Shakespeare Books

New and Published Books

1. Shakespeare: The Basics

   3rd Edition

   By Sean McEvoy

   Series: The Basics

   Now in its third edition Shakespeare: The Basics is an insightful and informative introduction to the work of William Shakespeare. Exploring all aspects of Shakespeare’s plays including the language, cultural contexts, and modern interpretations, this text looks at how a range of plays from across...

   Published May 21st 2012 by Routledge
2. Representing the Plague in Early Modern England

   Edited by Rebecca Totaro, Ernest B. Gilman

   Series: Routledge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture

   This collection offers readers a timely encounter with the historical experience of people adapting to a pandemic emergency and the corresponding narrative representation of that crisis, as early modern writers transformed the plague into literature. The essays examine the impact of the plague on...

   Published April 19th 2012 by Routledge
3. English Tragedy before Shakespeare

   The Development of Dramatic Speech

   By Wolfgang Clemen

   First published in English 1961, this reissue relates the problems of form and style to the development of dramatic speech in pre-Shakespearean tragedy. The work offers positive standards by which to assess the development of pre-Shakespearean drama and, by tracing certain characteristics in...

   Published March 1st 2012 by Routledge
4. Shakespeare and the Economic Imperative

   “What’s aught but as ‘tis valued?”

   By Peter F. Grav

   Series: Studies in Major Literary Authors

   Despite the volume of work Shakespeare produced, surprisingly few of his plays directly concern money and the economic mindset. Shakespeare and the Economic Imperative examines the five plays that do address monetary issues (The Comedy of Errors, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice,...

   Published February 22nd 2012 by Routledge
5. Richard II

   New Critical Essays

   Edited by Jeremy Lopez

   Series: Shakespeare Criticism

   Arguably the first play in a Shakespearean tetralogy, Richard II is a unique and compelling political drama whose themes still resonate today. It is one of the few Shakespeare plays written entirely in verse and its format presents unique theatrical challenges. Politically engaged and controversial...

   Published February 6th 2012 by Routledge
6. Memory in Shakespeare's Histories

   Stages of Forgetting in Early Modern England

   By Jonathan Baldo

   Series: Routledge Studies in Shakespeare

   A distinguishing feature of Shakespeare’s later histories is the prominent role he assigns to the need to forget. This book explore the ways in which Shakespeare expanded the role of forgetting in histories from King John to Henry V, as England contended with what were perceived to be traumatic...

   Published December 21st 2011 by Routledge
7. Family and the State in Early Modern Revenge Drama

   Economies of Vengeance

   By Chris McMahon

   Series: Routledge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture

   In this book, McMahon considers Early Modern revenge plays from a political science perspective, paying particular attention to the construction of family and state institutions. Plays set for close study are The Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet, The Revenger’s Tragedy, The Malcontent and The Duchess of...

   Published December 21st 2011 by Routledge
8. Shakespeare in the Victorian Periodicals

   By Kathryn Prince

   Series: Studies in Major Literary Authors

   Based on extensive archival research, Shakespeare in the Victorian Periodicals offers an entirely new perspective on popular Shakespeare reception by focusing on articles published in Victorian periodicals. Shakespeare had already reached the apex of British culture in the previous...

   Published December 14th 2011 by Routledge
9. Retheorizing Shakespeare through Presentist Readings

   By James O'Rourke

   Series: Routledge Studies in Shakespeare

   This book offers a theoretical rationale for the emerging presentist movement in Shakespeare studies and goes on to show, in a series of close readings, that a presentist Shakespeare is not an anachronism. Relying on a Brechtian aesthetic of "naïve surrealism" as the performative model of the...

   Published November 17th 2011 by Routledge
10. Radical Shakespeare

    Politics and Stagecraft in the Early Career

    By Chris Fitter

    Series: Routledge Studies in Shakespeare

    This book argues that Shakespeare was permanently preoccupied with the brutality, corruption, and ultimate groundlessness of the political order of his state, and that the impact of original Tudor censorship, supplemented by the relatively depoliticizing aesthetic traditions of later centuries,...

    Published October 24th 2011 by Routledge