Laurie Maguire

Think you know Shakespeare? Think again . . . Was a real skull used in the first performance of Hamlet? Were Shakespeare's plays Elizabethan blockbusters? How much do we really know about the playwright's life? And what of his notorious relationship with his wife? Exploring and exploding 30 popular myths about the great playwright, this illuminating new book evaluates all...

This beginner's guide to Shakespeare reminds us that the main reason people still watch and read Shakespeare's plays is because they identify with the characters and situations depicted in them. Drawing on all of Shakespeare's plays, Laurie Maguire shows how they illustrate some of life's most familiar stories — love and obsession, parents and children, sex and politics, suffering and...