Product Description

Doing Shakespeare offers a fresh insight into the difficulties and excesses of Shakespeare's drama and language. Written primarily for students making the transition from school to university, it aims both to demystify and illuminate the study of Shakespeare, tackling many of the challenges students face as they move towards a more complex critical engagement with Shakespeare's work. Equally, it shows how recovering the layered energies within and between Shakespeare's words, and the role of such dense language in constructing character, is indispensable if we are to rediscover the plays' ethical, political and emotional punch."...brilliant, intelligent, engaging..."Bernard Richards, The English Review, September 2006"Simon Palfrey's Doing Shakespeare is far more than a primer. Readers and watchers of Shakespeare, however experienced, will find a host of new insights here. Indeed, I cannot think of another critic since Empson who has teased out so much so lucidly and (usually) so persuasively from the intricacies of Shakespearean language. Sometimes wayward, frequently vertiginous, always provocative of serious thought" Jonathan Bate, International Books of the Year 2004, The Times Literary Supplement, October 2004.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #286809 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
'an exceptional book for the older student (and teacher) to have beside them as a reference and resource for new students.'
--www.inkpellet.co.uk

Customer Reviews

Doing Shakespeare - the Right Way
I came across this book by chance, and I'm so glad I did. It has helped me (finally) to get some real understanding of just how Shakespeare actually works, things that have long perplexed me, such as why/when does Shakespeare use prose in his plays, I now have some grasp of. It is not a lightweight read (but then Shakespeare is not lightweight himself), nevertheless it is written with a clarity and purpose that encourages you to hang on in there. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who wants to dig deeper into the plays, or who wants to better understand that mysterious art called playwrighting. Excellent!