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  • Experts

Elizabethan Era

Most Recommended Books

Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

“Antony and Cleopatra is, in some ways, the most romantic of Shakespeare’s plays. It takes over, in a way, from Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet gives a wonderful exploration of young love, of first love, of romantic attitudes to love. Antony and Cleopatra are mature lovers. They are seasoned. They are disillusioned. It’s an extraordinarily rich play, poetically—as Romeo and Juliet is—but the poetry of Antony and Cleopatra is that of a mature person who has gone through a lot of experiences himself and is capable of expressing the disillusionment of middle-aged love as well as the raptures of it. “

Stanley Wells, Literary Scholar

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Macbeth by William Shakespeare

“This is going to sound heretical, but I think that—particularly in the theatre—a lot of Shakespeare is too long. I think Act 4 in a lot of Shakespeare plays is a bit of a bum-number, and not much happens. I like to see Shakespeare intelligently cut, often to speed it up. Macbeth is a play that may have been cut. We don’t really understand the provenance of that text. It’s very short by Shakespearean standards and it’s very powerful because of that. There’s no subplot, there’s no parallel plot. Just this really intense journey through a psychological drama. It’s a really punchy play because everything is tightly headed in the same direction: the language, the imagery, the plot, the way the characters work. It’s a really superbly powerful, compact, condensed play.”

Emma Smith, Literary Scholar

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Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

” What I really like about this play is its sexual playfulness. It seems very modern in that way. There’s no way to play it straight. You’ve either got Orsino in love with Cesario, or you’ve got Olivia in love with Viola, and you’ve always got Antonio in love with Sebastian. It feels to me as if its subtitle What You Will, is a cheeky way of saying ‘whatever, anything goes’. I like the fact that quite often you see productions where at the end Olivia and Orsino are still mixing up the twin they are with and there’s still playfulness. “

Emma Smith, Literary Scholar

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King Lear by William Shakespeare

“Lear is about all sorts of things but one of the things it’s about is people getting old and not ceding what their kids think they should to them and the kids trying to bully them.”

Kathleen Taylor, Science Writer

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream has always been a great favourite of mine, ever since my school days. I was introduced to it at school when I was about 11 or 12. I’ve seen many productions of it. It’s the first play I edited, for the New Penguin Shakespeare, in 1967. I very much enjoyed writing about it then. It’s a play about imagination, about Shakespeare’s own heart, in many ways. The Mechanicals’ scenes, as they’re called, in which Shakespeare portrays amateur actors putting on the play of Pyramus and Thisbe, actually tell us an awful lot about Shakespeare’s attitude towards the theatre and the acting profession. They’re also wonderfully playable.It’s a play that appeals very much to young people. I’m speaking now from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust at Stratford-Upon-Avon and we have what’s called ‘Shakespeare Week,’ when we engage with over 10,000 primary schools. The Royal Shakespeare Company put on a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream which uses amateur actors, including schoolchildren.”

Stanley Wells, Literary Scholar

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    Shakespeare’s Best Plays, recommended by Emma Smith

  • Read
    Shakespeare’s Best Plays - Macbeth by William Shakespeare

    1

    Macbeth
    by William Shakespeare

  • Read
    Shakespeare’s Best Plays - Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare

    2

    Measure for Measure
    by William Shakespeare

  • Read
    Shakespeare’s Best Plays - Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

    3

    Twelfth Night
    by William Shakespeare

  • Read
    Shakespeare’s Best Plays - Pericles by William Shakespeare

    4

    Pericles
    by William Shakespeare

  • Read
    Shakespeare’s Best Plays - Richard II by William Shakespeare

    5

    Richard II
    by William Shakespeare

  • Shakespeare’s Best Plays - Macbeth by William Shakespeare
  • Shakespeare’s Best Plays - Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
  • Shakespeare’s Best Plays - Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
  • Shakespeare’s Best Plays - Pericles by William Shakespeare
  • Shakespeare’s Best Plays - Richard II by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s Best Plays, recommended by Emma Smith

Shakespearean scholar Emma Smith picks her five favourite plays of the Bard, and controversially argues that not only are some of his plays just too long, but also that the most moving moments in Shakespeare’s oeuvre are where we might not expect them

Shakespeare’s Best Plays, recommended by Emma Smith

    The best books on Leonardo da Vinci, recommended by Martin Kemp

  • Read
    The best books on Leonardo da Vinci - The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso by Dante Alighieri

    1

    The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso
    by Dante Alighieri

  • Read
    The best books on Leonardo da Vinci - Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation by E.H. Gombrich

    2

    Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation
    by E.H. Gombrich

  • Read
    The best books on Leonardo da Vinci - Leonardo da Vinci: i documenti e le testimonianze contemporanee by Edoardo Villata

    3

    Leonardo da Vinci: i documenti e le testimonianze contemporanee
    by Edoardo Villata

