Shakespeare
His Life and Works
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Narrated by:
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Charles Armstrong
About this listen
Unravel the history, themes, and language of Shakespeare's plays, poems, and sonnets with this beautiful guide to his life and works. Comedy and romance, history, and tragedy, Shakespeare's canon has it all. Some 400 years after they were written and first performed, his works remain fresh and relevant today. Shakespeare: his life and works is an accessible and lavish celebration of the Bard himself and his 39 plays, great sonnets, and narrative poems. Themes, plots, characters, and language are brought to life with act-by-act plot summaries, resumes of main characters, and in-depth analysis of Shakespeare's use of, and influence on, the English language. Entries also explore Shakespeare's plays, poems, and sonnets in the context of his life and the world of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre, and reveal his sources and inspirations, further enriching your experience of his work, be it on the page, stage, or screen. Shakespeare: his life and works is perfect for existing Shakespeare fans, and anyone looking to find out more about the work of the world's most celebrated playwright.
©2021 Leslie Dunton-Downer, Alan Riding (P)2022 DKListeners also enjoyed...
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Related to this topic
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-
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- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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-
-
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
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- Narrated by: James Shapiro
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- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. During that year, Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.
-
-
Note!--Abridged version
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By: James Shapiro
-
Coriolanus
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Richard Burton, Jessica Tandy
- Length: 3 hrs and 20 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A classic performance of one of the Bard's classics.
-
-
Amazing
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-
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- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
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- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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-
-
Good book, but quoted passages are in Old English
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By: John Gardner
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Overall
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Story
The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
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Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
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Elizabeth and Mary
- Cousins, Rivals, Queens
- By: Jane Dunn
- Narrated by: Donada Peters
- Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In a rich and riveting narrative, Jane Dunn reveals the extraordinary rivalry between the regal cousins. It is the story of two queens ruling on one island, each with a claim to the throne of England, each embodying dramatically opposing qualities of character, ideals of womanliness (and views of sexuality), and divinely ordained kingship.
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Fantastic book
- By Catharina on 05-09-04
By: Jane Dunn
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Mary Queen of Scots
- By: Antonia Fraser
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 25 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Her royal birth gave her claim to the thrones of two nations; her marriage to the young French dauphin promised to place a third glorious crown on her noble head. Instead, Mary Stuart became the victim of her own impulsive heart, scandalizing her world with a foolish passion that would lead to abduction, rape, and even murder. Here is her story, a queen who lost a throne for love, a monarch pampered and adored even as she was led to her beheading, the unforgettable woman who became a legend for all time.
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Shockingly disingenuous.
- By rainjade on 08-14-18
By: Antonia Fraser
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Mistress Anne
- The Exceptional Life of Anne Boleyn
- By: Carolly Erickson
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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A powerful ruler, an alluring young woman, a scandal that would rock the nation: Anne Boleyn’s life story sounds more like a juicy TV docu-drama than a chapter of English history. Although she is not of noble birth or even especially beautiful, Anne Boleyn manages to rise to the very pinnacle of the English aristocracy. Renowned for her extraordinarily vivid recreations of historical events, Carolly Erickson brings out the full fascinating story of the enigmatic Anne Boleyn.
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Just OK for me.
- By Amazon Customer on 01-11-12
By: Carolly Erickson
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The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots
- Elizabeth I and Her Greatest Rival
- By: Kate Williams
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the story of two women struggling for supremacy in a man's world, when no one thought a woman could govern. They both had to negotiate with men - those who wanted their power and those who wanted their bodies - who were determined to best them. In their worlds, female friendship and alliances were unheard of, but for many years theirs was the only friendship that endured. They were as fascinated by each other as lovers; until they became enemies. Enemies so angry and broken that one of them had to die, and so Elizabeth ordered the execution of Mary.
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Doe Eyed Mary Stuart
- By Missee on 02-28-19
By: Kate Williams
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The Women of the Cousins' War
- The Duchess, the Queen and the King's Mother
- By: Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, Michael Jones
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In her essay on Jacquetta, Philippa Gregory uses original documents, archaeology and histories of myth and witchcraft to create the first-ever biography of the young duchess who was to survive two reigns and two wars to become the first lady at two rival courts. David Baldwin, established author on the Wars of the Roses, tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville, the first commoner to marry a king of England for love, and Michael Jones, fellow of the Royal Historical Society, writes of Margaret Beaufort, the almost-unknown matriarch of the House of Tudor. The Women of the Cousins’ War will appeal to all.
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Great book
- By Stacey Wallace on 11-14-11
By: Philippa Gregory, and others
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Catherine de Medici
- Renaissance Queen of France
- By: Leonie Frieda
- Narrated by: Sarah Le Fevre
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Poisoner, despot, necromancer - the dark legend of Catherine de Medici is centuries old. In this critically hailed biography, Leonie Frieda reclaims the story of this unjustly maligned queen to reveal a skilled ruler battling extraordinary political and personal odds - from a troubled childhood in Florence to her marriage to Henry, son of King Francis I of France; from her transformation of French culture to her fight to protect her throne and her sons' birthright. Based on thousands of private letters, it is a remarkable account of one of the most influential women to wear a crown.
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Narrator didn't get one name right
- By Georgina García- Menocal on 09-15-19
By: Leonie Frieda
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Princesses Behaving Badly
- Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings
- By: Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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You think you know her story. You've read the Brothers Grimm, you've watched the Disney cartoons, you cheered as these virtuous women lived happily ever after. But the lives of real princesses couldn't be more different. Sure, many were graceful and benevolent leaders - but just as many were ruthless in their quest for power, and all of them had skeletons rattling in their royal closets.
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Princesses Researched Well
- By Mary Elizabeth Reynolds on 04-14-14