Happy 460th birthday to William Shakespeare! Born on April 23, 1564, England’s national poet is regarded as one of—if not the most—influential writers in the English language. In honor of the Bard and National Poetry Month, we’ve put together a list of Shakespearean reads to celebrate with.
Enter Our Shakespeare Sweepstakes!
For the Shakespeare Purists:
Shakespeare’s First Folio: 400th Anniversary Facsimile Edition: Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies, Published According to Original Copies by William Shakespeare; Introduction by Adrian Edwards, with British Library of London
A full-size facsimile of one of the most complete early copies of the famed First Folio, selected and luxuriously produced by the British Library, is a must-have for actors, playwrights, and bibliophiles as well as anyone who truly loves the art of the English language.
First printed in 1623, the First Folio presents thirty-six of Shakespeare’s plays in one volume and is the only source for eighteen of his plays. Without it, works such as The Tempest, Twelfth Night and Macbeth would be lost. Also, the First Folio introduced the now-familiar organization into comedies, histories, and tragedies. Of the 750 copies originally produced, only some 200 remain today. Interestingly, no two copies are identical and few surviving First Folios are complete. One work, Troilus and Cressida, appears in some copies but not others. Printing stopped and started due to finances, so corrections were made throughout the print run. Small changes were also made to Martin Droeshout’s (now iconic) Shakespeare portrait on the title page.
Available in Hardcover.
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Shakespeare for Every Night of the Year Edited by Colin Salter
Immerse yourself in the sublime words of the Bard with this sumptuous anthology of Shakespearean snippets, with one extract for every night of the year.
Beautifully illustrated with favorite scenes from Shakespeare’s best-loved plays, this handsome volume provides an accessible, fun introduction to his work, both the well-known and lesser-known plays and also his poetry. Keep this book by your bedside and luxuriate in the rich language of the greatest writer the world has ever known, for entertainment, relaxation, and timeless wisdom every night of the year.
Available in Hardcover.
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Shakespeare-Inspired:
All Our Yesterdays: A Novel of Lady Macbeth by Joel H. Morris
A propulsive and piercing debut, set ten years before the events of Shakespeare’s historic play, about the ambition, power, and fate that define one of literature’s most notorious figures: Lady Macbeth.
“Lady Macbeth is surely one of our most instantly recognizable characters, a shorthand now for heartless and overweening ambition. In All Our Yesterdays, Morris has given her the deep, nuanced, and complicated backstory she deserves. With witches! Thoroughly engrossing, highly recommended.”—Karen Joy Fowler, author of Booth and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
“Hail, Macbeth! A stunning meditation on the auspiciousness of silence, and intergenerational anguish. The evolution of Shakespeare’s Medea is a marvel to behold by Morris’s pen. I could not put this book down.”—Isa Arsén, author of Shoot the Moon
Available in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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By Any Other Name: A Novel by Jodi Picoult
From the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey comes a novel about two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—who are both forced to hide behind another name.
Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.
Available August 20th in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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Lady Macbeth: A Novel by Ava Reid
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ava Reid comes a reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her.
“Hail, Queen! Ava Reid has done it again in this gothic, atmospheric reclamation of the story of Lady Macbeth. Scotland’s cold will seep into your bones, but the kernel of hope that burns in all of Reid’s stories will keep you warm . . .”—Vaishnavi Patel, New York Times bestselling author of Kaikeyi
Available August 13th in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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Enter the Body: A Novel by Joy McCullough
In the room beneath a stage’s trapdoor, Shakespeare’s dead teenage girls compare their experiences and retell the stories of their lives, their loves, and their fates in their own words. Bestselling author Joy McCullough offers a brilliant testament to how young women can support each other and reclaim their stories in the aftermath of trauma.
“At once tender, poetic and ferocious, Enter The Body breathes new life into the Bard’s most tragic heroines. More than a tribute to Shakespeare, this kaleidoscopic, ambitious novel-in-verse gives Juliet, Ophelia, Cordelia, and Lavinia the chance to tell their own stories full of passion, justice, sisterhood, and love. Simply spectacular.”—Michael L. Printz Award winner Laura Ruby, author of Bone Gap
Available in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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Become a Shakespeare Scholar:
Shakespeare’s Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance by Ramie Targoff
This remarkable work about women writers in the English Renaissance explodes our notion of the Shakespearean period by drawing us into the lives of four women who were committed to their craft long before anyone ever imagined the possibility of “a room of one’s own.”
“[A] fascinating excavation of four intellectual powerhouse women of the 16th and early 17th centuries . . . Targoff’s intent is to scrape away the layer of literary obscurity from Shakespeare’s sisters and present the pentimento as transcendent survivors. Their work indeed lives on.”—Tina Brown, The New York Times Book Review
Available in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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The Great White Bard: How to Love Shakespeare While Talking About Race by Farah Karim-Cooper
Combining piercing analysis of race, gender and otherness in famous plays from Antony and Cleopatra to The Tempest with a radical reappraisal of Elizabethan London, The Great White Bard asks us neither to idealize nor bury Shakespeare but instead to look him in the eye and reckon with the discomforts of his plays, playhouses and society. In inviting new perspectives and interpretations, we may yet prolong and enrich his extraordinary legacy.
“The Great White Bard contributes to an essential discussion on Shakespeare and race, one that must include literary scholars, historians, etymologists, audiences and, yes, even actors. Let us all debate and think critically about the issues Karim-Cooper raises. At the end of the day, such tough love can guide us to truly love Shakespeare.”—The New York Times
Available in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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The Bard and the Book: How the First Folio Saved the Plays of William Shakespeare from Oblivion by Ann Bausum; Read by Sean Patrick Hopkins and Ann Bausum
The unlikely true story of why we know the name William Shakespeare today, and the four-hundred-year-old book that made it possible.
Part literary scavenger hunt (the search for every existing First Folio continues today), part book trivia treasure trove, and part love letter to Shakespeare, this behind-the-scenes, sharply funny true story is an ideal introduction to the Bard and his famous plays.
Available in Audiobook, Hardcover, and eBook Editions.
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