Presents the history of Shakespeare, following him through a single year that changed not only his fortunes, but the course of literature. In this one year, we follow what he reads and writes, what he saw, and who he worked with as he creates four of his most famous plays - "Henry V", "Julius Caesar", "As You Like It", and "Hamlet".

Following the biographical style of 1599, this book traces Shakespeare's life and times from the autumn of 1605, when he took an old and anonymous Elizabethan play, The Chronicle History of King Leir, and transformed it into his most searing tragedy, King Lear.

The man and the plays - without the boring bits - with commentary by Peter Ackroyd.

From the Royal Shakespeare Company - a modern, definitive edition of Shakespeare's most loved comedy. This edition also includes an essay on Shakespeare's career and Elizabethan theatre, and enables the reader to understand the play as it was originally intended - as living theatre to be enjoyed and performed.

Siobhan Keenan's comprehensive survey of the key acting companies of the early modern period offers undergraduates and scholars a new perspective on how their demands effected the sort of plays being written and the multiple factors which fostered and formed the theatre of renaissance England.

A fresh new edition of Shakespeare's ambiguous, bittersweet fairy tale, developed by and for the RSC, includes new interviews with acclaimed directors Gregory Doran and Stephen Fried, and actor Guy Henry, looks at specific productions in the play's history, and an illuminating introduction by acclaimed scholar Jonathan Bate.

This new edition of Shakespeare's classic love story, developed by and for the RSC, includes new interviews with acclaimed directors Adrian Noble, Gregory Doran and Braham Murray, looks at specific productions in the play's history, and a completely new introduction by acclaimed scholar Jonathan Bate.

This handbook offers a way in to reading Anthony and Cleopatra theatrically. Through analyses of key productions, an account of the historical conditions in which the play was first produced, and a scene-by-scene account of how the play might be approached in performance, this book focuses on the challenges of staging the notorious lovers.

The introduction to this edition of "Troilus and Cressida" places it in its late Elizabethan context, examines and assimilates the wide variety of critical responses the play has elicited, and argues its importance in the context of late 20th-century culture as an experimental and open-ended work.

With its cross-dressed heroine, gender games and explorations of sexual ambivalence, its Forest of Arden and melancholy Jacques, this book speaks directly to the twenty-first century. It connects the play to the Elizabethan court and its dynamic queen and demonstrates that the play's vital roots in its own time give it new life in ours.

From the Royal Shakespeare Company - a modern, definitive edition of Shakespeare's journey into the Forest of Arden.

Michael Hattaway's introduction to this bestselling edition accounts for what makes this popular play both innocent and dangerous. This third edition includes a new section on recent critical interpretations and on recent as well as past stage productions and films of the play, as well as fresh illustrations.

The commentary at the centre of this Handbook introduces students to the play as it would be experienced in performance. Other sections provide basic information about the text and its first performances, a brief description of the main political and cultural currents of the time and the popular kinds of entertainment, drama and comedy.

Introduces students to the study of Shakespeare and grounds their understandings of his work in theoretical discourses. By addressing what is primarily at stake in the major theoretical approaches to Shakespeare's works, the book breaks down both fears and preconceptions to offer students a map of the current critical practices of others.

Whimsical visual adaptations of four Shakespearean comedies, rendered in LEGO bricks, feature scene-by-scene reenactments accompanied by captioned excerpts from the plays.

An international team of scholars covers every aspect of one of the most famous books in the English language.