Authors
- Naxos AudioBooks
- William Shakespeare
Publication date: 2000-12-21
Dewey code: 808
RRP: £16.44
Price: £12.17
Review Othello Audio Cassettes (New Cambridge Shakespeare Audio) / Cambridge University Press:If anything, Othello has increased its stature as one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies ever since it was first written, between 1603 and 1604, due to the victimisation suffered by its tragic hero, Othello, as a result of his skin colour. Othello is a "noble Moor", a North African Muslim who has converted to Christianity and is deemed one of the Venetian state's most reliable soldiers. However, his ensign Iago harbours an obscure hatred against his general, and when Othello secretly marries the beautiful daughter of the Venetian senator Brabanzio, Iago begins his subtle campaign of vilification which will inevitably lead to the deaths of more than just Othello and Desdemona. An extraordinary play, both for its dramatic economy and power as well as its remarkable language, from Othello's bombastic "traveller's history" to Desdemona's elegiac "willow song", the play raises uncomfortable questions about ongoing problems of not only racial identity but also sexuality, as Othello and Desdemona's sexual relationship becomes the voyeuristic site of Iago's attempt to destroy them. Particularly fascinated with the question of what it means to "see", Othello also contains one of the greatest tragic death scenes in all of Shakespeare, with Othello's final identification with "a malignant and a turbaned Turk". -Jerry Brotton.
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 1999-10
Dewey code: 796.323092
RRP: £13.00
Price: £13.00
Review Bird Watching: Basketball Celtics / Warner Books:The first sentence of Larry Bird's candid post-player memoir begins blandly enough: "On August 18, 1992, I announced my retirement from the Boston Celtics. " It's the one that follows-"It was one of the happiest days of my life"-that sets the tone for the book. Most stars have to be pulled off centre stage, but as Bird Watching makes clear, the former Celtic legend who returned home to eventually coach the Indiana Pacers is certainly a rare bird. He's not afraid to ruffle feathers. And he's not afraid to tell his truth. Perhaps the most striking revelations concern his heart. On top of the back pain that plagued him through much of his career, from time to time Bird experienced the feeling-and disorienting flush- -of an irregular heartbeat, which he kept hidden from the Celtics. Even now, in the stress-filled world of coaching, Bird has almost passed out on the bench a couple of times-but he remains a fierce competitor. "I'm not going to be stupid about this heart condition, but I'm not going to live my whole life in fear of this thing either. If it goes, it goes. [+]" Bird Watchingspends virtually no time with Bird the player; he's not one for looking back. He's more interested in explaining his evolution and thinking as a coach, examining the current state of the NBA and picking apart the Pacer's disastrous 1999 playoff loss to the Knicks. He does, however, reminisce upon his amazing connection to Magic Johnson, comparing it to the connection between Ali and Frazier. "I knew it was going to be like that forever after I played him in college for the national championship," Bird writes. "I never came up against anyone, other than Magic, who could challenge me mentally. Magic always took me to the limit. " From Bird, it's hard to imagine a more heartfelt compliment. -Jeff Silverman.
Publication date: 1996-06
RRP: £5.99
Price: £7.98
Review King Richard II / Bespoke Audio:
Publication date: 1988-12-08
Dewey code: 428.34
RRP: £29.38
Price: £19.50
Review Jazz Chant Fairy Tales (Jazz Chants) / OUP Oxford:
Creator: Various Artists
Publication date: 2000-07
Dewey code: 822
RRP: £8.99
Price: £0.01
Review Historical Shakespeare Recordings: Audio Cassettes / Naxos AudioBooks:
Authors
- William Shakespeare
- John Fletcher
Publication date: 1999-08-26
Dewey code: 822
RRP: £8.99
Price: £2.50
Review The Two Noble Kinsmen: Unabridged (Arkangel) / Penguin Audiobooks:Shakespeare's last dramatic work, Two Noble Kinsmen has often been marginalised by editors who believe that Shakespeare was just one of its many writers. This does a disservice to what is a fascinating and haunting play. The two noble kinsmen of the play's title are Palamon and his cousin Arcite, Thebans who have sworn a vow of friendship until death, claiming, "Is there record of any two that loved/Better than we do?" King Theseus of Athens leads an invasion against Thebes, and returns to Athens with the two cousins, who both fall in love with Princess Emilia, Theseus' sister-in-law. Both become rivals for Emilia's hand, incurring the wrath of Theseus. The action moves to the forest, where Palamon and Arcite prepare to duel over Emilia, only to be interrupted by Theseus, who delays the duel for one month, commanding that whoever wins the duel will marry Emilia, whilst the loser will be executed. On the day Arcite defeats Palamon, but is then crushed under his own horse. As he dies he bequeaths Emilia's hand to his cousin. The play ends with their wedding ceremony. Two Noble Kinsmen concludes with a note of resignation, as Theseus says "Let us be thankful/For that which is, and with you leave dispute/That are above our question", but as always, it is dangerous to see this as Shakespeare pronouncing on life itself, or simply another character in one of his plays voicing a particularly elegiac viewpoint on the sad events portrayed. -Jerry Brotton.
