Shakespeare (New York Review Books Classics) [Paperback]

Mark Van Doren (Author), David Lehman (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: New York Review Books Classics | Publication Date: August 31, 2005

This legendary book by an esteemed poet and beloved professor at Columbia University features a series of smart, witty, deeply perceptive essays about each of Shakespeare's plays, together with a further discussion of the poems. Writing with an incomparable knowledge of his subject but without a hint of pedantry, Van Doren elucidates both the astonishing boldness and myriad subtleties of Shakespeare's protean art. His Shakespeare is a book to be treasured by both new and longtime students of the Bard.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: NYRB Classics (August 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590171683
• ISBN-13: 978-1590171684
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #100,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A treasure..., December 26, 2005

By 

Rory Coker (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shakespeare (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)

How often have you encountered a book on Shakespeare or his works that attains a level of writing that is often heart-meltingly gorgeous, even at times comparable to the beauty of the Shakespeare quotations it contains? Probably only once, and this is the book.

A helpful introduction by David Lehman reminds us that Mark Van Doren was a celebrated professor of literature at Columbia University, and a poet of considerable accomplishment, who served as mentor to a long list of students who later achieved great things. In his courses he generally spoke without notes, and this 1939 book on Shakespeare's works was also written without notes or references, other than a well-thumbed one-volume edition of the works, printed in about 1906.

Any modest power of description which I might possess fails utterly for this exquisite book. Instead, let me give a sample of Van Doren's commentary: "It may well be that Shakespeare in 'The Tempest' is telling us for the last time, or consciously for the last time, about the world. But what he is telling us cannot be simple, or we could agree that it is this or that. Perhaps it is this: that the world is not simple. Or, mysteriously enough, that it is what we all take it to be. Any set of symbols, moved close to this play, lights up as if in an electric field. Its meaning, in other words, is precisely as rich as the human mind, and it says that the world is what it is. But what the world is cannot be said in a sentence. Or even in a poem as complete and beautiful as 'The Tempest.'"

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Frosting on the Cake, Not the Dough That Made It, August 5, 2007

By 

David L. Staples "Aero Engr." (Wichita, KS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shakespeare (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)

Highly recommended for someone who has some familiarity with the plays and wants to see this terrain through sharper eyes. This is not "CliffsNotes." These are essays by a master critic who loves Shakespeare, written *for* readers who love Shakespeare. But be prepared when Van Doren plays the critic, not the worshipper. If your favorite is "Henry V," for example, keep an open mind and wince along.

A pleasant aspect of this book is that you can take the essays in any order. This means that if, like me, you know some of the more popular plays (Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Lear, Julius Ceasar), but not some of the seldom-performed ones (Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida, King John, Pericles), you can see what Van Doren has to say about "your" plays and then come back when you have hunted up the others.

Van Doren's prose is familiar, easy, and full of love. It is almost a conversation, and hardly less a joy to read than Shakespeare himself.

29 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes Shakespeare hum!!!, May 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Shakespeare. (Hardcover)

I have always loved Shakespeare but, even though I have studied it, sometimes, he is a little difficult to pin down on what exactly he is saying or meaning and it is often hard to get the feel or mood for certain scenes. After all, he was a playwright, not a journalist! And he wrote five centuries ago in the idiomatic English of that time. This critique is absolutely brilliant. Van Doren's feelings on Shakespeare are that he wrote his plays to be enacted on a mostly-bare stage in front of a noisy crowd of Joe Q. Publics, not enacted in an elaborate hushed stage setting in front of a group of phychologist, phychoanalists, etc. I have often felt that some critics see deep, mystical, dark meanings in Shakespeare that he never intended (I feel it is more a reflection of the critic's own phyche). Not to say that Shakespeare is shallow! I feel his "well-written" plays are awesome and unmatched by anyone, anywhere, anytime. Van Doren brings Shakepeare to the light of day in a clear, logical, yet so very elegant way. This book literally brings me to tears, it's so beautiful!