Summary
The Facts On File Companion to Shakespeareis the largest and most comprehensive students guide to Shakespeare ever published.The primary goal of this newfive-volume set is to make Shakespeares poems and plays accessible and appealing to high school and college students. Written and edited by active Shakespearean scholars and critics who have a love of teaching and explaining Shakespeare, this landmark collection presents Shakespeares poems and plays in a whole new light for anyone interested in fully comprehending this great writers works.
Part I contains the following background essays:
- Shakespeares Life:a concise but thorough biography of Shakespeare
- Society and Culture in Shakespeares Day:an account of the social structure and cultural norms of England in Shakespeares time
- History and Politics in Shakespeares Day:a description of the political situation in Shakespeares England as well as the important historical events that affected Shakespeares work
- Shakespeare Today—Contemporary Critical Backgrounds:a guide to contemporary academic approaches to Shakespeares work
- Other Writers of Shakespeares Day:a look at Shakespeares fellow writers and the contemporary literary culture of the time
- Shakespeares Texts:anexplanation of how scholars and editors have made use of the original publications of Shakespeares works to create the texts we read today
- The History of the Authorship Controversy:ananalysis of the popular, if thinly evidenced, controversy over the identity of the "real" writer of Shakespeares works
- Shakespeares Language:an overview of Shakespeares unique use of language, with advice for students approaching Shakespeare
- A Shakespeare Glossary:definitions of the most common obsolete or unfamiliar words in Shakespeares work
- Bibliography of Secondary Sources:a selective guide to the most important critical, biographical, and historical works on Shakespeare.
Part IIof the set covers Shakespeares poems, including the longer poemsVenus and AdonisandThe Rape of Lucrece; the shorter poem "The Phoenix and the Turtle"; and Shakespeares sonnets, which are examined both as an extended series (in a long overview essay) and as individual works (in more than 70 shorter essays on the most important sonnets).
Part III, which takes up four of the sets five volumes, examines all of Shakespeares plays, including the plays he wrote in collaboration with other playwrights.
Each entry on a play contains the following subsections:
- Background:the political, social, and artistic context of the play
- Synopsis:a clear, concise, scene-by-scene description of the action of the play
- Character List:an alphabetically arranged list of the plays characters, with brief descriptions of each
- Character Studies:in-depth analyses of the most important characters in the play
- Difficulties of the Play:a general discussion of the major challenges and obstacles for students in their understanding of the play, as well as advice to overcome those obstacles
- Key Passages:analyses of important passages in the play
- Difficult Passages:analyses of passages that may be particularly difficult for students to understand
- Critical Introduction to the Play:a general overview of the themes, ideas, symbols and other elements important to understanding the play
- Extracts of Classic Criticism:selections of critical essays by great critics of the past
- Modern Criticism and Critical Controversies:an overview of the ideas of major critics who responded to the play in the 20th and early 21st centuries
- The Play Today:a discussion of the play as it appears in the present day, whether in criticism, on stage, or on screen
- Topics for Discussion and Writing:a list of five promising topics for student discussion or writing, in the form of provocative questions that students can develop into ideas of their own
- Bibliography.
Specifications
More than 600 black-and-white illustrations.Maps. Index. Appendix. Bibliography. Glossary. In five volumes.
About the Author(s)
William Bakeris University Trustee Professor and Distinguished Research Professor at Northern Illinois University. He holds a joint appointment with the university library and the department of English. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of more than 20 books, includingShakespeare;Harold Pinter: A Bibliographical History,selected as aChoice"Outstanding Academic Title"; and Facts On FilesCritical Companion to Jane Austen. He is the editor ofGeorge Eliot-George Henry Lewes Studiesand coeditor ofThe Years Work in English Studies.
Kenneth Womackis Professor of English and Integrative Arts at Penn State Universitys Altoona College where he also serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of many books, includingBooks and Beyond: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of New American Reading; Postwar Academic Fiction: Satire, Ethics, Community;andPostmodern Humanism in Contemporary Literature and Culture: Reconciling the Void. He is the editor ofInterdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theoryand coeditor ofThe Years Work in English Studies.
