Shakespeares English

The multi-award winning SmartPass full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play.

Jack and Annie are whisked back to Elizabethan England where they meet the Bard of Avon himself, William Shakespeare, and luckily for them, he is desperate for two small actors for his latest play! An exciting adventure and a wonderful introduction to Shakespeare.

There is no finer way to welcome young people (or adults!) to the pleasures of Shakespeare than with these four masterful retellings of the Bard's most beloved plays. Ranging from the pure magic of A Midsummer Night's Dream to the heartbreak of young love in Romeo and Juliet, featuring the spine-tingling tragedy of Macbeth (complete with ghost and witches) and culminating in the laugh-out-loud hijinks of Twelfth Night.

This edition of Hamlet is an adaptation of Shakespeare's eponymous play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Set in Denmark, the story dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlet's father, King Hamlet. Narrated in plain modern English, capturing the very essence and key elements of Shakespeare's original drama.

Othello, a Moor and the Commander of the Venetian army, elopes with Desdemona. The evil Iago plants the seed of jealousy in Othello's mind, resulting in tragic consequences.

For sustained dramatic intrigue and sophistication of plot, William Shakespeare's sonnets are at least the equal of his greatest plays. Throughout the centuries since their first publication in 1609, critics, psychologists and curiosity-seekers alike have pondered the nature of the poet's relationships with the mysterious young man, "Mr. W.H.", and the "ill-coloured" Dark lady.

Shakespeare’s world is never too far different from our own, permeated with the same tragedies, the same existential questions and domestic worries. In this extraordinary book, Jonathan Bate brings then and now together. He investigates moments of his own life—losses and challenges—and asks whether, if you persevere with Shakespeare, he can offer a word of wisdom or a human insight for any time or any crisis.

England, 1591. Rose Rushe’s passion for life runs deep—she loves mead and music, meddles with astrology, and laughs at her mother’s warnings to guard her reputation. When Rose’s father dies and a noble accuses her and her dear friend Cecely of witchcraft, they flee to the household of respected alchemists in London. But as their bond deepens, their sanctuary begins to feel more like a cage. To escape, they turn to the occult, secretly casting charms and selling astrological advice in the hopes of building a life together.

For nearly two centuries, the authorship of William Shakespeare's plays has been challenged by writers and artists as diverse as Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Henry James, Helen Keller, Orson Welles, Malcolm X, and Sir Derek Jacobi. How could a young man from rural Warwickshire, lacking a university education, write some of the greatest works in the English language?

Graeme Malcolm, Eric Stoltz, and other accomplished actors bring life to the words of the world's favorite poets, including William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Also available: The Best Poems of All Time, Volume 2.

1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. During that year, Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.

Shakespeare's timeless sonnets, which describe love in all its aspects, represent one of the finest bodies of poetry ever penned. They include the star-struck Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"), the witty Sonnet 103 ("My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"), the despairing yet hopeful Sonnet 29 ("When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state"), and more. Read by the legendary Sir John Gielgud.

The plays of William Shakespeare are rare common ground in the United States. For well over two centuries, Americans of all stripes—presidents and activists, soldiers and writers, conservatives and liberals alike—have turned to Shakespeare’s works to explore the nation’s fault lines. In a narrative arching from Revolutionary times to the present day, leading scholar James Shapiro traces the unparalleled role of Shakespeare’s four-hundred-year-old tragedies and comedies in illuminating the many concerns on which American identity has turned.

Now is the fall of his discontent, as Jason Fitger, newly appointed chair of the English Department of Payne University, takes arms against a sea of troubles, personal and institutional. His ex-wife is sleeping with the dean who must approve whatever modest initiatives he undertakes. The fearsome department secretary Fran clearly runs the show (when not taking in rescue parrots and dogs) and holds plenty of secrets she's not sharing. The lavishly funded Econ Department keeps siphoning off English's meager resources and has taken aim at its remaining office space.

Mystery, power and malevolence are present in these plays, all of which subvert the happy endings that one would expect in a comedy and the tragic effect one would expect in a tragedy, to pose deeper moral questions that echo modern society. Performed by an incredible array of the 20th century’s greatest actors, Marlowe alumni including Roy Dotrice, Prunella Scales, Ian McKellen, Michael Hordern and Derek Jacobi can be heard in these recordings.

Written in 1593, King Richard III is one of Shakespeare's earliest plays. This play differs from its predecessors, being amore structured piece, examining the development and motivations of a single character, Richard Duke of Gloucester, who will stop at nothing to gain control of the throne occupied by his brother Edward IV.

This production is abridged and in plain English. Timon of Athens (The Life of Tymon of Athens) is perhaps Shakespeare's sharpest satire on wealth, greed, and betrayal. Scholars generally classify Timon either as a tragedy or a problem play.

Young love, bawdiness and exuberance are played out in these comedies that continue to make us laugh and cheer. Performed by an incredible array of the 20th century’s greatest actors, Marlowe alumni including Ian McKellen, Diana Rigg, Derek Jacobi and Prunella Scales can be heard in these recordings.

Welcome to Shakespeare's London, a world where the stage captures the hearts of every citizen, where darkness hides dangerous and vengeful creatures. It is in the darkness that Shakespeare finds himself the victim of treachery most foul. When Shakespeare is contacted by his dark mistress, the former love of his life, he is excited to see her again after so long a separation.

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers. Romeo and Juliet had a profound influence on subsequent literature. Before then, romance had not even been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy.