Overview

George Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: The introduction to the original Kittredge Edition Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work ""off the page."" Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. Select Bibliography & Filmography Images from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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9781585101405

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Reviews

Shakespeare scholars Bernice W. Kliman and James H. Lake have carried out the important task of bringing up to date, while retaining the significant features of the text of Hamlet edited in the last century by the celebrated Shakespearean George Lyman Kittredge. They have succeeded in preserving for today's students the essence of Kittredge's legendary system of notes and scholarly apparatus while adding their own insightful performance notes. As Professor Kittredge himself understood, the nuances and complexities of Hamlet perennially invite new interpretation and speculation. Kliman and Lake have retained that spirit by stressing in their own fresh introductory essay how recent productions have in their diversity brought about a freeing of Hamlet. The editors' discerning analyses of performances by Mel Gibson, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Almereyda, and Simon Russell Beal drive home the point that Hamlet today remains restless and unpredictable. - Kenneth Sprague Rothwell, Professor Em

It is good to have Kittredge's editions--with his notes updated by respected scholars, new introductions, and suggestions on approaching the plays in performance--readily and inexpensively available.<br>- James L. Harner, Texas A&M University

Author Information

Bernice W. Kliman (19332011) was the editor of The Enfolded Hamlets, and co-editor of The Three-Text Hamlet and of Focus (New Kittredge) editions of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Measure for Measure. In addition to books and articles on performance history, she published numerous notes and essays about the early history of editing. She was the coordinating editor of hamletworks.org. James H. Lake (Ph.D. University of Delaware) is Professor of English at Louisiana State University in Shreveport and has been appointed to the faculty of the Greco Institute. He has served as Director of the LSUS Joys of Learning Humanities Seminars for the Elderly, Director of the University's Honors Program and Director of the LSUS Master of Arts in Liberal Arts Program. He has served on numerous boards, including the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Board of Directors of the Noel Foundation, and the editorial board of Shakespeare and the Classroom. He has published widely on Shakespeare and Shakespeare and Film, has edited the Focus-on- Performance edition of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and is the Series Editor for the New Kittredge Shakespeare.

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