{"title":"Series: The Oxford Shakespeare","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Oxford Shakespeare\u003c\/strong\u003e series invites readers to explore timeless themes through compelling storytelling and rich, thoughtful prose. Whether delving into the depths of human nature or embarking on vivid journeys, this collection spans a wide spectrum of genres and disciplines, offering insights that resonate across philosophy, history, and culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith titles touching on diverse topics from psychology and finance to adventure and technology, this series appeals to curious minds eager to engage with ideas and narratives that challenge, inspire, and entertain in equal measure.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-oxford-shakespeare-a-midsummer-nights-dream-by-william-shakespeare-9780198129288","title":"The Oxford Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Midsummer Night's Dream\u003c\/em\u003e is perhaps the best-loved of Shakespeare's plays, and certainly the one that children are likely to encounter first. Its mixture of aristocrats, workers, and fairies meeting in a wood outside Athens has a magic of its own. Simple and engaging on the surface, it is nonetheless a highly original and sophisticated work, remarkable for both its literary and its theatrical mastery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe fact that it is one of the very few of Shakespeare's plays not to draw on a narrative source suggests the degree to which it reflects his deepest imaginative concerns. In his introduction, defining the play in both the literary and theatrical traditions to which it belongs, Peter Holland pays particular attention to dreams and dreamers, tracing the materials out of which Shakespeare constructs his world of night and shadows in the strange but enchanting amalgam he makes of them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBoth here and in the detailed commentary, he draws freely upon the play's extensive performance history to illustrate the wide range of interpretations of which it is capable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47648072990956,"sku":"9780198129288","price":703.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780198129288-the-oxford-shakespeare-a-midsummer-night-s-dream.jpg?v=1779249407"},{"product_id":"the-oxford-shakespeare-anthony-and-cleopatra-by-william-shakespeare-9780198129097","title":"The Oxford Shakespeare: Anthony and Cleopatra","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten near the end of Shakespeare's most phenomenally creative period, \u003cem\u003eAntony and Cleopatra\u003c\/em\u003e is perhaps the most ambitious of all Shakespeare's designs. Its unmatched geographical and historical sweep, bold mingling of genres, and extraordinary variety of style, mood, and effect set it apart.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eYet the degree and nature of its success remain surprisingly contentious, and performances of the play have seldom matched the extravagant expectations of its admirers. The wide-ranging introduction to this new edition considers the paradoxes of the play's reception from a number of angles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA full discussion of Shakespeare's sources (the most important of which is excerpted in a generous appendix) considers ways in which these may have influenced the play's problematic design. A comprehensive stage history illustrates how the theatrical fortunes of \u003cem\u003eAntony and Cleopatra\u003c\/em\u003e continue to be affected by the inappropriate spectacular traditions of nineteenth-century staging, and by an enduring gender-inflected orientalism that has particularly distorted responses to the character of Cleopatra.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA substantial critical section examines how the technique of the play—its deliberate frustrations of expectation, its carefully constructed tensions between rhetoric and action, and its daring exploitation of bathos and anti-climax—may have contributed to the sense of disappointment which colours so many accounts of performance. The editor argues that such effects are structural to the paradoxical vision of this tragedy and to its disturbed preoccupation with the unstable boundaries of gender and identity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe text has been freshly edited in accordance with the principles of the series, and the extensive commentary is attentive to the theatrical dimensions of the play as well as to the rich complexity of its poetic language.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47648073023724,"sku":"9780198129097","price":661.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780198129097-the-oxford-shakespeare-anthony-and-cleopatra.jpg?v=1779249414"},{"product_id":"the-oxford-shakespeare-henry-iv-part-one-by-william-shakespeare-9780198129158","title":"The Oxford Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part One","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs Henry's throne is threatened by rebel forces, England is divided. The characters reflect these oppositions, with Hal and Hotspur vying for position, and Falstaff leading Hal away from his father and towards excess.