A THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019The best introduction to the plays Ive read, perhaps the best book on Shakespeare, full stop Alex Preston, ObserverIt makes you impatient to see or reread the plays at once Hilary MantelA genius and prophet whose timeless works encapsulate the human condition like no others. A writer who surpassed his contemporaries in vision, originality and literary mastery. Who wrote like an angel, putting it all so much better than anyone else.Is this Shakespeare? Well, sort of.But it doesnt really tell us the whole truth. So much of what we say about Shakespeare is either not true, or just not relevant, deflecting us from investigating the challenges of his inconsistencies and flaws. This electrifying new book thrives on revealing, not resolving, the ambiguities of Shakespeares plays and their changing topicality. It introduces an intellectually, theatrically and ethically exciting writer who engages with intersectionality as much as with Ovid, with economics as much as poetry who writes in strikingly modern ways about individual agency, privacy, politics, celebrity and sex. It takes us into a world of politicking and copycatting, as we watch him emulating the blockbusters of Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd, the Spielberg and Tarantino of their day flirting with and skirting round the cutthroat issues of succession politics, religious upheaval and technological change. The Shakespeare in this book poses awkward questions rather than offering bland...

Binding: Paperback;368 pages; Publisher: TBS-Penguin Random House Wholesale; Classification: AN; Weight: 336 g; Dimensions: 111 x 180 x 25

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