Product Description A great way to enjoy twenty of Shakespeare s timeless plays, this volume is a retelling of the stories in prose by the famous nineteenth-century brother and sister Charles and Mary Lamb. Keeping Shakespeare s own words whenever possible but making the plots and language easily accessible, this entertaining and readable collection has enthralled both children and adults ever since it first appeared in 1807. Here Shakespeare s best-known tragedies and comedies come to life. Defined by moving drama, vivid action, great wit, or fantastic imagination, each play comes alive with charm and clarity for readers of any age as a helpful preface to the original Elizabethan version or even as enriching, unforgettable stories in themselves. With an Introduction by Susan J. Wolfson and an Afterword by Sylvan Barnet, general editor of the Signet Classic Shakespeare series.
Book Description The most popular rewritten version of Shakespeare's plays.
About the Author Charles andMary Lamb were brother and sister, both gifted writers plagued with madness at certain times in their lives. Charles Lamb is best known for the brilliant personal essays he wrote under the name Elia, first published inLondon magazine from 1820 to 1823. He was highly acclaimed as a critic and was a close friend to some of the greatest authors of his time, particularly Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Leigh Hunt. For a time in 1795 96, he suffered a nervous breakdown. Then, in 1796, Mary, in a fit of derangement, fatally stabbed their mother. Charles undertook the charge of his sister, who suffered periodic breakdowns, and she gratefully repaid him with deep affection and caring. Together they producedTales from Shakespeare (1807) andMrs. Leicester s School (1809), a largely autobiographical collection of stories mostly written by Mary. InThe Adventures of Ulysses (1808), Charles also adaptedThe Odyssey into a form more accessible to the layman. Charles died in 1834 and Mary in 1847. Susan J. Wolfson, Professor of English at Princeton University, is a widely recognized authority on British Romanticism, the era in which the LambsTales from Shakespeare was first published. She is the author of several books, includingFormal Charges: The Shaping of Poetry in British Romanticism andBorderlines: The Shiftings of Gender in British Romanticism, as well as many articles on the writers, texts, and issues of literary study, particularly in the Romantic era. She is also on the board of the editors of theLongman Anthology of British Literature and General Editor of the Longman Cultural Editions. Sylvan Barnetreceived a BA from New York University and an MA and a PhD from Harvard University. At Tufts University, where he served as chair of the Department of English, he taught courses ranging from Chaucer to twentieth-century literature, though he specialized in courses on Renaissance drama. He is the general editor of the Signet Classics Shakespeare series, the author of numerous essays on Shakespeare as well as ofA Short Guide to Shakespeare, and the author and coauthor of several dramatic texts, including editions of selected plays by Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw.
以下为对购买帮助不大的评价