It keeps getting better with each page. If you're like me, and you're not all that familiar with the real Shakespeare, you'll find this a truly illuminating read. It's accessible, it's fun, and it sure is a better beach read then anything else you're likely to find this summer. What a terrific surprise!

Great reading in any type of weather. Witty, intellingently presented. Great choice of words. Makes William Shakespeare really a "Bill" who did write ABOUT the masses FOR the masses. Sharp focus on many of the plays that used to give me problems in analyses. Explanation flows effortlessly and make a great deal of sense, when presented with actual monologues! So few bucks for such insights. When Mr. MacKechnie urges his readers "onward" I was ready! JGRAINGER, PHD.

What a find! I bought this book on the recommendation of Joan Plowright's foreward and am so pleased I did. Mackechnie's book not only gathers an amazing amount of Shakespearean monologues, but he dissects them with considerable insight and wit. He guides you through each speech with so much info: why, where, who, that it all makes perfect sense. Any acting student would benefit not only from the technical wisdom but from the anecdotal wisdom as well. Apparently Mackechnie has worked with Laurence Olivier, Anthony Hopkins, Plowright, Ian Mckellen, among others. Highly recommended.

This is one of the best books ever written on the performing arts. By focusing in on Barrymore's Shakespearean acting only, Morrison manages to show how a second-rate light comedian turned himself into a great artist by sheer hard work -- and then, horrifyingly, how an artist transformed himself into a clown through laziness and dissipation. Through the use of the actor's playbooks and impressive research, Morrison does the impossible and brings Barrymore's stage performances as Richard III and Hamlet so vividly alive you'll swear you're in the theater watching them (I was holding my breath at the end of "Hamlet"). Along the way there are vivid portraits of the idealistic, progressive theater in the 1920's and, a decade later, the ancestry of today's poisonous and envious celebrity culture. Once you read this book you'll never look at Barrymore the same way again.

Michael Morrison's book fills a much needed gap in the large Barrymore biographical canon: it tells the story of Barrymore the artist. Many of the other great biographies of the man and family (Margot Peter's THE HOUSE OF BARRYMORE, anything by James Kotsilibas-Davis, to name only two of many excellent others) understandably short-shrift the details found here, in favor of the fabulous "bon mots" and the large tragic arc of his life. Morrison, if it's possible to believe, makes that tragedy all the more heartbreaking by detailing the hard work that Barrymore put himself through to transform himself from a light comedian into the greatest tragic actor of his generation - and arguably the last great tragic actor of the American theatre.

The detailed recreations of Barrymore's acting in RICHARD III and HAMLET are facinating. They provide all of us who have come after some small picture of what it must have been like to actually see him on stage. It helps, I suppose, to be familiar with his film work, to have heard at least some of his Shakespearean recordings, in order to fully visualize Barrymore's "flashing, rapier" genius at work - but it's probably not necessary. A must for all Barrymore fans, actors, and theatre lovers, this book is a treasure. But beware, its story could break your heart.

Michael Morrison has provided us with a stirring portrait of one of America's greatest actors, John Barrymore. His book is a vivid account of Barrymore's innovative approach to Shakespearean acting and subsequent rise to fame. This book is required reading for Shakespearean scholars and Barrymore enthusiasts alike.

This is just plain fun--or not so plain, but amazingly enjoyable for something so filled with new and surprising information. Kastan writes well, seemingly knows everything that has been written on this vast topic, and makes it accessible and exciting.

Shakespeare as we read him! This is wonderful! hard to believe so much information could be made so available and fun to read. Well written and a good looking book--and the price is right!

this is informative, wittily written, and filled with surprises about how Shakespeare became "Shakespeare"; it is also a beautifully produced book, as one would expect from Cambridge.
The paperback makes a great gift for anyone interested in Shakespeare or in the history of the book, even as that history moves into the digital era. A great buy and a must for any college or good high school library.

I thought that Midsummer Nights Dream was a good comedy by William Shakespeare. This book is about 2 couples who are in love with one another but their love changes when fairies come with a special plant to change their hearts. The couples are then in love with the wrong person for the wrong reason. While all this is going on, common people are preparing a play for the duke's wedding. Although the play is short, every part of it is enjoyable and funny. If you read one scene, you will want to read the next.

