Book
A Brief Guide to William Shakespeare
First published 2010
A Brief Guide to William Shakespeare introduces Shakespeare’s life, theatrical world and surviving works for readers approaching them for the first time. Ackroyd explains the plots, casts and dramatic movement of the plays, selects important speeches and lines, and shows how comedy, tragedy and history were shaped for performance rather than silent study.
The guide also turns to the narrative poems and sonnets, including the identities proposed for the young man and the Dark Lady. Its purpose is practical as well as biographical: it gives students and theatre-goers a route through the language, characters and recurring ideas of the canon without assuming prior specialist knowledge.
Historical Periods
Historical people
More from this period
5 more top-rated novels about Jacobean Era
Ranked by rating and voting volume; books already shown on this page are omitted.
More from this period
5 more top-rated novels about Elizabethan Travelling Players and Theatre
Ranked by rating and voting volume; books already shown on this page are omitted.
More by the author
Other books by Peter Ackroyd
Discover more
Authors similar to Peter Ackroyd
Recommended from shared genres and periods.
Mary Stewart
20 books
Marion Zimmer Bradley
8 books
Gillian Bradshaw
20 books
John Steinbeck
13 books
Henry Treece
35 books