Book of the Month

The Wheel of Fire by G. Wilson Knight

Originally published in 1930, this classic of modern Shakespeare criticism proves both enlightening and innovative. Standing head and shoulders above all other Shakespearean interpretations, this is the masterwork of the brilliant English scholar, G. Wilson Knight. Founding a new and influential school of Shakespearean criticism, Wheel of Fire was Knight’s first venture in the field – his writing sparkles with insight and wit, and his analyses are key to contemporary understandings of Shakespeare.

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Lincoln and Shakespeare by Michael Anderegg

Novelists, filmmakers, and playwrights have frequently shown Lincoln quoting Shakespeare. In Lincoln and Shakespeare, Michael Anderegg for the first time examines in detail Lincoln’s fascination with and knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays. Separated by centuries and extraordinary circumstances, the two men clearly shared a belief in the power of language and both at times held a fatalistic view of human nature. While citations from Shakespeare are few in his writings and speeches, Lincoln read deeply and quoted from the Bard’s work often when with company, a habit well documented in diaries, letters, and newspapers. Anderegg discusses Lincoln’s particular interest in Macbeth and Hamlet and in Shakespeare’s historical plays, where we see themes that resonated deeply with the president—the dangers of inordinate ambition, the horrors of civil war, and the corruptions of illegitimate rule.

This month’s book was suggested by Gordon Gidlund. Thank you, Gordon!

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Shakespeare in Swahililand: In Search of A Global Poet by Edward Wilson-Lee

Shakespeare in Swahililand tells the unexpected literary history of Shakespeare’s influence in East Africa. Beginning with Victorian-era expeditions in which Shakespeare’s works were the sole reading material carried into the interior, the Bard has been a vital touchstone throughout the region. His plays were printed by liberated slaves as some of the first texts in Swahili, performed by Indian laborers while they built the Uganda railroad, used to argue for native rights, and translated by intellectuals, revolutionaries, and independence leaders.

Weaving together stories of explorers staggering through Africa’s interior, eccentrics living out their dreams on the savanna, decadent émigrés, Cold War intrigues, and even Che Guevara, Edward Wilson-Lee―a Cambridge lecturer raised in Kenya―tallies Shakespeare’s influence in Zanzibar, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Traveling through these countries, he speaks with everyone from theater directors and academics to soldiers and aid workers, discovering not only cultural dimensions traceable to Shakespeare’s plays but also an overwhelming insistence that these works provide a key insight into the region.An astonishing work of empathy and historical vision, Shakespeare in Swahililand gets at the heart of what makes Shakespeare so universal and the role that his writings have played in thinking about what it means to be human.

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Appreciating Shakespeare by Gideon Rappaport

Appreciating Shakespeare makes easily available the essential tools for understanding and enjoying Shakespeare’s plays and poems, which means experiencing the deep and thrilling meanings of his works.

Part 1 offers the background knowledge–about Shakespeare’s life, language, poetic and dramatic techniques, theatrical context, and historical and cultural background–that help you to appreciate Shakespeare’s works. Part 2 offers short essays on twenty-two plays, pointing readers to the universally meaningful heart of each and illuminating themes often hidden or misrepresented in many stage and screen productions and critical writings. There is also a chapter dedicated to analysis of a selection of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

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The Heavens by Sandra Newman

New York, late summer, 2000. A party in a spacious Manhattan apartment, hosted by a wealthy young activist. Dozens of idealistic twenty-somethings have impassioned conversations over takeout dumplings and champagne. The evening shines with the heady optimism of a progressive new millennium. A young man, Ben, meets a young woman, Kate―and they begin to fall in love. ate lives with her head in the clouds, so at first, Ben isn’t that concerned when she tells him about the recurring dream she’s had since childhood. In the dream, she’s transported to the past, where she lives a second life as Emilia, the mistress of a nobleman in Elizabethan England. But for Kate, the dream becomes increasingly real, to the point where it threatens to overwhelm her life. And soon she’s waking from it to find the world changed―pictures on her wall she doesn’t recognize, new buildings in the neighborhood that have sprung up overnight. As Kate tries to make sense of what’s happening, Ben worries the woman he’s fallen in love with is losing her grip on reality.

This month’s book was suggested by Michael Reynolds. Thank you, Michael!

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The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher

Now is the fall of his discontent, as Jason Fitger, newly appointed chair of the English Department of Payne University, takes arms against a sea of troubles, personal and institutional. His ex-wife is sleeping with the dean who must approve whatever modest initiatives he undertakes. The fearsome department secretary Fran clearly runs the show (when not taking in rescue parrots and dogs) and holds plenty of secrets she’s not sharing. The lavishly funded Econ Department keeps siphoning off English’s meager resources and has taken aim at its remaining office space. And Fitger’s attempt to get a mossbacked and antediluvian Shakespeare scholar to retire backfires spectacularly when the press concludes that the Bard is being kicked to the curricular curb.

Lord, what fools these mortals be! Julie Schumacher proves the point and makes the most of it in this delicious romp of satire.

