Shakespeare is Hard, but so is Life
- Author Fintan O'Toole
- Narrator Fintan O'Toole
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
- Run Time 5 hours and 45 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Literary studies: general.
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What to expect
The works of Shakespeare have become staples of literature. They are everywhere, from our early schooling to the lecture rooms of academia, from classic theatre to modern adaptations on stage and screen. But how well do we really know his plays?
In this witty, iconoclastic book, the bestselling author Fintan O’Toole examines four of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedies: Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear. He shows how their tragic heroes have been over-simplified and moulded to fit restrictive, conservative values, and restores the true heart and spirit of the classics.
'I've never read a book like this before: it's challenging, irreverent and funny.' Roddy Doyle
Critics Review
I’ve never read a book like this before: it’s challenging, irreverent and funny.
Convincing, incisive and stimulating.
A brilliant and extremely readable distillation of some of the current thinking about Shakespeare’s tragedies.
A lively and intelligent work of criticism…Shakespeare is hard, and O’Toole has valiantly refused to simplify him.
A useful corrective to the philistine notion that Shakespeare must be simplified and domesticated so that people can understand him.
You’ll look at Shakespeare with new eyes after reading this book.
User Reviews
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