Product Description

York Notes Advanced offer a fresh and accessible approach to English Literature. This market-leading series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, York Notes Advanced intorduce students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14117 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 136 pages

Review
'First there are accessible and interesting essays about how the plays have been performed and interpreted over the years. Then there is the text, with helpful notes on the facing pages. Finally - and most innovatively - there is a CD at the back, which provides many and various extracts from the play. Useful to anyone studying or teaching Shakespeare at secondary school or college level.' The Stage, (12 April 2007) 'This intriguing series focuses on Shakespeare in performance The books themselves are packed with information - photographs of key performances, essays on productions, and interviews with actors and directors. Opposite each play text an extensive glossary explains unfamiliar words, and the audio clips are marked alongside corresponding scenes The CDs reinforce the beauty and power of the language in performance, and will undoubtedly enhance anyone's understanding and enjoyment of Shakespeare's plays, as they were meant to be experienced.' The Good Book Guide, (May 2007) 'This new Shakespeare book and CD brings Shakespeare's plays leaping to life. This innovative format contains text, audio and illustration This is a revolutionary resource.' Bookseller, Back to School (8 June 2007) Review of Richard III] 'A complete package for anyone wanting to study the play itself, and the performance dimension It is complemented by an excellent CD which includes narrative by Derek Jacobi set alongside contrasting performances from major productions of the play with some of the greatest stage interpretations of the Bard's work.' Publishing News, Back to School (1 June 2007)

The Good Book Guide, May 2007
'This intriguing series focuses on Shakespeare in performance...
The books themselves are packed with information - photographs of key
performances, essays on productions, and interviews with actors and
directors. Opposite each play text an extensive glossary explains
unfamiliar words, and the audio clips are marked alongside corresponding
scenes... The CDs reinforce the beauty and power of the language in
performance, and will undoubtedly enhance anyone's understanding and
enjoyment of Shakespeare's plays, as they were meant to be experienced.'

The Stage, (12 April 2007)
'First there are accessible and interesting essays about how the plays have been performed and interpreted over the years. Then there is the text, with helpful notes on the facing pages. Finally - and most innovatively - there is a CD at the back, which provides many and various extracts from the play. Useful to anyone studying or teaching Shakespeare at secondary school or college level.'

Customer Reviews

The Best User-Friendly Edition of Shakespeare's Plays
As a student, teacher and lover of English, I have several editions of Shakespeare's plays: Arden, Oxford, Penguin and some more obscure ones. I have settled on this edition as my preferred one. The Arden and Oxford editions may be more scholarly, but none beats the sourcebook Shakespeares for information, variety and sheer readability.
So what makes this edition so special?
First and foremost the text is spaciously laid out. That may not sound like a big deal, but just look at the way Shakespeare is usually set out - lines close together, almost crammed onto a page. Here, the text is given room to breathe. This makes appreciating (and annotating) it much easier. Psychologically, you don't have the feeling of stepping into an impenetrable forest of words, but into a comfortable text.
The text is only on one side (the right), the left being reserved for notes, which are sufficient to understand the text. The left side also contains photos from past productions as well as some interesting notes on how some scenes have been interpreted. Text variants are not generally noted, but that's a domain reserved for the more scholarly editions, which this is not primarily. Links to the Audio-CD are also marked clearly.
Which brings me to the next point: the Audio CD. Why has no-one thought of this before? The CD contains key scenes and speeches, often from different productions so that you can compare them. A great resource and tool to explore intonation and emphasis and what different actors make of a character.
The text of the play is preceded by short essays on
- the play in production through the years,
- one performance, with an explanation what made that performance so special (this can also be a film)
- how the play has fared in popular culture (film adaptations and the like)
After the text of the play there's a little gem called `The cast speaks'. This is a set of interviews with the cast of a recent production in which each actor explains her or his approach to the character and how they see that character as a person, how they acted her or him. Excellent stuff, that.
The book is rounded off by a voice coach's perspective on speaking Shakespeare (also very interesting) and a short historical note on the age of Shakespeare.
There's also a link to online resources.
Wow! What else could you ask for - and for that price!?!
The whole book is geared towards making Shakespeare's play come to life, both visually (through the production photos) and aurally (through the Audio CD) and as such is a great tool if you're thinking of producing your own Shakespeare play. But even if not, this edition has so much life in it that you'll fall in love with Shakespeare all over again.
This is a definite must have - even if you already have another edition of Shakespeare.

An excellent study aid
I read this after reading several heavy literary critiques of Shrew and a fairly weighty copy of the play text itself. I use these kinds of notes as a handy quick reference guide in these situations, and so wasn't expecting much, especially as sometimes these kind of books can be hastily churned out and sometimes contain errors.
I was surprised by how good this is (and was able to use my other extensive reading to back up these claims for quality and veracity). It gives excellent references to all kinds of materials including websites, critical texts and films, many of which are bang up to date. It covers all the key points you look for in a study guide, i.e. brief plot summaries, characters, themes etc, but also provides excerpts of more in depth textual analysis, which are incredibly useful.
The care taken to provide context for how the play has been treated over the years, what it would have been like in its original theatrical setting and how we treat it now, was fantastic to see.
If you are studying this book at GCSE, A Level or even at undergraduate level I recommend it highly. It is worth every penny.