These comprehensive critical collections are a must-have for students, libraries and scholars alike. Each volume gathers the most influential criticism, key contemporary interpretations and reviews of the most influential productions of Shakespeare's masterworks.
Edited
By Evelyn Gajowski, Phyllis Rackin
August 23, 2018
The Merry Wives of Windsor has recently experienced a resurgence of critical interest. At times considered one of Shakespeare’s weaker plays, it is often dismissed or marginalized; however, developments in feminist, ecocritical and new historicist criticism have opened up new perspectives and this ...
By Felicia Hardison Londre
November 02, 2000
This anthology examines Love's Labours Lost from a variety of perspectives and through a wide range of materials. Selections discuss the play in terms of historical context, dating, and sources; character analysis; comic elements and verbal conceits; evidence of authorship; performance analysis; ...
Edited
By Maurice Hunt
May 07, 2015
A collection that includes a lengthy introduction describing historical trends in critical interpretations and theatrical performances of Shakespeare's play; 20 essays on the play, including two written especially for this volume (by Maurice Hunt and David Bergeron)....
By Philip C. Kolin
February 27, 2015
This is the first collection of critical essays devoted exclusively to Shakespeare's first published work, his long narrative poem Venus and Adonis which established his reputation as the literary darling of London and the heir of Ovid. Particularly important is the book's coverage of the ...
Edited
By Nick Moschovakis
December 01, 2014
This volume offers a wealth of critical analysis, supported with ample historical and bibliographical information about one of Shakespeare’s most enduringly popular and globally influential plays. Its eighteen new chapters represent a broad spectrum of current scholarly and interpretive approaches,...
Edited
By Jeremy Lopez
October 15, 2014
Arguably the first play in a Shakespearean tetralogy, Richard II is a unique and compelling political drama whose themes still resonate today. It is one of the few Shakespeare plays written entirely in verse and its format presents unique theatrical challenges. Politically engaged and controversial...
Edited
By James Schiffer
October 14, 2014
This volume in the Shakespeare Criticism series offers a range of approaches to Twelfth Night, including its critical reception, performance history, and relation to early modern culture. James Schiffer’s extensive introduction surveys the play’s critical reception and performance history, while ...
Edited
By Jeffrey Kahan
May 16, 2014
Is King Lear an autonomous text, or a rewrite of the earlier and anonymous play King Leir? Should we refer to Shakespeare’s original quarto when discussing the play, the revised folio text, or the popular composite version, stitched together by Alexander Pope in 1725? What of its stage variations? ...
Edited
By Patrick M. Murphy
May 16, 2014
The Tempest: Critical Essays traces the history of Shakespeare's controversial late romance from its early reception (and adaptation) in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the present. The volume reprints influential criticism, and it also offers eight originalessays which study The ...
Edited
By Edward Tomarken
August 25, 2009
This essay collection offers a lengthy introduction describing trends in criticism and theatrical interpretation of As You Like It. Twenty-six major essays on the play, including several written especially for this volume highlight the work, coupled with twenty-three reviews of various productions,...
Edited
By Arthur F. Kinney
November 16, 2001
Using a variety of approaches, from postcolonialism and New Historicism to psychoanalysis and gender studies, the international contributors to Hamlet: New Critical Essays contribute major new interpretations on the conception and writing, editing, and cultural productions of Hamlet. This book is ...
Edited
By John W. Mahon, Ellen Macleod Mahon
August 02, 2002
This volume is a collection of all-new original essays covering everything from feminist to postcolonial readings of the play as well as source queries and analyses of historical performances of the play. The Merchant of Venice is a collection of seventeen new essays that explore the concepts of ...