[Aggie Mama]

Personally, I think booklets like Cliff's Notes (haven't seen the Dummies series for Shakespeare) are great. I never used them in school b/c I always had great teachers that explained the text, but to go and read some of his plays as an adult is difficult for me.

Iambic pentameter isn't one of my strong suits, but I still would like to challenge myself to read the classics that I didn't get to read as a student.

[RansomOttawa]

This article smacks of intellectual snobbery. I am an English graduate and a fan of Shakespeare in his own words.

Nonetheless, I have a copy of Shakespeare for Dummies and enjoyed reading it. It's a hoot. Like many of the Dummies books, it's a crash course in its subject matter, and this particular one covers such topics as Shakespeare's life, the historical context in which he wrote, the politics of the day, and so forth. We never got any of that in high school, focusing instead on the structure of the play (I was soured to the Bard in high school because we spent all our class time dissecting the mechanics of the play rather than reading the thing).

The latter half of the book comprises plot summaries, listing notable performances and good film adaptations, and includes tongue-in-cheek "scorecards" for each play on which you can mark the number of mistaken identities, soliloquies, major characters wasted, etc.

Dame Judi Dench enjoyed it too - she wrote the preface.

[archy]

Exit, (Antigonus) pursued by a bear.... William Shakespeare, A Winter's Tale

-archy-/-