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This Is Shakespeare
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
22 posts | 9 read | 18 to read
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Vansa
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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Pickpick

#Netgalleybingo
Got around to reading some more ARCs! And more importantly,reviewing. I cannot recommend This is Shakespeare enough.To paraphrase the tagline of Barbie: If you can't get enough of Shakespeare, this book is for you.If you've had a surfeit of Shakespeare,this book is for you.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5781346962

rachelsbrittain Well I'm convinced! 1y
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Vansa
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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Vansa
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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Emma Smith is glorious. This book makes you read Shakespeare so differently,and with so much new insight

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KarenUK
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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Pickpick

A fun & fascinating audiobook. I wouldn‘t usually pick up a lit criticism book, but heard Val McDermid rave about it on a BBC podcast and couldn‘t resist. I love how Oxford prof Smith looks at how each play is so open to interpretation, how they ask more questions than give any answers, and she discusses each play in both the context of the day, and of today‘s world. I learnt so much about the ambiguities and about dramaturgy and creative choices.

Cinfhen Very cool 🥸 4y
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Kalalalatja Sounds cool, but I have a feeling you have to have read quite a few of the plays to really enjoy it? 😊 4y
KarenUK Honestly @Kalalalatja I only ever ‘read‘ Macbeth, then seen a few films, and seen a few stage productions. It‘s really accessible if you have a vague idea of the basic storylines, she makes it fascinating. And each chapter is focused on each play, so you can always skip the ones you have no interest in. 4y
Kalalalatja That‘s good to know! I‘ll keep it in mind for the future, I‘m not sure it is right for me atm 👍 4y
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KarenUK
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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#bookspin and #doublespin picks for March are also both for challenges #booked2021 #pop21 !!! Yay! I do love a #doubledip 💕

ChaoticMissAdventures I have had The Children of Men on my TBR bookcase for YEARS. I hope you get to it and enjoy it. 4y
TheAromaofBooks Yay!!! 4y
Cinfhen Cool mustache choice 🥸but bestseller from the 90‘s is a #pop21 choice xxx still a #DoubleDip 🍦🍦😜❣️ 4y
KarenUK @Cinfhen 😂🤦‍♀️ 4y
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Librarybelle
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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Thanks for the tag, @TheSpineView !

1. I just finished the tag, and overall I liked it. You can see my full review by searching the title, but I‘d recommend it to anyone interested in a meatier Shakespeare criticism.

2. Wow! This is a great question! Imagine the mashup of Mr Darcy and Jane Eyre...

3. I like multiple POVs, especially in historical fiction.

#WondrousWednesday

Eggs Love # 2!!! Thanks for playing 👏🏻📚🤗 4y
TheSpineView You're welcome! 😘 4y
43 likes2 comments
review
Librarybelle
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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Pickpick

Smith takes an in-depth look at various plays by Shakespeare and showcases how the plays have been interpreted over the past hundreds of years, as well as places the plays in the context of Shakespeare‘s time. The result is an academic, with occasional humor, account. I‘m not a complete Shakespeare aficionado, but I appreciate the Bard‘s genius. Some of the book was way over my head, but I fully appreciate what she has written.

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NotCool
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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“Did you see Part 1 and can you remember where we left things? Asks the Prologue to Henry IV; bear with us as we try to depict grand battles within the limits of the stage, says the Prologue to Henry V; welcome to olde-world storyland, says the Prologue to Pericles.”

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NotCool
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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“No man with any decency of feeling can sit it [Taming of the Shrew] out in the company of a woman without being extremely ashamed of the lord-of-creation moral implied in the wager and the speech put into the woman‘s own mouth.” — George Bernard Shaw, saying things that make me like him.

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JSW
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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"Come off it!" This isn't the Shakespeare you read in high school, ?

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JSW
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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Yes. Let's explore these works as frameworks, not masterpieces. "I don't really care what he might have meant, nor should you."

