Henry V (No Fear Shakespeare) [Paperback]

SparkNotes Editors (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1411401034 | ISBN-13: 978-1411401037 | Publication Date: June 22, 2004

No Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of Henry V on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right.

 

Each No Fear Shakespeare contains

• The complete text of the original play
• A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday language
• A complete list of characters with descriptions
• Plenty of helpful commentary

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: SparkNotes (June 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1411401034
• ISBN-13: 978-1411401037
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.2 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,924 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing in his community. William probably went to the King's New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy, Hamnet ( who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith, were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers." Shakespeare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later under James I, called the King's Men). In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain's Men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare's plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. In 1611 or 1612 he gave up his lodgings in London and devoted more and more time to retirement in Stratford, though he continued writing such plays as The Tempest and Henry VII until about 1613. He died on April 23 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. No collected edition of his plays was published during his life-time, but in 1623 two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell, put together the great collection now called the First Folio.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prince Hal Reaches Maturity, March 5, 2007

By 

Big D (Auburn, AL. USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Henry V (No Fear Shakespeare) (Paperback)

This review is not so much about the play (in which Prince Hal reaches glorious and majestic maturity) as about the presentation of the material..."No Fear Shakespeare" continues to be one of the best ways for the casual reader to read and study the Bard...Original text on the lefthand page, updated modern language on the righthand page...the best of both worlds...Twice as much for the price, two for one, the old and the new side-by-side.

One comment about Shakespeare's work in this play..use of the opening prologue to each scene makes this easy to understand and to visualize...nice touch, by the world's greatest writer and observer of the human condition.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No fear here!, February 27, 2009

By 

S. McKinney (Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Henry V (No Fear Shakespeare) (Paperback)

I am a private tutor who teaches Shakespeare to classes of middle school/high school students and I think the No Fear Shakespeare series is a wonderful thing.

Over my years of teaching, the number one complaint I hear from my students (and sometimes from their parents, who say this to me with shamed faces) is that Shakespeare is "boring." Not so! I always say, and then I show them the collection of No Fear Shakespeare books I use for my classes and they all say, "Wow! What a great idea!"

Let's face it: It's hard to understand Elizabethan English. Unless, of course, you are a scholar who has spent years learning how to unravel William Shakespeare's lofty lines, which most of us aren't. In fact, I think that's where we seem to have gotten the idea that Shakespeare is the province of college professors, when actually, Shakespeare is meant for highbrow and lowbrow audiences alike.

These books, with Elizabethan English on the left and modern English on the right, are a fine thing for students to use because they remove the mystery of all those thee's and thou's, not to mention all the archaic slang. My students and I go over the modern English first, and then we read it in the original. It really adds a LOT to their understanding.

I feel that the translations are adeptly done. Every now and then you'll come across a modern line that jangles in the ear, but for the most part, the translations are handled gracefully. The original needs no criticism at all.

This is one of William Shakespeare's best plays, in my opinion. His love of his country's history is evident in every line, and this play is particularly interesting because of the use of a Chorus: You can practically see yourself at the Globe as you read!

[...]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pain-Free for the Shakespeare-Averse, September 21, 2010

By 

Martha Hesselein (Mobile, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Henry V (No Fear Shakespeare) (Paperback)

I'm homeschooling an 8th grader; this series makes Shakespeare accessible and even entertaining for my student. We read the "No Fear" translation together, read/compare the more important speeches in the original language, and then watch the same scene from a cinematic version. I highly recommend this for "a little touch of Harry in the night" that is painless and fun.