Fiction & Literature Classics, General & Miscellaneous Poetry, English, Irish, & Scottish Poetry

Sonnets (Barnes & Noble Shakespeare)

Name: Sonnets (Barnes & Noble Shakespeare)
Author: William Shakespeare
ISBN: 9781411499584

by William Shakespeare, David Scott Kastan (Introduction), Margreta De Grazia (Editor)

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Overview

"The Sonnets" of William Shakespeare are a collection of 154 loosely connected 14 line poems. Considered by many to be among some of the greatest love poetry ever written much debate surrounds the context of the poetry. It has been suggested that the work may be semi-autobiographical but no real evidence firmly supports this notion. Regardless of their context, "The Sonnets" can be appreciated individually or as a whole as examples of William Shakespeare's true literary genius.

Shakespeare's ever-popular love poems are illustrated with enchanting paintings by the noted Edwardian artist Charles Robinson.

Synopsis

All 154 Sonnets, with index to first lines.

About the Author, William Shakespeare

Editor Margreta De Grazi is the Sheli Z. and Burton X. Rosenberg Professor of the Humanities and Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. She has published widely on Shakespeare and other Renaissance subjects and is the author of Shakespeare Verbatim and Hamlet without Hamlet.

Series Editor David Scott Kastan is the George M. Bodman Professor of English at Yale University and one of the world's leading authorities on Shakespeare.

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Editorials

Library Journal

Octavo continues to provide digital access to rare and important literary works. Only 13 originals survive of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Never Before Imprinted, first published in London in 1609. This disc provides page-by-page views from the quarto held in the Grenville collection of The British Library. The 154 sonnets, plus an 11-page poem, "A Lover's Complaint," appear in the typeface of the day. The images are accompanied by a text commentary by Arthur Freeman, with notes on the binding and collation, provenance, and viewing tips. One continuous PDF holds it all, and Adobe Acrobat tabs must be used to maneuver through the document. While this arrangement makes individual word search and copy-and-paste possible, navigation is not without its challenges. A specific sonnet cannot be located quickly unless one enters its number into a simple search. And because the volume was rebound and thickened with extra sheets during Thomas Grenville's ownership, 42 of the 116 views are of blank pages. Academics and archivists may delight in such primary-source integrity; unwary researchers will be frustrated when they find themselves lost in the midst of the void. Sonnets can be purchased at a discount when bundled with Octavo's similar CD-ROMs of Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies and Poems. Bottom Line Recommended for scholars, archivists, collectors, and academic and special libraries that serve those patrons. For casual readers, existing publications, such as Helen Vendler's The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1997), which includes facsimiles of the 1609 prints of each sonnet along with analysis, should suffice.-Corinne H. Smith, Ware, MA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

From Barnes & Noble

This lovely little volume contains all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets, all strikingly beautiful poetry that was written throughout the Bard's life. Each sonnet is presented on its own page with a surrounding leaf design, so the sonnets stand on their own as individual works. Love, betrayal, despair, commitment, regret, spirituality, life, and death are explored in this eloquent poems penned by the greatest playwright and poet in the English language. Contains an index of first lines. 5" x 7 1/2".