Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Collaborations with the Past: Reshaping Shakespeare across Time and Media. By Diane E. Henderson. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 2006. xi + 289 pp. 24.95 [pounds sterling]. isbn: 978-0-8014-4419-7.
'Books descend from books as families from families' (p. 104). This quotation from Virginia Woolf 's The Leaning Tower at the beginning of Diana E. Henderson's second chapter provides a premise with which to introduce her book Collaborations with the Past. For each literary, theatrical and filmic production, there exists a 'prologue'- an influential source, often multiple, that has come before--be it a play, a past production, or history itself. For Henderson's purpose, the reoccurring past collaborator for all artistic forms discussed is Shakespeare.
