Burton Raffel
1) Richard III
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English
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Contains William Shakespeare's history play in which the Duke of Gloucester plots and schemes to obtain power and is eventually haunted by those he harmed in the process; includes essays on aspects of the play in performance; and presents twenty-one scenes on an audio CD.
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Pilgrims on their way to worship at the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket in Canterbury stop at the Tabard Inn. They represent a cross-section of medieval English society. To amuse themselves on their journey, they agree that each will tall a tale that really tells much about each individual. This is often called the first book of peotry written in English.
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Love and marriage are the concerns of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Lucentio's marriage to Bianca is prompted by his idealized love of an apparently ideal woman. Petruchio's wooing of Katherine, however, is free of idealism. Petruchio takes money from Bianca's suitors to woo her, since Katherine must marry before her sister by her father's decree; he also arranges the dowry with her father. Petruchio is then ready to marry Katherine, even...
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The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel (French: La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel) is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais, which tells of the adventures of two giants, Gargantua (/ɡɑːrˈɡæntʃuːə/; French: [ɡaʁ.ɡɑ̃.ty.a]) and his son Pantagruel (/pænˈtæɡruːˌɛl, -əl, ˌpæntəˈɡruːəl/; French: [pɑ̃.ta.ɡʁy.ɛl]). The text is written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein, and...
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Shakespeare loved to use the device of mistaken identity, and nowhere does he use this convention more skilfully than in Twelfth Night. Viola, surviving a shipwreck, walks ashore at Illyria, and immediately embarks on a gambit to allow her to make her way in a world of men. Dressed as a man, Viola, now Cesario, insinuates herself into the service of the Duke of Illyria, Orsino. Orsino longs for the love of a neighbouring countess, Olivia , who as...
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This is one of Shakespeare's darkest comedies, for the romantic story of a young man, Bassanio, who has squandered his fortune and must borrow money to woo the wealthy lady he loves is set against the more disturbing story of the Jewish moneylender Shylock and his demand for the 'pound of flesh' owed him by the Venetian merchant, Antonio. Here pathos and farce combine with moral complexity and romantic entanglement to display the extraordinary power...
12) The tempest
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English
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Prospero, exiled on an enchanted island with his daughter Miranda, raises a magical tempest to wash ashore a ship carrying the enemies who usurped his dukedom years ago -- his brother Antonio and Alonso, the king of Naples. Alonso's son Ferdinand is feared dead but has washed to another part of the island, where he meets and falls in love with Miranda. Prospero punishes the usurpers and regains his dukedom, as Miranda gains a royal husband.
13) Othello
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English
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Featuring the images of some of the world's most famous stage and film actors, these additions to the all-new Oxford School Shakespeare introduce--and enthrall--young people to one of the greatest writers of all time. This season brings revised editions of five of the Bard's most famous plays--As You Like It, Othello, Hamlet, Love's Labour Lost and The Taming of the Shrew. Designed specifically for students unfamiliar with Shakespeare's rich literary...
14) Macbeth
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English
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Macbeth is among the best-known of William Shakespeare's plays, and is his shortest tragedy, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606. It is frequently performed at both amateur and professional levels, and has been adapted for opera, film, books, stage and screen. Often regarded as archetypal, the play tells of the dangers of the lust for power and the betrayal of friends. For the plot Shakespeare drew loosely on the historical account...
15) Romeo and Juliet
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Professor Evans helps the reader to visualise the stage action of Romeo and Juliet . His history of the play in the theatre is followed by a lucid commentary which alerts the reader to the difficulties of language, thought and staging. For this updated edition Thomas Moisan has added an account of the number of important professional theatre productions and the large output of scholarly criticism on the play which have appeared in recent years.
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This single volume, blank verse translation of The Divine Comedy includes an introduction, maps of Dante's Italy, Hell, Purgatory, Geocentric Universe, and political panorama of the thirteenth and early fourteenth century, diagrams and notes providing the reader with invaluable guidance.
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English
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An edition of Shakespeare's tragedy, including discussion of its plot, themes, characters, language, production, and author. As well as the complete scripts (established by scholars working on the New Cambridge Shakespeare), the student will find a running synopsis of the action, an explanation of unfamiliar words, and a wide range of classroom-tested activities to help turn the script into drama.