Non-fiction Deep Cuts
 
March 2026
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Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare

Cambridge School Shakespeare offers an active approach to classroom Shakespeare, enabling students to inhabit Shakespeare's imaginative world in accessible and creative ways. As well as the complete scripts each title includes a running synopsis of the action, an explanation of unfamiliar words, and a wide range of classroom-tested activities to help turn the script into drama. This dramatic experience is at the heart of the series and students are encouraged to share Shakespeare's love of language, interest in character and sense of theatre.
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
by Stephen Greenblatt

Stephen Greenblatt, the charismatic Harvard professor who knows more about Shakespeare than Ben Jonson or the Dark Lady did (John Leonard, Harper's), has written a biography that enables us to see, hear, and feel how an acutely sensitive and talented boy, surrounded by the rich tapestry of Elizabethan life; full of drama and pageantry, and also cruelty and danger; could have become the world's greatest playwright. A young man from the provinces--a man without wealth, connections, or university education--moves to London. In a remarkably short time he becomes the greatest playwright not just of his age but of all time. His works appeal to urban sophisticates and first-time theatergoers; he turns politics into poetry; he recklessly mingles vulgar clowning and philosophical subtlety. How is such an achievement to be explained?Will in the World interweaves a searching account of Elizabethan England with a vivid narrative of the playwright's life. We see Shakespeare learning his craft, starting a family, and forging a career for himself in the wildly competitive London theater world, while at the same time grappling with dangerous religious and political forces that took less-agile figures to the scaffold. Above all, we never lose sight of the great works--A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, and more--that continue after four hundred years to delight and haunt audiences everywhere. The basic biographical facts of Shakespeare's life have been known for over a century, but now Stephen Greenblatt shows how this particular life history gave rise to the world's greatest writer. Bringing together little-known historical facts and little-noticed elements of Shakespeare's plays, Greenblatt makes inspired connections between the life and the works and deliver a dazzling and subtle biography (Richard Lacayo, Time). Readers will experience Shakespeare's vital plays again as if for the first time, but with greater understanding and appreciation of their extraordinary depth and humanity.A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times 10 Best Books of 2004; Time magazine's #1 Best Nonfiction Book; A Washington Post Book World Rave; An Economist Best Book; A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book; A Christian Science Monitor Best Book; A Chicago Tribune Best Book; A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Best Book; NPR's Maureen Corrigan's Best.
A Companion to Shakespeare by null
A Companion to Shakespeare
by David Scott Kastan, editor

A Companion to Shakespeare is an indispensable book for students and teachers of Shakespeare, indeed for anyone with an interest in his plays. Contains 28 newly commissioned essays written by the most distinguished historians and literary scholars Situates Shakespeare in the historical and cultural conditions in which he wrote
The Essential Shakespeare Handbook by Leslie Dunton-Downer
The Essential Shakespeare Handbook
by Leslie Dunton-Downer

Offering a user-friendly, beautifully illustrated guide to every play in the Shakespeare canon, as well as a portrait of the Bard's life and the world of Elizabethan and Jacobean theater, the Shakespeare Handbook unravels the complexities of Shakespeare's plays and poems.
Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companion by David Crystal
Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companion
by David Crystal

A vital resource for scholars, students and actors, this book contains glosses and quotes for over 14,000 words that could be misunderstood by or are unknown to a modern audience. Displayed panels look at such areas of Shakespeare's language as greetings, swear-words and terms of address. Plot summaries are included for all Shakespeare's plays and on the facing page is a unique diagramatic representation of the relationships within each play.