Shakespeare on Page and Stage Selected Essays

This volume presents a winning selection of the very best essays from the long and distinguished career of Stanley Wells, one of the most well-known and respected Shakespeare scholars in the world. Wells's accomplishments include editing the entire canon of Shakespeare plays for the ground-breaking Oxford Shakespeare, and over his lifetime he has made significant contributions to debates over literary criticism of the works, genre study, textual theory, Shakespeare's afterlife in the theatre, and contemporary performance. The volume is introduced by Peter Holland, and its thirty chapters are divided into themed sections: 'Shakespearian Influences', 'Essays on Particular Works', 'Shakespeare in the Theatre', and 'Shakespeare's Text'. An afterword by Margreta de Grazia concludes the volume.

1 - Shakespeare: Man of the European Renaissance
2 - Tales from Shakespeare
3 - The Failure of The Two Gentlemen of Verona
4 - The Taming of the Shrew and King Lear: A Structural Comparison
5 - The Integration of Violent Action in Titus Andronicus
6 - The Challenges of Romeo and Juliet
7 - The Uses of Inconsequentiality (Romeo and Juliet)
8 - Laments in Richard II
9 - A Midsummer Night's Dream Revisited
10 - Translations in A Midsummer Night's Dream
11 - The Division of the Kingdoms (King Lear)
12 - Points of Stagecraft in The Tempest
13 - My Name is Will (The Sonnets)
14 - Shakespeare Without Sources
16 - Boys Should be Girls: Shakespeares Female Roles and the Boy Players
17 - Staging Shakespeares Ghosts
18 - Staging Shakespeares Apparitions and Dream Visions
19 - Shakespeare in Planché s Extravaganzas
20 - Shakespeare in Max Beerbohm s Theatre Criticism
21 - Shakespeare in Leigh Hunt s Theatre Criticism
22 - Shakespeare in William Hazlitt s Theatre Criticism
23 - A Favourite Production: Peter Hall's Coriolanus
22 - On Being A General Editor
23 - Editorial Treatment of Foul-Paper Texts: Much Ado About Nothing as Test Case
24 - Money in Shakespeares Comedies
25 - To Read a Play: The Problem of Editorial Intervention
26 - The First Folio: where would we be without it?

Stanley Wells, described by Roy Hattersley as 'Our greatest authority on Shakespeare's life and work', is honorary President of The Shakespeare Birthplace, Emeritus Professor of Shakespeare Studies of the University of Birmingham, and Honorary Emeritus Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. For nearly twenty years he was the editor of the annual Shakespeare Survey. His most recent books are Shakespeare For All Time, Looking for Sex in Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Sex, and Love, and Great Shakespeare Actors. He was knighted in 2016 for services to Shakespeare scholarship.