Shakespeares English

Macbeth, a general of the army of Duncan, King of Scotland, rises through the ranks after victory over the rebel MacDonald. Inspired by three witches' prediction that he would become king, he and his wife murder Duncan, and he becomes King of Scotland himself. The heir, Malcolm, flees to England, where he is joined by Macduff, the loyal Thane of Fife.

Hailed as the father of the naturalist novel, French author and playwright Honoré de Balzac left a legacy of treasured literary works that include Père Goriot and Cousin Bette. The daughter of a wealthy but miserly man, Eugénie Grandet falls in love with her penniless cousin, Charles. The two plan to marry, but at the behest of her father, Charles must first go overseas to make his fortune. Returning years later, Charles calls off the engagement, leaving Eugénie heartbroken and vengeful.

Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare's more brilliantly populated plays and remains among the most widely read. Award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom investigates Macbeth's interiority and unthinkable actions with razor-sharp insight, agility, and compassion. He also explores his own personal relationship to the character. The book also becomes an extraordinarily moving argument for literature as a path to and a measure of our humanity.

David Sterling Brown offers nothing less here than a wholesale deconstruction of whiteness in Shakespeare's plays, arguing that the 'white other' was a racialized category already in formation during the Elizabethan era—and also one to which Shakespeare was himself a crucial contributor.

Plain English Shakespeare adapts and abridges Shakespeare's classic plays presenting them in shorter versions in plain English. Antony and Cleopatra is a Roman tragedy with romantic and comedic aspects, first performed around 1607, based on Thomas North's translation of the story Plutarch's lives in Ancient Greek. The plays follows Antony and Cleopatra at a time of strife in Sicily and the Roman Republic more broadly.

After vowing to avoid women, the king and three of his friends have to host a princess and her three ladies. The four men fall in love and decide to court the women. In the end, the women must return to their kingdom for a year after which they will marry the king and his friends, providing they remain true to them.

Many of Shakespeare's greatest and best-loved speeches are brought together in this superb collection, performed by outstanding artists who bring to vivid life words which are an integral part of our language, our culture and our everyday lives.

From the author of The Book of Gothel comes the lush, magical story behind Shakespeare's sonnets, as told by one of his most famous subjects—the incendiary and mysterious Dark Lady. My name has only been whispered, heretofore… England, 1591. Rose Rushe’s passion for life runs deep—she...

Experience Dickens’ classic tale in iambic pentameter! Ebenezer Scrooge is a wealthy theater owner with a stingy heart, until he’s visited by his old partner, Marlowe. The ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future become Puck (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Falstaff (the Henry V plays), and the ghost of King Hamlet.

Julius Caesar is at the height of his power. He has just defeated his top rival and is basking in the glory of his triumph. Some believe that he is abusing his power, though, and behind his back, a conspiracy is developing to assassinate him. Even his close advisor Brutus is swayed to participate in the murder plot. Once Caesar is murdered, the conspirators are forced to explain themselves to Rome’s citizens and explain their intentions and attempt to convince them that this murder was necessary to create peace.

Complete and unabridged version of Shakespeare's comedy performed by a full cast including Derek Godfrey, Prunella Scales, and Diana Rigg.

This edition of Hamlet is an adaptation of Shakespeare's eponymous play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Set in Denmark, the story dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlet's father, King Hamlet. Narrated in plain modern English, capturing the very essence and key elements of Shakespeare's original drama.

The multi-award-winning SmartPass study guide with and without commentary options. Full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Hear "A little touch of Harry" whenever you want to! Examine and appreciate the powerful language of leadership in this guided history play, considered to be Shakespeare's greatest creative statement about war.

In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the boy hunter Adonis is the willing lover of Venus, the goddess of love, and dies accidentally. Shakespeare has Adonis reject Venus. Venus endlessly argues for making love, with Adonis uttering petulant protests.

“Obsessed!” —Chloë Sevigny “I am literally obsessed.” —Busy Philipps Hailed as “richly intimate” and “wickedly delightful” (The New York Times Book Review), this steamy and incisive debut adult novel follows one woman’s affair with her daughter’s best friend, testing the...

Cleopatra is one of the most famous women in history - and thanks to Shakespeare, one of the most intriguing personalities in literature. Award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom delivers exhilarating clarity and invites us to look at this character as a flawed human who might be living in our world. He also explores his own personal relationship to the character: Just as we encounter one Anna Karenina or Jay Gatsby when we are in high school and college and another when we are adults, Bloom explains his shifting understanding of Cleopatra over the course of his own lifetime.

Luisa Villareal has worked her entire life to find a place in academia. Her love of Shakespeare has driven her, since middle school, to higher and higher levels of scholarship. Now, in April 2014, she finally has her chance to make it at an Ivy League institution. After convincing a renowned association and her university, Assistant Professor Villareal prepares to host the association's annual Shakespeare symposium. Moreover, 2014 marked the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and death, giving the event added mystique.

Here is a full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Meet literature's greatest villain in this tragedy, fuelled by jealous rage. Journey into the twisted mind of Iago, who freely admits "I am not what I am", to truly get under the skin of this wondrous play.

In Richard III’s Bodies from Medieval England to Modernity, Jeffrey Wilson tracks disability over 500 years, from Richard’s own manuscripts, early Tudor propaganda, and x-rays of sixteenth-century paintings through Shakespeare’s soliloquies, into Samuel Johnson’s editorial notes, the first play produced by an African American Theater company, Freudian psychoanalysis, and the rise of disability theater.

It's the most important night of the year for the Catskills Shakespeare Theater Company: the annual fundraising performance at the country estate of the wealthy widow Paula Van Dusen. And this year promises to be even more special as the company will give a moonlight performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream as part of the wedding celebrations for Paula's daughter, Belinda, and her fiancé Adrian. But "the course of true love never did run smooth", and in the wake of a disastrous after-party, the stage is set for murder.