As a seventh grader I have just finished the required read of a MidSummer's Night dream and I found it to have a plot line that kids can relate to through movies but not through the life that a kid lives. We see love all over televsion and we see how it works and we can connect that to the play. What I do think that was great about this is how it kept to ryhming and a rhythem, I think that is what creates a great book!

One of Shakespeare's most enjoyable works, "A Midsummer's Nights Dream" is the story of four lovers (either loved, in love, or both) who travel into an "enchanted" forest, filled with magical fairies who play tricks on them and even themselves. Meanwhile, a hapless stage production prepares for a performance at the Duke's wedding. All storylines lead to an enjoyable resolution climaxing with the hilarious performance of "The Most Lamentable Comedy of Pyramus and Thisbe." This is one of Shakespeare's funniest and consequently is one of his most univerally-enjoyed plays. I recommend it for anyone with any interest at all in Shakespeare's works.

As a nonactor I'm in the midst of reading this book. Now for the first time I'm completely grasping the prose and verse. In the past I've tried to read Shakespeare cold, with no help, and as a modern English speaker you can pick up some things yes, but this book makes it all, and I mean all clear. We get well over 100 of his greatest monologues, and every unfamiliar word is fully explained, as well as multiple interpretations of the lines.

I recommend this book to students, actors, writers, and layman for it will unleash the magic of the verse. And when it does you can read or see a performance and grasp it all...and there is so much to grasp, and a good play requires a good reader, a good performance, a good audience, and this book will make you one.

Learn the Speech! Actors need tools for their acting toolkit and not a day goes by here at my Writers & Performers Garage in Los Angeles that I don't mention this great new tool. With over 150 monologues, it's an essential for actor preparation. I can't think of any recent book I've read that is more useful for actors working seriously at their craft.

Although I know Speak the Speech is intended to be "an actor's tool kit," I have found it abundantly helpful as I teach my Shakespeare literature class this semester. The analysis and explication of speeches from As You Like It, Richard II and Henry IV have been a god-send as I work to have Shakespeare's characters jump off the page and live in the imaginations of my students.

I am also thrilled to be able to refer students in my Audition Techniques class to the book as they struggle with developing classical audition monologues. The wonder of this text is that it offers textual illumination of familiar passages for seasoned actors and scholars, and is at the same time written in a manner that is immediately accessible beginners.

I look forward with excitement to using this book in coming semesters as I teach my classes in acting Shakespeare.

Romeo and Juliet

Felipe Gravier and Lorenzo Schiavo review:

We think that Romeo and Juliet tells the story of two star-crossed lovers whose families are in a terrible fight which prevents them from coming together. How far the couple will go to be together becomes the focus of the story. Of his richest poetry. The opening and closing choruses are some of his most outstanding work. Romeo's It is a brilliant love story but not much more. It still possesses however some wooing of Juliet is fabulously written. The Friar gets the best lines. Mercutio is one the best friends of Romeo. It is not as good as Shakespeare has written but it's still a fabulous book and up there with his best work. One part of the play we didn't like was that for the tow families get arrange there two kids had to die.
The English language wasn't finally finished so Shakespeare had the liberty to create words and play with the language, as he liked. That's why It was so difficult to understand what each character wanted to express so the teacher had to explain us each of that words and teach us all the words in that age and told us which were the words in the English of today.

This book provides lots of Shakespeare's Storys like "A Midsummer's Night Dream" and "Hamlet" with a children's fairy tale twist. The storys are the same as Shakespeare's, but easier for children to understand. My favorite story was Hamlet because I had just seen the play. A while after we read Children's Shakespeare and it helped me to understand Hamlet better.

Shakespeare is for kids and adults in E. Nesbit's creative mind. I always liked fairy tales, but I couldn't read Shakespeare very well. In Children's Shakespeare E. Nesbit turned his work into fairy tales without changing the story and morals. This book is not much like Nesbit's other books because it was written by Shakespeare, but I bet there are some simularities.

This book was a overall well writen book and I beleive E. Nesbit put a lot of hard work into her books in her life-time. I'm sure if she were alive now she would still be writing good books to this day.

Book Review: William Shakespeare & the Globe By: Aliki

This book has been honored with many awards for good reason. With pictures, a sprinkle of quotes from several of Shakespeare's own plays, and many historical references make this book is a very interesting layout of William Shakespeare's life and times. The book chronicles the theatre world in Shakespeare's time and his involvement in it all,and the building and rebuilding of the famous Globe theatre (even up to its rebirth in 1987!). The book shows the various phases of William's life in "Acts" just like his famous plays. The book even discusses the many words and phrases that he invented that we still use today. It ends with a look at Sam Wanamaker and Theo Crosby's vision of recreating The Globe and how they went about creating this wonderful restoration.

