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Book excerpts, reviews, author interviews, and reading recommendations
Excerpt: "Shakespeare's Book" by Chris Laoutaris
Shakespeare's Book
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Excerpt: "Shakespeare's Book" by Chris Laoutaris

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Chris Laoutaris explores the Shakespearean printing mystery behind the Pavier-Jaggard Quartos, published a few years before the First Folio.

Excerpt: "White People in Shakespeare"
The Arden Shakespeare. White People in Shakespeare. Essays on Race, Culture and the Elite. Edited by Arthur L. Little Jr.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Excerpt: "White People in Shakespeare"

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White People in Shakespeare examines what part Shakespeare played in the construction of a “white people” and how his work has been enlisted to define and bolster a white cultural and racial identity.

Excerpt - "Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne" by Katherine Rundell
Shakespeare and Beyond

Excerpt - "Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne" by Katherine Rundell

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“Spiritually speaking, many of us confronted with the thought of death perform the psychological equivalence of hiding in a box with our knees under our chin: Donne hunted death, battled it, killed it, saluted it, threw it parties.” Read more…

Excerpt: "The Final Curtain: The Art of Dying on Stage" by Laurence Senelick
The Final Curtain cover
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Excerpt: "The Final Curtain: The Art of Dying on Stage" by Laurence Senelick

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Shakespeare’s plays provide ample opportunity for dramatic deaths onstage, and 18th-century English actors like David Garrick transformed simple stage directions in the text into “stirring set-pieces,” as Laurence Senelick writes in the below excerpt from his new book, “The Final…

Arthur Murphy's 18th-century collection of humor - Excerpt: "Laughing Histories" by Joy Wiltenburg
People laughing and playing music
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Arthur Murphy's 18th-century collection of humor - Excerpt: "Laughing Histories" by Joy Wiltenburg

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“Murphy may be the first person in history to subject laughter to such intensive and extensive study, at least from the perspective of a laughter professional,” writes Joy Wiltenburg about the 18th-century writer’s 500-page compilation of humor, in this excerpt…

Excerpt - "Susanna Hall, Her Book" by Jennifer Falkner
Susanna Hall Her Book cover
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Excerpt - "Susanna Hall, Her Book" by Jennifer Falkner

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In the opening scene of Jennifer Falkner’s novella “Susanna Hall, Her Book,” the queen of England has just arrived at New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon. But Susanna, the eldest daughter of William Shakespeare, has reasons for not wanting to host Henrietta…

Gaming and grieving with Shakespeare: Gabrielle Zevin’s new novel puts the ghostliness in gameplay
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Shakespeare and Beyond

Gaming and grieving with Shakespeare: Gabrielle Zevin’s new novel puts the ghostliness in gameplay

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Sophia Richardson

Sophia Richardson explores how Gabrielle Zevin’s new novel about video games, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” is also a book about Shakespeare.

The soliloquy and Hamlet - Excerpt: 'The Elizabethan Mind' by Helen Hackett
The Elizabethan Mind
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The soliloquy and Hamlet - Excerpt: 'The Elizabethan Mind' by Helen Hackett

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Helen Hackett explores Shakespeare’s use of the soliloquy in “Hamlet,” including the famous “To be or not to be” speech, in this excerpt from her new book, “The Elizabethan Mind: Searching for the Self in an Age of Uncertainty,” published…

A summer Shakespeare adventure: 'Her Majesty’s Will' by David Blixt
Her Majesty's Will book cover
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A summer Shakespeare adventure: 'Her Majesty’s Will' by David Blixt

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Austin Tichenor

Austin Tichenor recommends an adventure novel starring a young Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, who uncover a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth.

Excerpt: Jonathan Bate's preface to the RSC's second edition of Shakespeare's complete works
RSC Complete Works
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Excerpt: Jonathan Bate's preface to the RSC's second edition of Shakespeare's complete works

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“To know Shakespeare thoroughly and read him well aloud, it was necessary to have a usable edition of his works, a text that did away with printer’s errors and the vagaries of old spelling and punctuation, that explained the more…

Excerpt - "William Shakespeare’s Avengers: The Complete Works" by Ian Doescher
The Avengers
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Excerpt - "William Shakespeare’s Avengers: The Complete Works" by Ian Doescher

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The Bard meets the MCU in Ian Doescher’s reworking of the four Avengers films as a Shakespearean play. Read an excerpt from the epic Battle of New York scene from the first Avengers film.

Bottom's dream - Excerpt: 'Reading Shakespeare Reading Me' by Leonard Barkan
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Bottom's dream - Excerpt: 'Reading Shakespeare Reading Me' by Leonard Barkan

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This excerpt from Leonard Barkan’s new book “Reading Shakespeare Reading Me” explores Bottom’s awakening and recollection of his enchantment as a donkey in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

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