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Book excerpts, reviews, author interviews, and reading recommendations
Excerpt: "Shakespeare without a Life" by Margreta de Grazia
Shakespeare without a Life
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Excerpt: "Shakespeare without a Life" by Margreta de Grazia

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Did Shakespeare give much thought to how his works would survive after his death? Margreta de Grazia argues that his sonnets show he did.

Excerpt: "Richard III's Bodies from Medieval England to Modernity"
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Excerpt: "Richard III's Bodies from Medieval England to Modernity"

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The disabled body of Richard III, a historical English king and one of Shakespeare’s most iconic villains, is the focus of a recent book by Jeffrey R. Wilson.

Excerpt: "Shakespeare's Book" by Chris Laoutaris
Shakespeare's Book
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Excerpt: "Shakespeare's Book" by Chris Laoutaris

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Chris Laoutaris explores the Shakespearean printing mystery behind the Pavier-Jaggard Quartos, published a few years before the First Folio.

Excerpt: "White People in Shakespeare"
The Arden Shakespeare. White People in Shakespeare. Essays on Race, Culture and the Elite. Edited by Arthur L. Little Jr.
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Excerpt: "White People in Shakespeare"

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White People in Shakespeare examines what part Shakespeare played in the construction of a “white people” and how his work has been enlisted to define and bolster a white cultural and racial identity.

Excerpt - "Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne" by Katherine Rundell
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Excerpt - "Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne" by Katherine Rundell

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"Spiritually speaking, many of us confronted with the thought of death perform the psychological equivalence of hiding in a box with our knees under our chin: Donne hunted death, battled it, killed it, saluted it, threw it parties." Read more from Katherine Rundell in this excerpt from her new biography of the English poet John Donne, "Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne."
Excerpt: "The Final Curtain: The Art of Dying on Stage" by Laurence Senelick
The Final Curtain cover
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Excerpt: "The Final Curtain: The Art of Dying on Stage" by Laurence Senelick

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Shakespeare's plays provide ample opportunity for dramatic deaths onstage, and 18th-century English actors like David Garrick transformed simple stage directions in the text into "stirring set-pieces," as Laurence Senelick writes in the below excerpt from his new book, "The Final Curtain: The Art of Dying on Stage."
Arthur Murphy's 18th-century collection of humor - Excerpt: "Laughing Histories" by Joy Wiltenburg
People laughing and playing music
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Arthur Murphy's 18th-century collection of humor - Excerpt: "Laughing Histories" by Joy Wiltenburg

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"Murphy may be the first person in history to subject laughter to such intensive and extensive study, at least from the perspective of a laughter professional," writes Joy Wiltenburg about the 18th-century writer's 500-page compilation of humor, in this excerpt from her book, "Laughing Histories." Murphy's commonplace book is part of the Folger collection.
Excerpt - "Susanna Hall, Her Book" by Jennifer Falkner
Susanna Hall Her Book cover
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Excerpt - "Susanna Hall, Her Book" by Jennifer Falkner

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In the opening scene of Jennifer Falkner's novella "Susanna Hall, Her Book," the queen of England has just arrived at New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon. But Susanna, the eldest daughter of William Shakespeare, has reasons for not wanting to host Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.
Gaming and grieving with Shakespeare: Gabrielle Zevin’s new novel puts the ghostliness in gameplay
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
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Gaming and grieving with Shakespeare: Gabrielle Zevin’s new novel puts the ghostliness in gameplay

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Sophia Richardson
Sophia Richardson explores how Gabrielle Zevin’s new novel about video games, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," is also a book about Shakespeare.
The soliloquy and Hamlet - Excerpt: 'The Elizabethan Mind' by Helen Hackett
The Elizabethan Mind
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The soliloquy and Hamlet - Excerpt: 'The Elizabethan Mind' by Helen Hackett

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Helen Hackett explores Shakespeare's use of the soliloquy in "Hamlet," including the famous "To be or not to be" speech, in this excerpt from her new book, "The Elizabethan Mind: Searching for the Self in an Age of Uncertainty," published by Yale University Press.
A summer Shakespeare adventure: 'Her Majesty’s Will' by David Blixt
Her Majesty's Will book cover
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A summer Shakespeare adventure: 'Her Majesty’s Will' by David Blixt

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Austin Tichenor
Austin Tichenor recommends an adventure novel starring a young Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, who uncover a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth.
Excerpt: Jonathan Bate's preface to the RSC's second edition of Shakespeare's complete works
RSC Complete Works
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Excerpt: Jonathan Bate's preface to the RSC's second edition of Shakespeare's complete works

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"To know Shakespeare thoroughly and read him well aloud, it was necessary to have a usable edition of his works, a text that did away with printer’s errors and the vagaries of old spelling and punctuation, that explained the more obscure words and allusions in the plays, and that was furnished with critical guidance as to the nature of Shakespeare’s genius," writes Jonathan Bate (referring to the notable Shakespeare editor Samuel Johnson) in this excerpt from the preface to the Royal Shakespeare Company's newly published second edition of the complete works of Shakespeare.
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