A Brief Guide to William Shakespeare

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.