  • Read
    The best books on Leonardo da Vinci - The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci by Jean Paul Richter

    4

    The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci
    by Jean Paul Richter

  • Read
    The best books on Leonardo da Vinci - Leonardo da Vinci by Kenneth Clark

    5

    Leonardo da Vinci
    by Kenneth Clark

  • The best books on Leonardo da Vinci - The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso by Dante Alighieri
  • The best books on Leonardo da Vinci - Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation by E.H. Gombrich
  • The best books on Leonardo da Vinci - Leonardo da Vinci: i documenti e le testimonianze contemporanee by Edoardo Villata
  • The best books on Leonardo da Vinci - The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci by Jean Paul Richter
  • The best books on Leonardo da Vinci - Leonardo da Vinci by Kenneth Clark

The best books on Leonardo da Vinci, recommended by Martin Kemp

Every generation has its own Leonardo, and for many he remains a man of mystery. Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor in Art History at Oxford and the author of the recently published Mona Lisa: The People and the Painting, helps us identify the non-mythical Leonardo. What might Leonardo be doing were he alive today, in our own digital age?

The best books on Leonardo da Vinci, recommended by Martin Kemp

    Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays

  • Read
    Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays - King Lear by William Shakespeare

    1

    King Lear
    by William Shakespeare

  • Read
    Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays - A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

    2

    A Midsummer Night’s Dream
    by William Shakespeare

  • Read
    Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays - The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare

    3

    The Winter's Tale
    by William Shakespeare

  • Read
    Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays - Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

    4

    Antony and Cleopatra
    by William Shakespeare

  • Read
    Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays - Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

    5

    Twelfth Night
    by William Shakespeare

  • Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays - King Lear by William Shakespeare
  • Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays - A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
  • Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays - The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
  • Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays - Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
  • Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays - Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays

In our Shakespeare series, we ask experts to select their favourite plays from the Bard’s oeuvre. Here, preeminent Shakespearean scholar Sir Stanley Wells chooses five plays that best chart the evolution of the Bard of Avon during his 25-year career.

Stanley Wells recommends the best of Shakespeare’s Plays

    René Weis on The Best Plays of Shakespeare

  • Read
    René Weis on The Best Plays of Shakespeare - King Lear by William Shakespeare

    1

    King Lear
    by William Shakespeare

  • Read
    René Weis on The Best Plays of Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

    2

    A Midsummer Night’s Dream
    by William Shakespeare

  • Read
    René Weis on The Best Plays of Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

    3

    Romeo and Juliet
    by William Shakespeare

  • Read
    René Weis on The Best Plays of Shakespeare - Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

    4

    Antony and Cleopatra
    by William Shakespeare

  • Read
    René Weis on The Best Plays of Shakespeare - Macbeth by William Shakespeare

    5

    Macbeth
    by William Shakespeare

  • René Weis on The Best Plays of Shakespeare - King Lear by William Shakespeare
  • René Weis on The Best Plays of Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
  • René Weis on The Best Plays of Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
  • René Weis on The Best Plays of Shakespeare - Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
  • René Weis on The Best Plays of Shakespeare - Macbeth by William Shakespeare

René Weis on The Best Plays of Shakespeare

In the second of a Five Books series marking the 400th year since the world’s most popular playwright’s death, eminent Shakespearean René Weis picks his five favourite plays, and explains why King Lear will change your life.

René Weis on The Best Plays of Shakespeare

    The best books on Shakespeare’s Life, recommended by James Shapiro

  • Read
    The best books on Shakespeare’s Life - Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps

    1

    Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare
    by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps

  • Read
    The best books on Shakespeare’s Life - William Shakespeare by E K Chambers

    2

    William Shakespeare
    by E K Chambers

  • Read
    The best books on Shakespeare’s Life - Shakespeare’s Lives by S Schoenbaum

    3

    Shakespeare’s Lives
    by S Schoenbaum

  • Read
    The best books on Shakespeare’s Life - The Lodger by Charles Nicholl

    4

    The Lodger
    by Charles Nicholl

  • Read
    The best books on Shakespeare’s Life - William Shakespeare by Peter Holland

    5

    William Shakespeare
    by Peter Holland

  • The best books on Shakespeare’s Life - Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps
  • The best books on Shakespeare’s Life - William Shakespeare by E K Chambers
  • The best books on Shakespeare’s Life - Shakespeare’s Lives by S Schoenbaum
  • The best books on Shakespeare’s Life - The Lodger by Charles Nicholl
  • The best books on Shakespeare’s Life - William Shakespeare by Peter Holland

The best books on Shakespeare’s Life, recommended by James Shapiro

Writing a traditional biography of Shakespeare is impossible, says Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro. But here he selects the best five books that tackle the life of the Bard.

The best books on Shakespeare’s Life, recommended by James Shapiro

About

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

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