I've enjoyed reading Shakespeare, but not as much I expected. But now I think I figured out a way!
Previously I was purchasing and reading the beautiful, comprehensive Arden Shakespeare editions - full of notes and explanatory material, which I of course checked out as I went along. Julius Caesar and Richard III quite good but overall meh. Kind of tedious, choppy.
Recently I broke down and bought a Kindle, and downloaded some Shakespeare items that are "free" to Prime members. These are simple editions without any notes at all, and presumably are reasonably faithful to whatever Shakespeare originally wrote.
I read "A Midsummer Night's Dream" this way and much enjoyed - no notes or other explanation - no doubt there's plenty I missed, but it was so much more pleasant to just forge through the story line.
I also have a lovely book by Harold Bloom - "Shakespeare - The Invention of the Human" - he provides commentaries on all the main plays. So I read his summary but only after reading the play. This is the approach that I'll take with Shakespeare going forward. Yay.
Bottom is a great character (he has fun with the elves). Puck - mischievous, to say the least. There are two couples who go through some adventures in the woods; Oberon and his wife Titania.
No comments:
Post a Comment