Overview

Celebrating the Bard in all his bawdy glory, an eminent scholar puts the spotlight on the down-and-dirty sexual puns lurking in Shakespeare?s work. Everyone knows of his matchless understanding of the human condition, but we have been deprived for centuries of the full extent of one of Shakespeare?s most brilliant dramatic devices. Restoring the saucy, often shocking meanings that lie beneath his words, Filthy Shakespeare gives modern readers a tour of the brothels, buggery, trannies, pimps, pricks, and other tawdry references populating his best-known works. The tension between sexual wordplay and politics provides a captivating historical backdrop, while the fascinating facts about life in Will?s England make us see his masterworks in their gritty authenticity. Revealing and riotously funny, Filthy Shakespeare is the perfect gift for anyone who wants to rediscover the master of the sexual pun at his most inventive.

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9781592404018

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...goes some way towards wiping out that sneaking feeling you often get when reading the Bards sublime verse that youre not quite in on the joke...fascinating. The Guardian ...a bona-fide Shakespeare scholar...its all there: from balls to buggery, and from pricks to pubic hair. Guardian Unlimited ...great fun Times Literary Supplement ...a beautifully presented guide to Elizabethan filth. The Observer (voted one of the Best Books of 2006) ...a work of scholarship dressed up, with brilliant design, as titillation. The Spectator ..who knew the hidden sexual innuendos within the Bard's works! This new book has unearthed loads of them. Company Magazine aThis jaw-dropping, giggle-inducing text proved both the Bardas enduring relevance and the fact that todayas most popular entertainment isnat nearly as debased as some might think.a a Publishers Weekly aA romp of a read.a a Associated Press This jaw-dropping, giggle-inducing text proved both the Bard s enduring relevance and the fact that today s most popular entertainment isn t nearly as debased as some might think. Publishers Weekly A romp of a read. Associated Press ?This jaw-dropping, giggle-inducing text proved both the Bard's enduring relevance and the fact that today's most popular entertainment isn?t nearly as debased as some might think.? ? Publishers Weekly ?A romp of a read.? ? Associated Press

aThis jaw-dropping, giggle-inducing text proved both the Bardas enduring relevance and the fact that todayas most popular entertainment isnat nearly as debased as some might think.a<br> a Publishers Weekly <br> aA romp of a read.a<br>a Associated Press

Author Information

Pauline Kiernan spent 10 years in London as a journalist before studying at the University of Oxford, where she took a doctorate in Shakespeare, and went on to teach at several colleges there. Dr. Kiernan is a screenwriter, an award-winning playwright, and a Shakespeare scholar. She is also a creative writing consultant, journalist, and speaker.

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