Shakespeare's Sonnets (Arden Shakespeare: Third Series) - Softcover

William Shakespeare

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1903436575 ISBN 13: 9781903436578

Publisher: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 1997

Synopsis

'The annotation is consistently thoughtful and well judged, giving plenty of precise help with lexical and syntactical problems, and offering valuable verbal and cultural analogues from contemporary literature' 'No edition of these difficult and controversial poems will command agreement at all points, but this must now be the edition of first resort' Paul Hammond, Review of English Studies 'sharpens our focus on the documentary record of the Sonnets, and gives the best scholarly account yet of some of its words.' Alastair Fowler, Times Literary Supplement "The new edition...edited by Katherine Duncan-Jones, is the clearest, most complete and up-to-date there is. She is the first editor for general readers not to mumble when dealing with the homoerotic aspect. Under her meticulous direction, the sequence opens out like a magical garden, its beauties enhanced, its mysterious prospects illuminated." Duncan Fallowell, The Independent Â'It is Duncan-JonesÂ's intention as scholar and critic to confront the issue of sexuality which Kerrigan and other editors have consistently side-stepped...Hers is an edition which uniquely makes the Sonnets issue from the bodyÂ's moods as well as the mindÂ's.Â' Tom Paulin, London Review of Books Â'This new edition, handsome, crisp in annotation, and rich in historical detail, shows that the Sonnets are effectively ShakespeareÂ's lifeÂ's work...Its most radical claim is not the familiar one that the poems are homosexual, but that Shakespeare authorised their publication.Â' Evening Standard

About this title

About the Author:

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616) wrote 37 plays. King Lear and Macbeth are widely considered his finest and most popular. They are, perhaps, the most frequently produced works on the planet.

From Library Journal:

Since we will never hear tapes of Keats or Shakespeare reading, and several recordings by actors exist (e.g., John Keats: Selected Poems, Blackstone Audio, 1993; Sonnets by William Shakespeare, Recorded Bks., 1990), we must judge these tapes by the actors' performances. In John Keats: Poems, Douglas Dodge modulates his voice beautifully to capture the slightly varied emotions of many poems. This well-edited recording contains Keats's most famous works: "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," "The Eve of St. Agnes," "Ode to a Nightingale," "On a Grecian Urn," along with many lesser-known short poems such as "To Mrs. Reynolds' Cat" that exhibit the poet's more fanciful side. Reading all of Shakespeare's sonnets written between 1593 and 1601, actor Simon Callow conveys the dramatic potential not often recognizable in other recordings. With the exception of a few sonnets addressing the muse, anyone unfamiliar with Shakespeare's works could easily believe these were selected monologs from various plays. Pausing briefly between poems, Callow's tone shifts enough to create new characterizations for every sonnet. Both tapes are recommended for smaller collections and essential for larger ones.
Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1903436575
• ISBN 13: 9781903436578
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 504
• Editor: Katherine Duncan-Jones