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDuring Shakespeare's lifetime, \u003cem\u003eHenry IV, Part One\u003c\/em\u003e was his most reprinted play, and it remains enormously popular with theatre-goers and readers. Falstaff still towers among Shakespeare's comic inventions as he did in the late 1590s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Bevington's introduction discusses the play in both performance and criticism from Shakespeare's time to our own, illustrating the variety of interpretations of which the text is capable. He analyses the play's richly textured language in a detailed commentary on individual words and phrases and clearly explains its historical background.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47648073056492,"sku":"9780198129158","price":591.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780198129158-the-oxford-shakespeare-henry-iv-part-one.jpg?v=1779249423"},{"product_id":"the-oxford-shakespeare-the-comedy-of-errors-by-william-shakespeare-9780198129332","title":"The Oxford Shakespeare: The Comedy of Errors","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOften under-rated as a mechanical farce, \u003cem\u003eThe Comedy of Errors\u003c\/em\u003e, hilarious in its exploitation of mistaken identity, masterly in construction, and brilliant in linguistic invention, is the first of Shakespeare's romantic comedies, deeply moving in the reunions and reconciliations of its conclusion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis, the first major edition since 1988, bases itself directly on the 1623 Folio text and provides helpful explanatory notes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Introduction, appreciative of the play's theatrical success over the centuries, argues that it was specifically written for and performed at the Gray's Inn Christmas revels on 28 December 1594, among the first composed by Shakespeare for his new company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDiscussion of the play's origins argues that the immediate source for the frame plot (Egeon and his family) was not Gower's \u003cem\u003eConfessio Amantis\u003c\/em\u003e, as usually assumed, but a recent Elizabethan short novel, Lawrence Twine's \u003cem\u003ePattern of Painful Adventures\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe main plot is unquestionably based on the Roman dramatist Plautus's \u003cem\u003eMenaechmi\u003c\/em\u003e, here reprinted in its entirety in a modernized version of William Warner's translation (1595).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47648073089260,"sku":"9780198129332","price":488.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780198129332-the-oxford-shakespeare-the-comedy-of-errors.jpg?v=1779249434"},{"product_id":"the-oxford-shakespeare-the-history-of-king-lear-by-william-shakespeare-9780198182900","title":"The Oxford Shakespeare: The History of King Lear","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eKing Lear\u003c\/em\u003e, widely considered Shakespeare's most deeply moving, passionately expressed, and intellectually ambitious play, has almost always been edited from the revised version printed in the First Folio of 1623, with additions from the quarto of 1608. Acting on recent discoveries, this volume presents the first full, scholarly edition to be based firmly on the quarto, now recognised as the base text from which all others derive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA thorough, attractively written introduction suggests how the work grew slowly in Shakespeare's imagination, fed by years of reading, thinking, and experience as a practical dramatist. Analysis of the great range of literary and other sources from which he shaped the tragedy, and of its critical and theatrical history, indicates that the play felt as shocking and original to early audiences as it does now. Its challenges have often been evaded, notably in Nahum Tate's notorious adaptation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDuring the twentieth century, however, deeper understanding of the conventions of Shakespeare's theatre restored confidence in the theatrical viability of his original text, while the play has also generated a remarkable range of offshoots in film, television, the visual arts, music, and literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe commentary to this edition offers detailed help in understanding the language and dramaturgy in relation to the theatres in which \u003cem\u003eKing Lear\u003c\/em\u003e was first performed. Additional sections reprint the early ballad, ignored by all modern editors, which was among its earliest derivatives, and provide additional guides to understanding and appreciating one of the greatest masterworks of Western civilisation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47648073154796,"sku":"9780198182900","price":857.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780198182900-the-oxford-shakespeare-the-history-of-king-lear.jpg?v=1779249443"},{"product_id":"the-oxford-shakespeare-the-tragedy-of-king-richard-iii-by-william-shakespeare-9780198182450","title":"The Oxford Shakespeare: The Tragedy of King Richard III","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRichard III\u003c\/em\u003e is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays on the stage and has been adapted successfully for film. This new and innovative edition recognises the play's pre-eminence as a performance work: a perspective that informs every aspect of the editing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eChallenging traditional practice, the text is based on the 1597 Quarto which, it is argued, brings us closest to the play as it would have been staged in Shakespeare's theatre. The introduction, which is illustrated, explores the long performance history from Shakespeare's time to the present. Its critical engagement with the play responds to recent historicist and gender-based approaches.