BronwynMahon This sounds so interesting! How is it? 5y
JSW @BronwynMahon I'm liking it! I appreciate the thoughtful analysis - it makes my intellectual side happy without asking me to be an expert! 😃 I also like that I can skip chapters of plays I'm not familiar with, and that doesn't impact the book. 👍🏼 5y
BronwynMahon @JSW Thank you! Definitely adding it to the list! 😁 5y
17 likes3 comments
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JSW
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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"So much of what we say about Shakespeare is either not true or just not relevant." Looking forward to digging into this one!

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Cathythoughts
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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Really enjoying this audio on my walk. This morning I first heard of Hamnet, Shakespeare‘s son who sadly died at 11... and how Freud ( and others ) see a link to Hamlet , being Shakespeare‘s grieving play for his son .... I was moved to hear this
And then , I turned on the radio to hear that Maggie OFARRELL‘s new book HAMNET is all about just this ... ❤️💔 what a link & all in one day

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Cathythoughts
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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Romeo ..... “ I fear too early for my mind misgives some consequence yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin .... “

I forgot to post my Audible #BookReport #Weeklyforecast I‘m really enjoying this one on my daily allowed exercise/walk ✨

Tanisha_A Love your photographs 💚 5y
Cathythoughts @Tanisha_A Thanks ❤️, I hope you are keeping well. 5y
squirrelbrain Lovely pictures! 5y
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TrishB Great pics ♥️ taking the dog out is really a life saver! 5y
Cathythoughts @squirrelbrain Thanks Helen X 5y
Cathythoughts @TrishB Thanks! And Yes, my husband always says that ... the dog walk will save our lives 👍🏻❤️ 5y
Cinfhen So nice to see outdoor photos 😍 5y
CarolynM Lovely photos💕 5y
erzascarletbookgasm How wonderful to be able to go out for a walk! Enjoy and stay healthy! 😘 5y
Cathythoughts @Cinfhen @CarolynM Thanks ! It was a lovely day 💚 5y
Cathythoughts @erzascarletbookgasm Thanks Jessie .. we can go for a walk / cycle etc. for 2k from home at the moment .. if we are not in a high risk group .... I hope you are ok & staying healthy too 😘 5y
57 likes11 comments
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Lindy
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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Pickpick

Professor Emma Smith reads her own #audiobook and it‘s obvious she‘s used to lecturing. Also obvious that she loves her subject: it‘s infectious. She says the unanswered questions are the reason Shakespeare‘s plays have such a continued hold on our imaginations. Also: “We tend to find the meanings we need to in Shakespeare‘s plays.” Lots to think about in this engaging work. (Also, expect fancy vocabulary like teleological, bathos and apposite.)

Cathythoughts Nice review! I have an audible credit at the moment & I find it hard to choose a book I can listen to ... this one sounds good 👌🏻 5y
Lindy @Cathythoughts It‘s one you can easily listen to in chapter segments, rather than straight through, since each chapter is about a different play. 5y
Cathythoughts Thanks Lindy, I‘m giving it a go as I don‘t really like listening to novels ... so Im excited to see how this goes.. 👍🏻❤️ 5y
batsy I like that line about finding the meaning we need to! Something to be said about how his plays can continue to yield different meanings. 5y
Lindy @batsy Yes, that line resonates with me too. 😊 5y
48 likes5 comments
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Lindy
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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I‘ve been untangling and re-rolling my bits of leftover yarn into centre-pull balls. An easy, time-consuming task while listening to an audiobook. #knittersofLitsy

Cathythoughts We love a good yarn on Litsy 🙃 😁 5y
49 likes3 comments
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Lindy
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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I‘m not where I had planned—which was to be at a dyeing workshop in Vancouver—but I can still do crafty things at home. Like tie yarn skeins in preparation for the next steps: washing, then mordanting, then dyeing. #audiocrafting

