Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Greer, Germaine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192802496 ISBN 13: 9780192802491

Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks, 2002

Germaine Greer examines Shakespeare's plays in detail, showing how he dramatized moral and intellectual issues in such a way that his audience became dazzlingly aware of an imaginative dimension to daily life. She argures that as long as Shakespeare's work remains central to English cultural life, it will retain the values which make it unique in the world.

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Review:

the clearest and simplest explanation of Shakespeare's thought I have yet read (Auberon Waugh)

robust and forthright. (Hermione Lee, Observer)

Writing with full awareness that the plays were intended for the theatre, Greer is interested in the dialectic of language, performence, audience ... her clarity and her insistence on response make this an admirable book for sixth-formers. (Times Educational Supplement)

Synopsis:

Germaine Greer examines Shakespeare's plays in detail, showing how he dramatized moral and intellectual issues in such a way that his audience became dazzlingly aware of an imaginative dimension to daily life. She argures that as long as Shakespeare's work remains central to English cultural life, it will retain the values which make it unique in the world.