The Cambridge Shakespeare Guide PLOTS, CHARACTERS AND INTERPRETATIONS

Are you studying Shakespeare and looking for a handy summary of plots, characters and interpretations? Or are you a keen theatregoer wanting essential background on the Shakespeare plays you see on stage? Ideal for students and theatre enthusiasts alike, this lively and authoritative guide presents key information, clearly set out, on all Shakespeare's dramatic and poetic works, covering plots and people, sources, context, performance history and major themes. Ordered alphabetically for easy reference, each play entry features a 'key facts' box providing informative and revealing statistics, including a breakdown of each play's major roles. The guide is illustrated with striking performance photographs throughout, and also provides brief accounts of Shakespeare's life and language, Shakespeare in print and theatre in Shakespeare's time. This is an indispensable reference source for all students and theatregoers.

Part I. The Works: 1. All's Well That Ends Well; 2. Antony and Cleopatra; 3. As You Like It; 4. The Comedy of Errors; 5. Coriolanus; 6. Cymbeline; 7. Hamlet; 8. Julius Caesar; 9. King Henry IV Part 1; 10. King Henry IV Part 2; 11. King Henry V; 12. King Henry VI Parts 1, 2, and 3; 13. King Henry VIII, or All is True; 14. King John; 15. King Lear; 16. King Richard II; 17. King Richard III; 18. Love's Labour's Lost; 19. Macbeth; 20. Measure for Measure; 21. The Merchant of Venice; 22. The Merry Wives of Windsor; 23. A Midsummer Night's Dream; 24. Much Ado About Nothing; 25. Othello; 26. The Phoenix and the Turtle; 27. Pericles; 28. The Rape of Lucrece; 29. Romeo and Juliet; 30. The Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint; 31. The Taming of the Shrew; 32. The Tempest; 33. Timon of Athens; 34. Titus Andronicus; 35. Troilus and Cressida; 36. Twelfth Night; 37. The Two Gentlemen of Verona; 38. The Two Noble Kinsmen; 39. The Winter's Tale; 40. Venus and Adonis; Part II. The Context: 41. Shakespeare's life; 42. Shakespeare's theatre; 43. Shakespeare in print; 44. Shakespearean apocrypha; 45. Shakespeare's language; Further reading.

Perfect for students and theatregoers, this lively and authoritative guide contains key information on Shakespeare. Covering all of Shakespeare's dramatic and poetic works in compact, alphabetical form, the book provides plot and character summaries, essential background context, information on major themes and descriptions of performance history.

Emma Smith is Fellow and Tutor in English at Hertford College, University of Oxford. She has published a wide range of books and articles on Shakespeare and Renaissance drama, including The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare (2007).