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Drama - Literary Criticism, English Literature
Everybody's Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on Tragedies by Maynard Mack — book cover

Everybody's Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on Tragedies

by Maynard Mack
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Overview

Everybody’s Shakespeare brings the insights and wisdom of one of the finest Shakespearean scholars of our century to the task of surveying why the Bard continues to flourish in modern times. Mack treats individually seven plays—Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Cesar, and Antony and Cleopatra—and demonstrates in each case how the play has retained its vitality, complexity, and appeal.

Synopsis

Everybody’s Shakespeare brings the insights and wisdom of one of the finest Shakespearean scholars of our century to the task of surveying why the Bard continues to flourish in modern times. Mack treats individually seven plays—Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Cesar, and Antony and Cleopatra—and demonstrates in each case how the play has retained its vitality, complexity, and appeal.

Library Journal

Taken as a whole, this collection represents 40 years of the work of one of the most renowned of modern Shakespeare critics. Of these 11 essays, eight have been previously published. Two of these (on Hamlet and Lear ) are well known and have been reprinted many times; the others have appeared in scholarly journals and books. One (on Othello ) is new. Mack writes for the general reader who enjoys Shakespeare and reads for pleasure; he declines to enter the ``tribal wars and Byzantine pedantries that now balkanize professional students of literature.'' His interest is more universal; he wants to know ``how great works of art manage to affect us as profoundly as they do.'' These are compelling, thoughtful essays that will encourage any attentive reader to think afresh about familiar plays.-- Bryan Aubrey, Fairfield, Ia.

About the Author, Maynard Mack

Maynard Mack is Sterling Professor of English at Yale University. Among his publications are King Lear in Our Time, Rescuing Shakespeare, and Alexander Pope: A Life.

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Editorials

Library Journal

Taken as a whole, this collection represents 40 years of the work of one of the most renowned of modern Shakespeare critics. Of these 11 essays, eight have been previously published. Two of these on Hamlet and Lear are well known and have been reprinted many times; the others have appeared in scholarly journals and books. One on Othello is new. Mack writes for the general reader who enjoys Shakespeare and reads for pleasure; he declines to enter the ``tribal wars and Byzantine pedantries that now balkanize professional students of literature.'' His interest is more universal; he wants to know ``how great works of art manage to affect us as profoundly as they do.'' These are compelling, thoughtful essays that will encourage any attentive reader to think afresh about familiar plays.-- Bryan Aubrey, Fairfield, Ia.

Choice

"Beautifully written, deeply meditated essays. . . . The book is a pleasure—jargon-free and clearly organized. It is also wise. Like Coleridge, sometimes Mack opens up sudden illuminations we wonder we never saw before."—Choice

Washington Times

"This is a sane, hugely compassionate book that captures much of what is great about Shakespeare's dramatic vision of human vicissitude. What Mr. Mack thinks about the current state of criticism is ultimately less important than what he thinks about Shakespeare's largeness of heart. These essays make up a whole book and richly deserve to be rescued from the oblivion that threatens any writer of occasional essays. By speaking of the comforts of art, they teach us, in Antony's phrase, to contend even with the 'pestilent scythe' of Death itself."—Washington Times

Book Details

Published
October 1, 2008
Publisher
University of Nebraska Press
Pages
279
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780803282148

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