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe commentary provides detailed explication of matters of language, staging, text, and historical and cultural contexts, offering coverage that is both carefully balanced and attentive to nuances of meaning. Documentation of the extensive textual variants is organised for maximum clarity: the readings of the Folio and the Quarto are presented in separate banks, with more specialised information provided at the back of the book.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAppendices also include selected passages from the main source and a special index of actors and other theatrical personnel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47648073187564,"sku":"9780198182450","price":1109.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780198182450-the-oxford-shakespeare-the-tragedy-of-king-richard-iii.jpg?v=1779249454"},{"product_id":"the-oxford-shakespeare-the-winters-tale-by-william-shakespeare-9780198129493","title":"The Oxford Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Winter's Tale\u003c\/em\u003e is Shakespeare's most perfectly realised tragicomedy, as notable for its tragic intensity as for its comic grace and, throughout, for the richness and complexity of its poetry. It concludes, moreover, with the most daring and moving reconciliation scene in all Shakespeare's plays.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThough the title may suggest an escapist fantasy, recent criticism has seen in the play a profoundly realistic psychology and a powerful commentary on the violence implicit in family relationships and deep, long-lasting friendships.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eStephen Orgel's edition considers the play in relation to Renaissance conceptions of both dramatic genre and the family, traces the changing critical and theatrical attitudes towards it, and places its psychological and dramatic conflicts within the Jacobean cultural and political context. The commentary pays special attention to the play's linguistic complexity, and the edition also includes a complete reprint of Shakespeare's source, \u003cem\u003ePandosto\u003c\/em\u003e, by Robert Greene.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47648073220332,"sku":"9780198129493","price":759.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780198129493-the-oxford-shakespeare-the-winter-s-tale.jpg?v=1779249466"},{"product_id":"the-oxford-shakespeare-titus-andronicus-by-william-shakespeare-9780198129028","title":"The Oxford Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTitus Andronicus\u003c\/em\u003e was the young Shakespeare's audacious, sporadically brilliant experiment in sensational tragedy. Its horrors are notorious, but its powerful poetry of grief is the work of a true tragic poet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIntroducing this edition, E.M. Waith provides a fresh view of the play in its historical context, as well as an original discussion of the famous 'Peacham' drawing—the only surviving contemporary Shakespeare illustration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAn illustrated account of performances, notably Peter Brook's production with Oliver as Titus, leads to an assessment of the play's qualities in the light of its critical reception. The eighteenth-century version of the play's probable source is given in one of the appendices.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47648073646316,"sku":"9780198129028","price":437.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780198129028-the-oxford-shakespeare-titus-andronicus.jpg?v=1779249477"},{"product_id":"the-oxford-shakespeare-twelfth-night-or-what-you-will-by-william-shakespeare-9780198123668","title":"The Oxford Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, or What You Will","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTwelfth Night\u003c\/em\u003e is one of the most popular of Shakespeare's plays in the modern theatre, and this edition places particular emphasis on its theatrical qualities throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe introduction analyses the many views of love in the play, and the juxtaposition of happiness and melancholy used to dramatise them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe presentation of the text has been re-thought in theatrical terms, and the exceptionally full and detailed commentary pays close attention to the often difficult language.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe play's contrasting moods are emphasised by the use of music, which plays an important role in \u003cem\u003eTwelfth Night\u003c\/em\u003e. James Walker has re-edited the existing music from the original sources, and where none exist has composed settings compatible in style with the surviving originals. This edition offers material for all the music required in a performance, the only modern edition to do so.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe edition will be invaluable to actors, directors, and students at all levels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47648073810156,"sku":"9780198123668","price":577.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780198123668-the-oxford-shakespeare-twelfth-night-or-what-you-will.jpg?v=1779249490"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/series-the-oxford-shakespeare.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}