From Publishers Weekly
This breezy popularization endeavors to make Shakespeare as digestible as a Dear Abby column, with predictably inane results. Winfield, co-author of the stage comedy The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) takes Shakespearean snippets and uses them as starting points for short homilies on topics such as time-management, sexual relations and seizing the day. But mining Shakespeare for platitudes doesn't make Shakespeare more relevant to self-helpers or platitudes more profound. Bromides about real beauty coming from within (Antonio's "None can be called deformed but the unkind" bit in Twelfth Night) are unswervingly stale, especially when taken out of their poetic or dramatic context. Nor will Winfield's perversely shallow glosses-a scene from Lear's blasted heath becomes a reminder to use sunscreen, while MacBeth's bleak "To-morrow and to-morrow" soliloquy prompts a rant against drive-time shock jocks-win Shakespeare any converts. The author calls Hamlet's Polonius a "windbag" full of "verbose blather" and "twaddle," but then approvingly cites said windbag as an authority on friendship, wardrobe, debt and the meaning of life. In the end, good advice-even the Bard's-is dull; what makes us laugh and weep are Shakespeare's insights into why people don't follow it.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
In three dozen plays and 150 sonnets, William Shakespeare probed the human spirit with unparalleled insight. What Would Shakespeare Do? uncovers for the modern reader all the personal advice contained in the Bard's immortal words. Using the same blend of history, drama, and earthy humor that characterizes Shakespeare's work, this book explores ideas that still resonate today: sex and love, youth and aging, morals and the meaning of life. As in What Would Buddha Do?, each page features a question about a modern-day dilemma followed by a quote from Shakespeare and an illuminating commentary by the author. Whether read as a diversion for the Shakespeare buff, an imaginative self-help book, or a unique introduction to the Bard, What Would Shakespeare Do? proves true the words of Ben Jonson that Shakespeare "was not of an age but for all time."
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