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Ramón and Julieta by Alana Quintana Albertson

Ramón Montez always achieves his goals. Whether that means collecting Ivy League degrees or growing his father’s fast-food empire, nothing sets Ramón off course. So when the sexy señorita who kissed him on the Day of the Dead runs off into the night with his heart, he determines to do whatever it takes to find her again. 

 Celebrity chef Julieta Campos has sacrificed everything to save her sea-to-table taqueria from closing. To her horror, she discovers that her new landlord is none other than the magnetic mariachi she hooked up with on Dia de los Muertos. Even worse, it was his father who stole her mother’s taco recipe decades ago. Julieta has no choice but to work with Ramón, the man who destroyed her life’s work—and the one man who tempts and inspires her. 

 As San Diego’s outraged community protests against the Taco King takeover and the divide between their families grows, Ramón and Julieta struggle to balance the rising tensions. But Ramón knows that true love is priceless and despite all of his successes, this is the one battle he refuses to lose.

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Lady of the Play by Deena Lindstedt

Was Elizabeth (Ely) Trentham only just the second wife of Edward deVere, the 17th Earl of Oxford? Or, should she be properly recognized as the authentic Shakespeare?

The story of the genius of Ely is revealed, from her childhood to the ten years as a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth I, her marriage to deVere and their collaboration, and why they needed to hire Wm Shaksper as their front. After Edward’s death in 1604, Ely continues to write plays until her death in 1612, the same year “Shakespeare” retires. Unbeknownst to anyone, Ely leaves clues behind waiting to be discovered even though it will take four-hundred years to do so.

Interwoven into the story of Ely is the modern story of Cynthia Parsons, a history teacher who is convinced Ely and Edward collaborated. Cynthia’s life includes friendships and romance, but researching the truth about Ely remains her primary focus. She receives help from a librarian friend and an attorney and together they search for evidence to prove who actually deserves the title “Shakespeare.” When Cynthia finds the clues left behind by Ely, there are those who will use any means to keep Cynthia from revealing her discoveries.

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The Science of Shakespeare by Dan Falk

William Shakespeare lived at a remarkable time―a period we now recognize as the first phase of the Scientific Revolution. New ideas were transforming Western thought, the medieval was giving way to the modern, and the work of a few key figures hinted at the brave new world to come: the methodical and rational Galileo, the skeptical Montaigne, and―as Falk convincingly argues―Shakespeare, who observed human nature just as intently as the astronomers who studied the night sky.

In The Science of Shakespeare, we meet a colorful cast of Renaissance thinkers, including Thomas Digges, who published the first English account of the “new astronomy” and lived in the same neighborhood as Shakespeare; Thomas Harriot―”England’s Galileo”―who aimed a telescope at the night sky months ahead of his Italian counterpart; and Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, whose observatory-castle stood within sight of Elsinore, chosen by Shakespeare as the setting for Hamlet―and whose family crest happened to include the names “Rosencrans” and “Guildensteren.” And then there’s Galileo himself: As Falk shows, his telescopic observations may have influenced one of Shakespeare’s final works.

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A Natural Perspective by Northrop Frye

In A Natural Perspective, Frye maintains that Shakespeare’s comedy is widely misunderstood and underestimated, and that the four romances– Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest–are the inevitable culmination of the poet’s career.

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Shakespeare’s Festive World by François Laroque

François Laroque’s new perspective on Shakespeare’s relation to popular culture has quickly become a classic of scholarship. The book opens new possibilities for Shakespeare studies, revealing the connections between his plays and the folklore, customs, games, and celebrations of the Elizabethan festive tradition. This acclaimed study shows how Shakespeare mingled popular culture with aristocratic and royal forms of entertainment in ways that combined or clashed to produce new meaning.

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Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom

Preeminent literary critic-and ultimate authority on the western literary tradition, Harold Bloom leads us through a comprehensive reading of every one of the dramatist’s plays, brilliantly illuminating each work with unrivaled warmth, wit and insight. At the same time, Bloom presents one of the boldest theses of Shakespearean scholarships: that Shakespeare not only invented the English language, but also created human nature as we know it today.

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Shakespeare and Emilia: the Untold Story by Peter Bassano

Emilia Bassano was identified as the Dark Musical Lady of the Shakespeare Sonnets by A.L.Rowse in 1973. This book presents previously unpublished evidence to prove that Rowse’s identification was correct. Emilia, an early feminist poet and musician, was the daughter of the youngest of six Venetian brothers, all professional musicians, brought to London by HenryVIII in 1540 to ensure a musical wedding for Anne of Cleves. Peter Bassano, the author and a descendent of Emilia’s uncle, Anthony, suggests that Shakespeare was the father of Emilia’s son, Henry. The book does not agree with the views of John Hudson and Peter Matthews that Emilia wrote the Shakespeare canon. He believes that Shakespeare was Shakespeare but that Emilia was hugely influential on Shakespeare’s writing, particularly in his outspoken heroines. The conclusions in this book are diametrically opposed to the conclusions in the 2020 book by Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells, All the Sonnets of Shakespeare.

