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Shakespeare's Book

The Intertwined Lives Behind the First Folio

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
'A lively picture of multiple operators scrambling to steal a march on the competition . . . Lavishly detailed'FINANCIAL TIMES 'This is Shakespearean scholarship at its best, brilliantly researched yet compulsively readable. It's a book for our times, enduringly fascinating and appealing to both enthusiasts and the general reader. Highly recommended!' ALISON WEIR FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE SUMMER A BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 A BBC RADIO 4 FRONT ROW NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 AN AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 The year 2023 marks the 400th anniversary of Mr William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, known today simply as the First Folio. It is difficult to imagine a world without The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale and Macbeth, but these are just some of the plays that were only preserved thanks to the astounding labour of love that went into creating the first collection. Shakespeare's Book: The Intertwined Lives Behind the First Folio charts, for the first time, the manufacture of the First Folio against a turbulent backdrop of seismic political events and international tensions that intersected with the lives of its creators. Shakespeare scholar Dr Chris Laoutaris uncovers the friendships, bonds, social ties and professional networks that facilitated the production of Shakespeare ' s book, as well as the personal challenges, tragedies and dangers that threatened its completion. And he considers how Shakespeare himself, before his death, may have influenced the ways in which his own public identity would come to be enshrined in the First Folio, shaping the transmission of his legacy to future generations and determining how the world would remember him 'not of an age, but for all time'. 'Beautifully written and utterly compelling... comprises all the drama, intrigue and surprises of a Shakespeare play' Tracy Borman
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 1, 2023
      Shakespeare scholar Laoutaris (Shakespeare and the Countess) details in this meticulous history the making of the Bard of Avon’s First Folio, which was posthumously published in 1623, seven years after his death. Crediting the folio with securing Shakespeare’s legacy and preserving such previously unpublished plays as Macbeth and Twelfth Night, Laoutaris examines the key figures and “symbiotic effort” that brought the ambitious and financially risky volume to market. Primary among the people were John Heminges and Henry Condell, theater managers and close associates of the playwright. The author also delves into complications caused by booksellers who resisted giving up their printing rights to such previously published plays as The Merchant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet, as well as the contributions of compositors, who sometimes cut entire lines in the interest of space while arranging pages for printing (Friar Francis’s “Here comes the Prince and Claudio” was excised from Much Ado About Nothing). Laoutaris also studies how King James I’s plan to resolve political tensions between Britain and Spain by marrying his son to a Spanish princess influenced the folio, most notably in the decision to open with The Tempest, which depicts “conflict resolution through dynastic marriage.” The scrupulous detail impresses, even as accounts of legal wrangling over printing rights sometimes drag. Nonetheless, this is a valuable addition to Shakespeare studies. Photos.

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  • English

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