Creator: et al
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 1998-08-27
Dewey code: 822
RRP: £8.99
Price: £3.74
Review All's Well That Ends Well: Unabridged (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare) / Penguin Audiobooks:All's Well That Ends Well has generally been considered one of Shakespeare's most difficult and unpopular plays. Labelled a "Problem Comedy", editors believe that the play was written between 1604 and 1605, and exhibits a darkening of Shakespeare's interest in comedy. The play deals with the complicated relationship between Helena, the daughter of a famous physician, and Bertram, the arrogant son of the Countess of Roussillon. Helena is secretly in love with Bertram, and when she miraculously cures the ailing King, she asks for Bertram's hand in marriage, to which the grateful sovereign happily agrees. Bertram bitterly opposes marriage to Helena, who he regards as a social inferior. After reluctantly agreeing to the marriage, Bertram flees to the wars in Italy with his companion Parolles. What ensues is Helena's increasingly desperate and complex attempts to retrieve her errant husband, which involves various machinations and a piece of mistaken identity and an infamous "bed-trick" which has never fully convinced audiences or critics. More recently critics have been kinder to the play, seeing its cynical disillusionment with romance as reflecting contemporary social and political anxieties about warfare and commerce, and feminist critics have been keen to celebrate Helena as a particularly complex heroine. The play is also fascinated by language, encapsulated in the character of Parolles (or "words"), and his memorable line for which the play is chiefly remembered: "Simply the thing I am / Shall make me live". -Jerry Brotton.
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2004-09
Dewey code: 792.102908
Price: £9.99
Review The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare: the Two Noble Kinsmen (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare) / Audio Partners Publishing:Shakespeare's last dramatic work, Two Noble Kinsmen has often been marginalised by editors who believe that Shakespeare was just one of its many writers. This does a disservice to what is a fascinating and haunting play. The two noble kinsmen of the play's title are Palamon and his cousin Arcite, Thebans who have sworn a vow of friendship until death, claiming, "Is there record of any two that loved/Better than we do?" King Theseus of Athens leads an invasion against Thebes, and returns to Athens with the two cousins, who both fall in love with Princess Emilia, Theseus' sister-in-law. Both become rivals for Emilia's hand, incurring the wrath of Theseus. The action moves to the forest, where Palamon and Arcite prepare to duel over Emilia, only to be interrupted by Theseus, who delays the duel for one month, commanding that whoever wins the duel will marry Emilia, whilst the loser will be executed. On the day Arcite defeats Palamon, but is then crushed under his own horse. As he dies he bequeaths Emilia's hand to his cousin. The play ends with their wedding ceremony. Two Noble Kinsmen concludes with a note of resignation, as Theseus says "Let us be thankful/For that which is, and with you leave dispute/That are above our question", but as always, it is dangerous to see this as Shakespeare pronouncing on life itself, or simply another character in one of his plays voicing a particularly elegiac viewpoint on the sad events portrayed. -Jerry Brotton.
Edition: Abridged Ed
Publication date: 1993-12-31
Dewey code: 809
RRP: £11.50
Price: £20.75
Review Screenwriting Tricks of the Trade: The Workshop / Penton Overseas Inc:
Edition: Argo1355
Publication date: 1993-12-31
RRP: £7.99
Price: £44.99
Review The World of Shakespeare / Argo:
Creator: Stephen G. Daitz
RRP: £33.00
Price: £34.99
Review Birds / Audio-Forum:
Publication date: 1997-02
RRP: £5.99
Price: £7.98
Review The Merchant of Venice: Starring Dame Peggy Ashcroft & Cast / Bespoke Audio:
Creator: Michael Sheen
Publication date: 1997-02
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £8.99
Price: £2.99
Review Lady Windermere's Fan: Performed by Juliet Stevenson & Cast (Classic drama) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Publication date: 2000-02
RRP: £6.99
Price: £8.98
Review The Jazz Singer: Starring Al Jolson (Hollywood Playhouse IV) / Mr Punch Audio Books:
Creator: Paul Jesson
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 1999-11-25
Dewey code: 822
RRP: £8.99
Price: £4.75
Review Coriolanus: Unabridged (Arkangel) / Penguin Audiobooks:
Creator: et al
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 1999-05-27
Dewey code: 813
RRP: £8.99
Price: £4.49
Review King Richard II (Arkangel Audiobooks) / Penguin Audiobooks:One of Shakespeare's finest history plays, Richard II deals with one of the most sensitive and politically explosive issues of its day-the rights and wrongs of deposing a legitimately appointed king. Forerunner to the two parts of Henry IV, the play deals with the abdication of King Richard II in 1399, the subsequent succession of Bolingbroke, the future King Henry IV, and Richard's death in the spring of 1400. But the play has been celebrated above and beyond its stature as historical drama. Richard II begins with a portrait of Richard as a pompous, arrogant and self-regarding sovereign, with little sense of his people or his political responsibilities. As he consistently miscalculates in his attempts to destroy Bolingbroke, and watches his own power wane, he becomes a far more appealing, Hamlet-like figure, more interested in "talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs", and "sad stories of the death of kings". Richard's speeches become increasingly lyrical and poetic as his supporters desert him, until he finally takes on the stature of the pilloried Christ in the climax of the play, the deposition scene, one of the most politically risky scenes in all of Shakespeare. The play remains most famous for John of Gaunt's "This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle" speech, but historians believe that the play was also performed in the streets of London in 1601 in support of the Earl of Essex's attempt to depose Elizabeth I. Whilst the plot failed, it showed the power of the theatre of the time, and the politically controversial nature of Shakespeare's play. -Jerry Brotton.
