The Sonnets (The New Cambridge Shakespeare) [Paperback]

William Shakespeare (Author), Gwynne Blakemore Evans (Editor), Anthony Hecht (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 26, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0521294037 | ISBN-13: 978-0521294034

This new edition focuses on the Sonnets as poetry--often subtly interlinked in thematic, imagistic and other groupings. The volume also addresses the many questions that have puzzled readers: are the Sonnets autobiographical? What is the nature of the "love" between the "poet," the "youth" and the "Dark Lady?" Can they be identified? When were the Sonnets written and in what order? The volume is introduced by the poet and scholar, Anthony Hecht. The text has been edited and extensively annotated by Gwynne Blakemore Evans. The volume as a whole will appeal to a new generation of students and poetry lovers.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Shakespeare is again the hottest ticket in town: he has been voted the person of the millennium in Great Britain, while an Oscar-nominated film about his love life is burning up box offices. Along with being the world's greatest playwright, his unparalleled genius for rhyme and meter make him also one of the greatest poets, evidenced by the 154 sonnets he penned throughout his life. This beautiful hardcover offers them all, with illustrations and an index of first lines. A real top-shelf edition.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"They are the work of someone whose ear is unerring." --W.H. Auden

"He is writing about the world, the largeness of which he had perhaps only recently discovered." --Mark Van Doren

"The striking peculiarity of Shakespeare's mind was its generic quality, its power to communicate with all other minds." --William Hazlitt

"Shakespeare is the greatest university of all." --William Carlos Williams

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 315 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (April 26, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521294037
• ISBN-13: 978-0521294034
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,251,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Premium edition of the Sonnets, January 9, 2007

By 

Savvy Shopper (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Sonnets (Hardcover)

This is a nice edition, worthy of gift-giving. There is only one Sonnet per page, so you can choose one and bookmark it for a friend. The paper is quality and the binding and overall look is very good.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great find - It's both volumes, January 4, 2002

By 

Peter Giordano (Williamstown, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sonnets (A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare) (Hardcover)

This edition of the sonnets is one of the most important and the description on Amazon is misleading - It is actually both volumes 24 and 25 bound together so you get the complete set It's hard to find this book so it is a great find in this version

34 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic poetry, February 23, 2003

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sonnets (The Pelican Shakespeare) (Paperback)

William Shakespeare is best known as a playwright. When you think of Shakespeare, you automatically think of plays -- "Romeo and Juliet," "Macbeth," "Hamlet," etc.

But he was also a poet of considerable skill. And while he sprinkled his various plays with poetry and songs, his poems are best appreciated when they're read all by themselves -- particularly the cluster of brilliant "Sonnets" that he penned. These works just have a unique, hauntingly vivid flavour of their own.

Each sonnet has no title, and is simply identified by numbers. And while Shakespeare's love poems are the best known of these works, he addresses different themes in theme -- old age, writer's block loneliness, the cruelty of the world, sex, beauty, a mysterious rival poet, and Shakespeare's own complicated romantic feelings (love that "looks upon tempests and is not shaken").

And these poems are absolutely lovely. Some of these sonnets are pretty well-known ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?/Thou art more lovely and more temperate") but most of them are a little more obscure. They have vivid metaphors and imagery ("let not winter's ragged hand deface," "gold candles fix'd in heaven's air") and hauntingly lovely passages ("What is your substance, whereof are you made,/That millions of strange shadows on you tend?").

And these sonnets really give you new insights into Shakespeare as a person -- he feels uncertainty, passionate love, unhappiness, lust and quirky humor. But while it's obvious these sonnets were deeply personal, they can still be appreciated on their own, particularly as love poetry.

William Shakespeare's "Sonnets" are rich with meaning, language and atmosphere -- the Elizabethan English takes a little deciphering, but it's well worth it.