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The Friendly Shakespeare by Norrie Epstein

A readable guide to the works of Shakespeare includes solid, but never too simplistic, information about the Bard’s language, life, and loves for those who want to learn about Shakespeare without wading through a morass of academic criticism.

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Hamnet by Maggie O’ Farrell

In 1580’s England, during the Black Plague a young Latin tutor falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman in this “exceptional historical novel” (The New Yorker) and best-selling winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.

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Lady Romeo: The Radical and Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America’s First Celebrity by Tana Wojczuk

This illuminating and enthralling biography of 19th-century queer actress Charlotte Cushman portrays her radical lifestyle that riveted New York City and made headlines across America. With new research and rarely seen letters and documents, Wojczuk reconstructs the formative years of Cushman’s life, set against the excitement and drama of 1800s New York City and featuring a cast of luminaries and revolutionaries who changed the cultural landscape of America forever. The story of an astonishing and uniquely American life, Lady Romeo reveals one of the most remarkable forgotten figures in our history and restores her to center stage, where she belongs.

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Thinking Shakespeare by Barry Edelstein

Thinking Shakespeare: A working guide for actors, directors, students…and anyone else interested in the Bard gives theater artists practical advice about how to make Shakespeare’s words feel spontaneous, passionate, and real. Based on Barry Edelstein’s thirty-year career directing Shakespeare’s plays, this book provides the tools that artists need to fully understand and express the power of Shakespeare’s language.

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The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood

Widge is an orphan with a rare talent for shorthand. His fearsome master has just one demand: steal Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” – or else. Widge has no choice but to follow orders, so he works his way into the heart of the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare’s players perform. As full of twists and turns as a London alleyway, this entertaining novel is rich in period details, colorful characters, villainy, and drama. The Shakespeare Stealer is a delightful adventure full of humor and heart set in Elizabethan England!

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1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro

1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. During that year, Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen. James Shapiro illuminates both Shakespeare’s staggering achievement and what Elizabethans experienced in the course of 1599, bringing together the news and the intrigue of the times with a wonderful evocation of how Shakespeare worked as an actor, businessman, and playwright. The result is an exceptionally immediate and gripping account of an inspiring moment in history.

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The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 by James Shapiro

In the years leading up to 1606, Shakespeare’s great productivity had ebbed. But that year, at age forty-two, he found his footing again, finishing a play he had begun the previous autumn—King Lear—then writing two other great tragedies, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra. It was a memorable year in England as well—a terrorist plot conceived by a small group of Catholic gentry had been uncovered at the last hour. The foiled Gunpowder Plot would have blown up the king and royal family along with the nation’s political and religious leadership. The aborted plot renewed anti-Catholic sentiment and laid bare divisions in the kingdom. It was against this background that Shakespeare finished Lear, a play about a divided kingdom, then wrote a tragedy that turned on the murder of a Scottish king, Macbeth. He ended this astonishing year with a third masterpiece no less steeped in current events and concerns: Antony and Cleopatra.

This month’s book was suggested by Laura Ganz-Holtan. Thank you, Laura!

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As She Likes It by Lori M. Myers et al.

As She Likes It is an anthology of short plays that features women from Shakespeare’s canon. The characters step outside of the male-dominated context of their original works, sometimes into another time and place. These familiar women from classic stories may have had muted voices in Shakespeare’s plays, but here they take center stage to discuss the choices they have made and navigate the power structures that have controlled their lives. These plays offer great roles for women, opportunities for thoughtful scene study, educational exploration and a larger conversation about how these women’s stories resonate in our current era. Written by Lori M. Myers, Sean Adams, Marjorie Bicknell, David Nice, Sue Lange, Barbara Trainin Blank and Sandra Fenichel Asher

Link to Dramatic Publishing: Script

Women of Will: The Remarkable Evolution of Shakespeare’s Female Characters by Tina Packer

Women of Will is a fierce and funny exploration of Shakespeare’s understanding of the feminine. Tina Packer, one of our foremost Shakespeare experts, shows that Shakespeare began, in his early comedies, by writing women as shrews to be tamed or as sweet little things with no independence of thought. The women of the history plays are much more interesting, beginning with Joan of Arc. Then, with the extraordinary Juliet, there is a dramatic shift: suddenly Shakespeare’s women have depth, motivation, and understanding of life more than equal to that of the men. As Shakespeare ceases to write women as predictable caricatures and starts writing them from the inside, his women become as dimensional, spirited, spiritual, active, and sexual as any of his male characters. Wondering if Shakespeare had fallen in love (Packer considers with whom, and what she may have been like), the author observes that from Juliet on, Shakespeare’s characters demonstrate that when women and men are equal in status and passion, they can—and do—change the world.

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Bardisms: Shakespeare for All Occasions by Barry Edelstein

From renowned Shakespearean director Barry Edelstein comes Bardisms: a straightforward, accessible guide to using Shakespeare’s wit and wisdom at special occasions of every type. Over the course of his career, Edelstein has directed more than half of Shakespeare’s plays, and he brings all his passion, insight, and years of study to Bardisms.

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