Necessary Shakespeare, The

For courses in Shakespeare.  Distills the best, most widely read and produced of Shakespeare’s great plays In one compact paperback, The Necessary Shakespeare showcases Shakespeare’s proficiency through different genres.It comprises 20 plays and some of the sonnets—and categorizes his plays as comedies, histories, or tragedies. The book demonstrates Shakespeare’s development from the early The Taming of the Shrew and Richard the Third to the late The Tempest; it shows him as a remarkable poet as well as dramatist. Selections are based in part on user feedback, and in many cases are widely available on film or video.   Also available with MyLiteratureLab® MyLiteratureLab is an online resource that works with our literature anthologies to provide engaging experiences to instructors and students. Readers can access new content that fosters an understanding of literary elements, which provides a foundation for stimulating class discussions. This simple and powerful tool offers state-of-the-art audio and video resources along with practical tools and flexible assessment.     Note: You are purchasing a standalone product; MyLiteratureLab does not come packaged with this content. Students, if interested in purchasing this title with MyLiteratureLab, ask your instructor for the correct package ISBN and Course ID. Instructors, contact your Pearson representative for more information. If you would like to purchase both the physical text and My##Lab, search for: 013427251X / 9780134272511  The Necessary Shakespeare Plus MyLiteratureLab without Pearson eText – Access Card Package, 5e Package consists of: 0133931269 / 9780133931266 MyLiteratureLab without Pearson eText – Access Card 0133931277 / 9780133931273 MyLiteratureLab without Pearson eText – Inside Star Sticker 0134139887 / 9780134139883  The Necessary Shakespeare  

Table of Contents:
I: GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1. Reading Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century 2. Life in Shakespeare’s England 3. The Drama Before Shakespeare 4. London Theaters and Dramatic Companies 5. Shakespeare’s Life and Work 6. How to Read Shakespeare 7. Shakespeare’s Language 8. Shakespeare Criticism   II: THE COMEDIES 9. The Taming of the Shrew 10. A Midsummer Night’s Dream 11. The Merchant of Venice 12. Much Ado About Nothing 13. As You Like It 14. Twelfth Night; or, What You Will 15. Measure for Measure   III: THE HISTORIES 16. The Tragedy of King Richard the Third 17. The Tragedy of King Richard the Second 18. The First Part of King Henry the Fourth 19. The Life of King Henry the Fifth   IV: THE TRAGEDIES 20. Romeo and Juliet 21. Julius Caesar 22. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 23. Othello, the Moor of Venice 24. King Lear 25. Macbeth 26. Antony and Cleopatra   The Romances 27. The Winter’s Tale 28. The Tempest   The Poems 29. Sonnets   Appendix 1: Canon, Dates, and Early Texts Appendix 2: Sources Appendix 3: Shakespeare in Performance Appendix 4: Films and Videos as a Guide to the Study of Shakespeare 

About the Author :
David Bevington, Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, is a highly respected editor and Shakespearean scholar. He taught drama at the University of Chicago, focusing on Shakespeare and his contemporaries (Jonson, Marlowe, Webster, Middleton, Dekker, etc.), as well as medieval drama and then the entire sweep of Western drama from Aeschylus and Sophocles down to Caryl Churchill and Tom Stoppard.  In addition to courses on Shakespeare, Renaissance drama, and medieval drama, Bevington co-taught in Theater and Performance Studies (variously with Heidi Coleman, Director of University Theater, John Muse, English  Department, and Drew Dir, resident dramaturg at Court Theatre) a two-quarter sequence called The History and Theory of Drama from the 5th century B.C. down to the present day.  "One of the most learned and devoted of Shakespeareans," as characterized by Harold Bloom, he specializes in British drama of the Renaissance, and has edited and introduced the complete works of William Shakespeare in both the 29-volume, Bantam Classics paperback editions and the single-volume Longman edition. He also edits the Norton Anthology of Renaissance Drama and an important anthology of Medieval English Drama. Bevington's editorial scholarship is so extensive that Richard Strier, an early modern colleague at the University of Chicago, was moved to comment: "Every time I turn around, he has edited a new Renaissance text. Bevington has endless energy for editorial projects."  In addition to Bevington's work as an editor, he has published studies of Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and the Stuart Court Masque, among others, though it is for his work as an editor that he is primarily known.