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2004-09
Dewey code: 792.102908
Price: £9.99
Review The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare: Henry VI Part I (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare) / Audio Partners Publishing:This second part of the history of Henry VI begins where Henry VI Part One ends. The Wars of the Roses between the Houses of York and Lancaster are in full swing, whilst intrigue at court becomes even more intense. Henry's wife, Margaret of Anjou takes centre stage with her lover Suffolk, conspiring against Henry's uncle, Gloucester, claiming that his wife is in league with a coven of witches. The Duke of York also plots against the ineffectual Henry, encouraging a people's revolt led by the memorable figure of Jack Cade, and then taking to the field himself. At the Battle of St. Albans, York's son Richard, the future King Richard III, kills Gloucester, leaving the Yorkist faction in the ascendancy. A violent and chaotic play, Henry VI Part Two shows much of Shakespeare's early dramatic inexperience. Much of the verse, and many of the minor characters are undifferentiated. However, both Margaret of Anjou and Jack Cade are fascinating early characterisations which foreshadow some of Shakespeare's greatest subsequent tragic figures. -Jerry Brotton.
Creator: The Renaissance Theatre Company
Publication date: 1994-04
Dewey code: 822
RRP: £16.99
Price: £9.99
Review King Lear (Renaissance Theatre) / Random House Audiobooks:King Lear stands alongside Hamlet as one of the most profound expressions of tragic drama in literature. Written between 1604 and 1605, it represents Shakespeare at the height of his dramatic power. Drawing on ancient British history, Shakespeare constructs a plot that reads like a fable in its clear-sighted but terrifying simplicity. The ageing King Lear calls his daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia to witness that he wishes "to shake all cares and business from our age" and divide his kingdom between his three children. When Cordelia refuses to flatter her father with sycophantic words of love, her banishment leads to chaos and civil war as Lear's disastrous "division of the kingdom" gives free reign to the greed and ambition of his two remaining daughters. As Lear sinks into rage and madness he is deserted by everyone except his "bitter" Fool, the loyal Kent and the exiled Cordelia. The play descends into a nighmarish theatre of cruelty and absurdity as Lear realises he has "ta'en / Too little care" of the poverty and corruption of his kingdom, and his loyal but foolish friend Gloucester has his eyes gouged out. Metaphors of monstrosity and perversions of nature structure the dramatic action, and the play's ending remains one of the most harrowing in all of Shakespeare. Many see a profound despair and nihilism in King Lear, and would agree with Kent's conclusion that "All's cheerless, dark and deadly". Other writers have identified a radical but pessimistic critique of contemporary conceptions of kingship and absolutist authority, yet it remains a remarkable tragedy of public misjudgement and intensely private grief and anguish. [+]-Jerry Brotton.
Authors
- Naxos AudioBooks
- William Shakespeare
Publication date: 2001-05-03
Dewey code: 808
RRP: £16.44
Price: £11.23
Review King Richard III Audio cassette (New Cambridge Shakespeare Audio) / Cambridge University Press:
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2004-09
Dewey code: 792.102908
Price: £9.99
Review The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare: Henry V (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare) / Audio Partners Publishing:
| Models & Brands:
Othello Audio Cassettes (New Cambridge Shakespeare Audio), Bird Watching: Basketball Celtics, King Richard II, Jazz Chant Fairy Tales (Jazz Chants), Historical Shakespeare Recordings: Audio Cassettes, The Two Noble Kinsmen: Unabridged (Arkangel), All's Well That Ends Well: Unabridged (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare), The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare: the Two Noble Kinsmen (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare), Screenwriting Tricks of the Trade: The Workshop, The World of Shakespeare, Birds, The Merchant of Venice: Starring Dame Peggy Ashcroft & Cast, Lady Windermere's Fan: Performed by Juliet Stevenson & Cast (Classic drama), The Jazz Singer: Starring Al Jolson (Hollywood Playhouse IV), Coriolanus: Unabridged (Arkangel), King Richard II (Arkangel Audiobooks), The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare: Henry VI Part I (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare), King Lear (Renaissance Theatre), King Richard III Audio cassette (New Cambridge Shakespeare Audio), The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare: Henry V (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare) |
