Shakespeare and Me
38 Great Writers, Actors, and Directors on What the Bard Means to Them - and Us
Published on 3. April 2014
Book
Hardback
528 pages
978-1-78074-426-1 (ISBN)
Description
Why Shakespeare?
It's been 400 years since his death and yet we continue to find inspiration, revelation, solace, and entertainment in his poems and plays. In this original collection, Susannah Carson invites 38 actors, directors, scholars, and writers to share their own personal connections with Shakespeare and explore how he came to shape our world so completely.
Along the way, we reminisce on a childhood spent constructing makeshift matchstick theatres with Isabel Allende, grapple with Coriolanus for a modern audience alongside Ralph Fiennes, hear from James Earl Jones on reclaiming Othello as a tragic hero, share in Julie Taymor's transformation of Prospero into Prospera, join Sir Ben Kingsley on his mission to keep Shakespeare's ideas alive for all generations through performance, and muse with Brian Cox on social conflict in Shakespeare's time and in ours. Together they offer fresh insight into Shakespeare's work as a living legacy to be read, seen, performed, adapted, revised, wrestled with, and loved.
It's been 400 years since his death and yet we continue to find inspiration, revelation, solace, and entertainment in his poems and plays. In this original collection, Susannah Carson invites 38 actors, directors, scholars, and writers to share their own personal connections with Shakespeare and explore how he came to shape our world so completely.
Along the way, we reminisce on a childhood spent constructing makeshift matchstick theatres with Isabel Allende, grapple with Coriolanus for a modern audience alongside Ralph Fiennes, hear from James Earl Jones on reclaiming Othello as a tragic hero, share in Julie Taymor's transformation of Prospero into Prospera, join Sir Ben Kingsley on his mission to keep Shakespeare's ideas alive for all generations through performance, and muse with Brian Cox on social conflict in Shakespeare's time and in ours. Together they offer fresh insight into Shakespeare's work as a living legacy to be read, seen, performed, adapted, revised, wrestled with, and loved.
Reviews / Votes
'There are gems... politically thoughtful... illuminating' * Times Literary Supplement * 'Lively.... Thought-provoking.... a consistently stimulating read, which goes a great way toward illuminating the degree to which we all live already-and can live even further-with Shakespeare.' * Publishers Weekly, starred review * 'All these writers...write in a spirit not of superiority or undue deference, but in tacit acknowledgement of what Harold Bloom calls, in a foreword, "the most capacious of consciousnesses" in a writer who broadened and defined the horizons of human possibility' * Independent * 'All will find light and warmth, comfort and companionship in these glowing pages.' * Kirkus Reviews * 'A cornucopia of delights for lovers of the Bard.' * Booklist *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
22 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 41 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78074-426-1 (9781780744261)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Susannah Carson
Shakespeare and Me
38 Great Writers, Actors, and Directors on What the Bard Means to Them - and Us
E-Book
04/2014
1st Edition
Oneworld Publications
€7.90
Available for download
Previous edition
Book
05/2007
Oneworld Publications
€19.50
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Persons
Susannah Carson is an author, editor, and academic. She received her Ph.D. from Yale, after earning graduate degrees at Paris III, La Sorbonne-Nouvelle and Lyon II, L'Universite des Lumieres. Her first edited book was A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Reasons Why We Can't Stop Reading Jane Austen. Her work has appeared in scholarly publications, newspapers, and magazines.
Harold Bloom is Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University and a world-renowned author of thirty-eight books, including How to Read and Why, The Anxiety of Influence, and Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.
Harold Bloom is Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University and a world-renowned author of thirty-eight books, including How to Read and Why, The Anxiety of Influence, and Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.