Books by Jen Bervin
“The title of Jen Bervin’s Nets enacts the very project of her book. It’s an abbreviated form of the word Sonnets, just leaving ‘nets’ — as if she’s taken a net, and filtered Shakespeare’s words through it. She visually lightens certain phrases in a poem, leaving behind new, more prominent threads of words. When you strain your eyes, you can still faintly find a palimpsest of the greyed-out words from the original. But the newly bolded words remain clear, either underlining something that was already latent, or taking it in a new direction. In her words, she’s ‘stripped Shakespeare’s sonnets bare to the ‘nets’ to make the space of the poems open, porous, possible — a divergent elsewhere.’” Read more...
The best books on Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Scott Newstok, Literary Scholar
Interviews where books by Jen Bervin were recommended
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1
Shakespeare's Sonnets
by Katherine Duncan-Jones & William Shakespeare -
2
The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets
by Helen Vendler & William Shakespeare -
3
All the Sonnets of Shakespeare
by Paul Edmonson, Stanley Wells & William Shakespeare -
4
The Afterlife of Shakespeare's Sonnets
by Jane Kingsley-Smith -
5
Nets
by Jen Bervin -
6
Lucy Negro, Redux
by Caroline Randall Williams
The best books on Shakespeare’s Sonnets, recommended by Scott Newstok
The best books on Shakespeare’s Sonnets, recommended by Scott Newstok
The beauty of Shakespeare’s sonnets speaks to us down the centuries, their lines peaking out at us from the titles of famous books or enjoying outings at weddings or other romantic occasions. But they were not always regarded as perfectly-formed jewels, and the relationships they portray not as conventional as many of us presume. Here, Shakespeare scholar Scott Newstok talks us through books that help us learn more about Shakespeare’s sonnets, from the best introduction to the poems for students through to their afterlife and recent creative interpretations.