readordierachel Look forward to seeing the finished product! 5y
Come-read-with-me This looks like fun! Can hardly wait to see the end result. 5y
AlaMich “Mordant” just looks all wrong as a verb...🤔 (edited) 5y
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Butterfinger That is so cool!! 5y
Lindy @AlaMich Yes, it might give the impression that I plan to get sarcastic with this wool. 😁 5y
AlaMich @Lindy 😊 5y
Lindy @readordierachel @Come-read-with-me @Butterfinger Thanks for your comments. 😘 It will be a while yet before I get to the dyeing because the weather needs to be warm enough to work in my garage where my dye studio is set up. (Probably not for a few weeks.) And then the knitting! I will post my progress. 5y
Centique I love seeing your crafting 😍 5y
Lindy @Centique 😘🤗 5y
49 likes9 comments
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Lindy
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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Jean Anouilh‘s chorus [in his version of Antigone] argues that tragedy is restful, because there is no need to do anything; it does itself, like clockwork set going since the beginning of time. I‘m always rapt by watching those unfurling patterns of dominoes set off by a single tap. Like these, Anouilh suggests, tragedy just needs the flick of a finger.

(Image source: search online for “cats and dominos video” —it‘s mesmerizing)

night_shift I'm so impressed someone managed to set those dominoes up while also owning a cat lol 5y
tournevis And Anouilh is right, from my POV. 5y
tournevis @UnidragonFrag I've seen a few dominos and cats vids going around in the last few days, actually. 5y
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night_shift @tournevis stuck at home, I imagine. I'll have to look some videos up. I'm a sucker for domino knock down videos. 5y
tournevis @UnidragonFrag just google "dominos cats". I saw all three that were on my feeds as the top answers. 5y
night_shift @tournevis I found the video that has the picture you posted.. very cute! Thank you! 5y
Lindy @UnidragonFrag I can see that repeated takes were required to make the entire video. Much patience. 🐈😊 5y
Lindy @tournevis Yes, it‘s an interesting view on tragedy, and applicable in current days as we search for art that suits our emotions. 5y
Annl Thanks for sharing! I noticed one of my cats was watching the video over my shoulder! 5y
tournevis @Lindy It becomes quite clear when you read Anouilh's Antigone, especially when comparing it to Sophocles and all the other retellings. (College paper coming back to me...) 5y
Lindy @Annl 😸😽 5y
Lindy @tournevis Ah! You have expertise on this subject. I‘m glad you are here on Litsy. 🤗 5y
Centique Just watched the video. So cool! 5y
44 likes14 comments
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Lindy
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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A second point about spoilers is more specifically generic: can tragedy even have a spoiler? If we know the play is called The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, are we really ever in any doubt about how things will turn out? Renaissance tragedies were performed on a stage draped with black, which would have had the same giveaway quality.

night_shift Huh. That's a good point! Never thought about that. 5y
Lindy @UnidragonFrag This reminds me of a friend‘s outrage over having the ending of Hilary Mantel‘s latest novel revealed in a review... 😏as if Thomas Cromwell‘s fate needs a spoiler alert. 5y
Centique @Lindy ha! That made me giggle 😆 5y
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CaseyMoore
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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Pickpick

Great survey of Shakespeare plays which presents them more as asking questions than giving us answers. I really hope we get more books from Emma Smith in Shakespeare.

CaseyMoore That‘s a Manhattan by the way. 5y
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Emilymdxn
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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Pickpick

This is the best book I‘ve read on Shakespeare in so long! So refreshing, unpretentious, thoughtful, teasing out all the beautiful odd ambiguities that make Shakespeare so fascinating. I‘ve never read anything that captures so perfectly why I love Shakespeare, and breaks down a lot of barriers to people finding it relevant and interesting in the 21st century. THIS is how good literary criticism can be and I recommend it so much

Graywacke Hmm. Noting 5y
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Emilymdxn
This Is Shakespeare | Emma Smith
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I think Vienna might be the best place to read. I had dinner in this cafe last night and had to come back today the coffee and cake were so good. This is the cafe Freud had his morning coffee in - at least I believe so. I wonder if he had the cake that is now their speciality cake - almond sponge with apricot and cherry jam and the best cake I‘ve had in my life so far.

julesG Enjoy Vienna! And the coffee houses and cake. 5y
OnlyYoo I swear that Italy has the best coffee in the world 😍 5y
i.z.booknook Oh wow it looks gorgeous! 5y
BellesGotGoodReads So relaxing! 5y
85 likes4 comments