Penguin wee!
Wonderful starter kit! I’ve hoped you would do this for a long time. Vendler’s The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets is indispensable. Have a lovely day, Steve 😊
I was surprised by the omission of one book from your list of guides: Mark Van Doren's Shakespeare, first published in 1939 and reprinted as a New York Review Classic (paperback) in 2005. Van Doren, the revered teacher at Columbia University, wrote so passionately, so lovingly of the plays and their essentials that it would be difficult for even a casual reader to avoid the impulse to run out and buy them and spend the next year of one"s life reading them. A bonus of the book is that it also examines the sonnets and the narrative poems--which he does not love--and makes a case that they are not first-rate poetry, a case that even Vendler has not satisfactorily responded to.
I share the view of one of your other commentators that the paperbacks in the Arden Shakespeare series are the ones to have, particularly the earlier editions of most of them, before they, like the Riverside one-volume edition, became too bloated.
Also, for your Julius Caesar discussion, I'm planning to watch the film version with Marlon Brando!
That's a GREAT film version! Good choice!
The Helen Vendler book does have a paperback edition, I bought it from Amazon last year when you talked about it in a library tour!
Thanks for this starter kit :)
I have Shakespeare after all and I'm loving it.
I didn't know there was a poetry part of Shaketube, I've been meaning to read the sonnets for a while, so this is perfect.
Completely out of topic, could you make a Homer starter kit?
I am taking a greek language and culture class, and if everything goes well in the language part, my final is going to be to talk about the Iliad.
In the category of "Characters from Shakespeare's Plays," I'd like to add a further recommendation: Alan Gordon's Fool's Guild Mysteries. They start off with Feste and Viola reuniting many years after the end of 12th Night, in the book Thirteenth Night. The premise of the series is that Feste belongs to the secretive Fool's Guild, a band of entertainers that has been trained to be a hidden subversive element for good within medieval society. The series of 8 books intertwines some of the characters backstories cleverly into several of Shakespeare's plays indirectly (offhand, Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and 12th night). They don't seem to be in print any longer (the author is a lawyer as his day job) but they are entertaining.
Never heard of "Shakespeare as Literary Dramatist." Just ordered a copy.
Starting to hate you Steve, because every time I watch one of your videos I end up buying about 12 books! ;) ;)
I am lucky enough to have The Riverside Shakespeare, 1st edition, and it is one of my greatest treasures. I also agree with you that there is no satisfactory biography of Shakespeare, they mostly consist of conjecture with very little factual content.
So much bad advice here, let me help you:
1. "scholarly editions": Unless you're going for a degree, there's no reason to bother with this mountain of crap - "scholarly" theories age like milk and have the life expectancy of a fruit fly. Other than to look up some words or certain references, anyone with decent reading comprehension skills can, with a little practice and determination, read Shakespeare without a problem.
2. Watch/listen to the plays first - there are tons of good movie, TV and audio versions. Find something that you personally will like - if you hate costume drama, find a "modern dress" version, if you hate current-year politics, find a "traditional" version, if you like action movies find action versions of the plays that have action (battles, duels) etc. Reading the plays is 100% easier once you've seen/heard some version of them.
4. If you're new to Shakespeare it's a moot point - but if you really get into it then the alternate versions of the plays, even earlier "anonymous" versions are 90% likely to be Shakespeare originals and you should read them as well as the so-called Apocrypha. There's no good reason to exclude this work and many great reasons to include them in the canon. The "authorities" don't even bother with these texts, they're full of shit & lying when they say they've been vetted, they really haven't been, and when they are, they are always shown to be more likely WS's work than anyone else's. The experts just don't want to be bothered with them.
5. Best editions to start with are the cheap Dover paperbacks: use the internet & library, make your own notes, come to your own conclusions, let the so-called authorities pound sand, they don't know anything more about these words than you can teach yourself, for all they know (or surmise) about Shakespeare's time period. It's okay to "misread" Shakespeare, it's okay to form your own opinion, it's okay to interpret them any way you like - no one has the final word except WS himself.
In brief: have fun, enjoy Shakespeare, go your own way.
When I need 'help' from a condescending asshole, I'll give you a call.
Where's point number 3?
Harold Jenkins' edition of Hamlet!!! My goodness! I bought his long-awaited Arden edition the week it came out in 1982 when I was studying English at Cambridge. It is basically old-school scholarly crap that cobbles together all three or so printed editions. It most certainly does NOT support your contention that there is only one version of Shakespeare's plays. There is an inconsistency here.