The Best of Shakespeare

At the heart of any great work of literature is a story. William Shakespeare's plays are no exception. His plays tell stories of kings and queens, of ghosts and witches, of romance and passion. But to get to the story at the heart of the plays, the reader must first work through Shakespeare's language, a task often too great for younger readers (and for many adults). Now, in this new edition, E. Nesbit, the classic British children's author, brings ten of Shakespeare's greatest plays to life. She shakes off the burdensome complexity of Shakespeare's language and tells the stories at the core of the plays. Sprinkled with her own dashes of wit and humor, her graceful, vivid retellings, using accessible language, are the perfect introduction to Shakespeare's work.
Nesbit's stories are also the perfect way for adults to brush up on the ins and outs of Shakespeare's plays. Who can remember the names of King Lear's three daughters? Was Romeo a Montagu or a Capulet? What, exactly, was Hamlet's problem?
All of these major works are included in this collection: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, As You Like It, The Winter's Tale, and Twelfth Night.
The text is illustrated throughout with dramatic black and white photographs from modern productions of the plays by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Stratford Festival (Ontario, Canada), and the Folger Library's Shakespeare Theater, bringing the action and characters to life. Also included is an afterword by Peter Hunt, a leading scholar of children's literature.
These retellings of the classic tales of one of the world's greatest playwrights remind us that it is never too early for Shakespeare.