Customer Reviews

Tales From Shakespeare

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a beautifully crafted book. The jacket, the paper, the artwork are all of superior quality. Definitely a collectible-ish type of book. However, be warned: It is not the same Charles and Mary Lamb version as others! Those versions contain 20 abridged tales of Shakespeare's plays; this version only tells 6. I don't rightly remember all of them, but I know "Hamlet", "Midsummer Night's Dream", "Macbeth", and "Romeo and Juliet" were included.

If one is satisfied with just these tales, then I can tell you to buy this book. On the other hand, if you want all 20 tales (as I did), you are better off buying another version.

Joelle Jolivet is an internationally-acclaimed illustrator while Charles and Mary Lamb are known for the 1700s prose adaptations of Shakespeare's plays. They join forces in the finely illustrated TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE, a collectible for all ages pairing lovely prose retellings of plays with Jolivet's beautiful drawings. Stories pack in the best of modern and traditional worlds in a selection of highly recommended works.

My 10 year old daughter is reading this collection of Shakespeare. She likes the look and feel of the book and has enjoyed the stories. We simply wish there were more stories in this collection.

This is a beautiful edition. However, I was very disappointed to find that there were only six stories included, as my library's catalog listed the same summary as the other versions of the book. So, for those wondering, this volume includes:
MACBETH
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
OTHELLO
HAMLET
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
KING LEAR

My only regret was that i did not know which plays were in the book and now I have to find the one which has the other plays i am looking for.

I like this edition of the Lambs' retelling of several classic Shakespeare tales. Was written long ago, with old-fashioned language, but not too difficult to grasp. It could be appropriate for a young student, or someone older, like me, who never learned all the Shakespeare stories and characters, and wants to brush up! There are simple illustrations on every page, and at the beginning of each story a drawing of all the characters, with names, (which can get difficult to remember!) Shakespeare is really the Master of Human Nature and human foibles! A family book to treasure.

I purchased this collection because I had heard for years about the Lamb family's adaptation of Shakespeare to make it more suitable for children. I have a two-year-old daughter who enjoys listening to both short stories and chapters from novels such as Stuart Little or The Tale of Despereaux, and even Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-7), and I thought I would love to introduce her to the beauty of Shakespeare at an early age. Unfortunately, I underestimated the difficulty of Victorian English for such a young child. Furthermore, they may have omitted the truly bawdy tales (All's Well that Ends Well?), but who would read those to children any way? The first story, Macbeth, still included plenty of gore and violence, but really, it's Macbeth - how could you possibly convey the horror without the violence? Nevertheless, I feel like if I have to wait until my child is old enough to understand the complex language in this book, she'll probably be old enough by that point to tackle The Bard himself without the Lambs as middlemen. They may have provided a valuable service in their time, but I'm afraid it's obsolete now. In the mean time, we have been enjoying excerpts from Shakespeare in bite-sized pieces in Poetry for Young People: William Shakespeare, edited by David Scott and Marina Kastan. I still wish that I could find a great adaptation of Shakespeare for the elementary school set, but until then we'll retell the stories as best we can and enjoy the sound of the poetry in the Kastan's compilation.