Resource Guide: 'The Weird Sisters' by Eleanor Brown

On December 14, 2023 the Folger’s virtual book club continues with a discussion of The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. To prepare for the discussion, we have pulled together a list of resources related to families in Shakespeare’s work and the Folger collection.

EXPLORE early modern family dynamics

• Aphorism therapy, or, How to cope with dishonest relatives
• Wooing and Wedding: Courtship and Marriage in Early Modern England

LEARN more about how family history can be traced

• Folger copy 54: The First Folio as family scrapbook 
• Where do family trees come from?
• Symbols of Honor: Heraldry and Family History in Shakespeare’s England (Folger Exhibition)
  • Annotated bibliography
  • Exhibition Materials

LISTEN to related podcast episodes, including on Shakespeare’s own family relationships

• Episode 60: Shakespeare and Girlhood
• Episode 105: Imagining Shakespeare’s Wife
• Episode 150: Maggie O’Farrell on Hamnet
• Episode 180: Lena Cowen Orlin on The Private Life of William Shakespeare

TEST your knowledge of families in Shakespeare plays

• Family reunions in Shakespeare’s plays
• Siblings in Shakespeare’s plays
• Shakespeare’s Mothers
• Shakespeare’s fathers (and their children)