Julius Caesar, the Shakespearean drama that is in the curriculum of virtually every high school in the country, is the latest offering in Barron's Picture This! Shakespeare series. Each title in this series offers a highly original introduction to a Shakespeare play, presenting it as a graphic-novel-style picture story, supplemented with substantial excerpts from Shakespeare's original dialogue. Students will also find thumbnail sketches of the play's main characters, and a succinct story summary that explains the play's main themes and meanings. Many students who are daunted by the difficulty of reading Shakespeare's dramas in their original form have found titles in this series to be an important first step in appreciating these universally recognized masterpieces of English literature. Supplementing every Picture This! Shakespeare title is a teacher's guide that suggests topics for classroom discussion and provides enlightening activities that fulfill the needs of a multi-skill-level classroom environment.
Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)
This item is eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. Eligible products include select Books and Home & Garden items. Buy any 4 eligible items and get the lowest-priced item free.
Here's how (restrictions apply)
(back cover) Caesar has been assassinated, and Brutus tells his Roman countrymen that Caesar had to die because he was ambitious. Then Marc Antony speaks to his fellow Romans— And with his words more treachery is in the making.
Picture This! Shakespeare Titles Currently Available from Barron’s— Julius Caesar * Macbeth * A Midsummer Night’s Dream * Romeo and Juliet * Twelfth Night
Product Details
Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: Barron's Educational Series (March 17, 2006)
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.