This British author explores the profound connection between humanity and the natural world. His work, deeply influenced by Romanticism and with a keen focus on Shakespeare, offers insightful explorations of the human spirit and its place within the wider ecosystem. Through his critical and academic writings, he provides unique interpretations of classic texts while engaging with pressing ecological concerns. His prose is both scholarly and accessible, inviting readers to delve into complex themes with fresh understanding.
Presents a fresh view of the early modern world through the eyes of Shakespeare, his players and audiences. This book illustrates the Catholic counterculture that is revealed through the failed Gunpowder Plot, which was later to prove the inspiration for Macbeth.
Includes the complete text of Shakespeare's plays, poems, and sonnets
Myth and fact are not always easy to separate in Worcester's history; provoking a range of interesting, often quirky questions with even quirkier answers.Was there really a time when the College became a training-ground for Greek Orthodox clergy from Constantinople and Antioch? True, albeit only briefly.Was Lewis Carroll inspired to create the rabbit-hole in Alice, by seeing the tunnel into the gardens at the end of the main quad? Almost certainly false.Did wallabies once roam the College grounds? Yes. Did Rupert Murdoch put them there? No.This book is for anyone who wants to know why Worcester seems to create a special magic, for readers intrigued by a very unusual Oxford College, and for anyone interested in Worcester's people - from the architect and collector George Clarke, to the opium-eater Thomas de Quincey, to spymaster Masterman to the dons, the staff and the students who have enlivened the College in more recent times.It is a rich and colorful 'portrait' of the not an academic history, but an impression of the place, its people and its customs.
A dazzling new biography of Wordsworth's radical life as a thinker and poetical innovator, published to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth.
How did plague turn Shakespeare from a jobbing hack into a courtly poet? How did Bottom's dream rewrite the Bible? How did Shakespeare's plays lead to the deaths of an earl and a king? And why was he the one dramatist of his generation never to be imprisoned? This book helps you to understand what being Shakespeare was actually like.
'Enlightening, moving' SIR IAN MCKELLEN From the acclaimed and bestselling biographer Jonathan Bate, a luminous new exploration of Shakespeare and how his themes can untangle comedy and tragedy, learning and loving in our modern lives.
A comedy about mistaken identities, games, eavesdropping, and unrequited love
"This book grew from the inaugural E. H. Gombrich Lectures in the Classical Tradition that I delivered in the autumn of 2013 at the Warburg Institute of the University of London, under the title, "Ancient Strength: Shakespeare and the Classical Tradition"--Preface, page ix.
Bate presents an exhilarating, witty and original account of how Shakespeare has come to be accepted as the world genius of literature. He includes an attack on the nationalistic interpretation of Shakespeare
This new edition is based on the quarto, the version closest to the original manuscript. The introduction illminates the plays' origins and practicalities of composition, its reception and influence. Detailed notes pay especial attention to language and staging, and the volume includes King Lear's first derivative, a contemporary ballad, and guides to appreciation of the play and its multiple offshoots.
