Julius Caesar

School Library Journal

ea vol: 32p. reprods. bibliog. index. (Shakespeare for Everyone Series). CIP. Peter Bedrick. 1990. Tr $12.95. Gr 4-9-- Not intended as substitutes for seeing Shakespeare's plays onstage, Mulherin's books serve rather as visual Cliffs Notes , providing young readers with information on the bard's work and the times that shaped it. Each well-organized volume begins with information on some aspect of Elizabethan life (e.g., rural life in As You Like It ; education in Julius Caesar ), and background on the play's setting, followed by a prose telling of the plot (interspersed with relevant quotes) and descriptions of major characters. Numerous reproductions and neoclassic paintings accent the introductory material, while serviceable, if uninspired, illustrations accompany the play's narrative. Mulherin uses a succinct yet lively writing style, making the context of the era both comprehensible and interesting. Generally, the straightforward text avoids fictionalizing; however, in Julius Caesar , the author's bias surfaces when she talks of schoolboys being ``just as idle and ill-behaved as many children today.'' While a minor flaw, this type of opinion seems out of place. The language here is more approachable than that of the Lambs' Tales of Shakespeare (1957), and the scope is more specific than Chute's Shakespeare of London (1949, both Dutton; o.p.). Two solid introductions. --Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, Wheeler School, Providence, RI