A book that captures the reader's attention visually and with its easily read text. I am, as a teacher of 7th grade English, very impressed by this book, and can't wait to share it with my classes.

This book was the best Shakespeare book i've read. It had great facts and pictures for my Shakespeare roport. Now i read it for great enjoyment. It not only tells the story of Shakespeare but the story of Sam Wanamaker who had a dream to rebuild Shakespeare's Globe Theather. This was the best shakespeare book around, i bet you will enjoy it

Aliki's gift for clarity, humor and cleverness shine through this wonderful book. It is, like all Aliki's books, loaded with information, but manages not to overwhelm. You will find yourself coming back to this book again and again, examining the pictures and finding details you hadn't noticed before. A marvelous introduction to Shakespeare for mid- to older elementary children (and a visual delight for even younger readers!).

Having a love of literature, and being an English Lit. major has given me the oportunity to read most of Shakespeare's works. Shakespeare's talent and genius has surely endured and his beautiful writings are essential to mankind not only in the classroom but throughout our lives. His tragedies speak the loudest to me, as they are charged with drama, emotion and memorable quotations. Having to choose a favorite book of all time I would say, "Othello." Yet Hamlet is my second favorite drama of Shakespeare's, and Macbeth also holds strong. I do not care for King Lear but having Shakespeare's 4 greatest and most popular tragedies in one book is a collection worth having.

4 of his best i strongly recomend this group of storys.

Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth are Shakespeare's greatest works. These fantastic stories, coupled with strong footnotes, make for superb reading material. I would recommend this book to beginning and master Shakespeare readers.

those authors couldn't have written a finer book. This restored Klingon version is enriched by an indeed eloquent tongue. You may have read Shakespearean plays before but you cannot appreciate Shakespeare until you have read him in original Klingon. William Shakespeare had the soul of a Klingon.
.

Klingon Hamlet is an elegant, graceful, vibrant and original Klingon
version of the critically acclaimed, glorious, magnificent and classic drama. That is why it is called "Restored version of Hamlet". The Hamlet's clumsy, inadequate, awkward and misleading English version has nothing but distorted, flaccid, ponderous meanderings. Now at last, the powerful drama of the legendary and brilliant playwright can be appreciated in the eloquence and glory of the Klingon language.

Well, okay, I liked it too.

those authors couldn't have written a finer book. This restored Klingon version is enriched by an indeed eloquent tongue. That's why Klingon Hamlet is regarded as the restored version.

You have read Shakespearean plays before but you cannot appreciate Shakespeare until you have read him in original Klingon.

You'll love reading the elegant, graceful, vibrant and original Klingon version of legendary, critically acclaimed and glorious drama Hamlet instead of clumsy and awkward English version.

Shakespeare's sonnets and narrative poems are something that every well-versed romantic should have a copy of and this well priced and durable volume is great for reading and re-reading and marking up your favorite passages to memorize later.

Having read "A MidSummer's Night Dream" I knew that the bard could pen page after page of love-filled, alluring rhyming verse. But if that's what you fancy then you must read the sonnets and the long lyric poems contained in this Everyman's edition.

I'm trying to commit sonnet #18 to memory. It famously starts "shall I compare these to a summer's day". These are among the greatest pick up lines of the 16th century.

The sonnets are beautiful in their appreciation of love and the feminie form. Shakespeare must have been exactly as he was potrayed in the film "Shakespeare in Love": always on the prowl for females and continually in search of a muse. (Interestingly the translation of "muse" in the 15th and 16th century is "poet.)

Finally, the poem Venus and Adonis is more of this romantic banter. This poem is red hot, much more erotic than anything you could read in Maxim or Cosmopolitan. Consider this: "Being so enraged (aroused), desire doth lender her force Courageously to pluck him from his horse...She red and hot as coals of glowing fire, He red for shame, but frosty in desire...Tis but a kiss I beg--what art thou coy."

This is titalliting, stimulating fair. ("Fair" means pretty in old English.) Who can read this without blushing. No wonder we didn't read this in high school.

This is the perfect way to read Shakespeare. I also highly recommend the other volumes of Shakespeare available from the Everyman's Library.