Books by Emma Smith
Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare studies at Oxford University. Her book The Making of Shakespeare’s First Folio (2015), tells the story of the birth of the First Folio and Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book (2016) describes its reception over the four hundred years of its history.
“Emma Smith’s book brings a lot of pleasure. It’s very enjoyable. There are lots of juicy, tasty, and heart-warming anecdotes. We liked the way in which the stories are woven together. You’re moving around from the 12th century to the present. It’s not in a random way because there is an overall movement and sense of direction, and the sixteen chapters have particular themes to them. You get a sense of the power of books. There’s power in a positive sense, but the Stephen King quotation is also about the potential for books to be, as Emma Smith says, sickening, disturbing and enraging. Books have that negative capacity, too. One of the chapters is about Mein Kampf. That chapter is topical because it’s all about freedom of expression, which is an important issue for us all at the moment.” Read more...
The Best History Books of 2023: The Wolfson History Prize
Sudhir Hazareesingh, Political Scientist
This Is Shakespeare
by Emma Smith
Aimed at a general readership, Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford, gives a refreshing 'warts and all' analysis of Shakespeare. She shows how intellectually and dramatically thrilling Shakespeare can be, demonstrating the wealth of issues and subjects with which he engages.
Interestingly, this book aims to deflate myths, point to inconsistencies and ambiguities, and to identify flaws in his work — suggesting that we might have a tendency to be too reverent of the bard. Relishing these difficult questions, it draws freely from contemporary culture to illustrate the bard's work and legacy, whether it's by invoking Tarantino or comparing Falstaff to Homer Simpson.
Emma Smith has also spoken to Five Books about her own favourite Shakespeare plays.
Interviews with Emma Smith
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1
Titus Andronicus (Arden Shakespeare)
by Jonathan Bate & William Shakespeare -
2
Reinventing Shakespeare: A Cultural History, from the Restoration to the Present
by Gary Taylor -
3
Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America
by Ayanna Thompson -
4
Shakespeare on Film
by Judith Buchanan -
5
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Shakespeare
by Alexa Alice Joubin (editor)
The best books on Shakespeare’s Reception, recommended by Emma Smith
The best books on Shakespeare’s Reception, recommended by Emma Smith
In the years after William Shakespeare died, his plays took on a life of their own. They meant different things to different people at different times as they spread around the world, turning a glover’s son from a one-horse town in central England into one of the best-known authors of all time. Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford, recommends books to better understand ‘Shakespeare reception’—the study of Shakespeare since his death.
Shakespeare’s Best Plays, recommended by Emma Smith
Shakespearean scholar Emma Smith picks her five favourite plays by 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
Interviews where books by Emma Smith were recommended
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1
The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe
by James Belich -
2
Resistance: The Underground War in Europe, 1939-1945
by Halik Kochanski -
3
Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers
by Emma Smith -
4
The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire
by Henrietta Harrison -
5
African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History
by Hakim Adi -
6
Vagabonds
by Oskar Jensen
The Best History Books of 2023: The Wolfson History Prize, recommended by Sudhir Hazareesingh
The Best History Books of 2023: The Wolfson History Prize, recommended by Sudhir Hazareesingh
The Wolfson History Prize is the UK’s most prestigious history book prize. The judges, all professional historians, pick out books that combine excellence in research with readability. Oxford University historian Sudhir Hazareesingh, one of the Wolfson judges and author of Black Spartacus, talks us through the six terrific books that made the 2023 shortlist, from the Black Death and its critical impact on economic development to the magic of our relationship with books.
