Tales From Shakespeare (Signet Classic Shakespeare)

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There is a reason Shakespeare's works have survived to this day. It's timeless, classic and most all unique. About Lamb's Tales, the writing is atypical, top-notch, I loved it! This is a great way to dabble into Shakespeare, it's like dipping a toe, if you want to read Shakespeare or even if you don't plan to read the original works, if you're just curious. This might seem to add up to serious criticism of the Lambs' work and to condemn the Tales as misleading and superseded. But this would be mistaken. Both Charles and Mary are lucid and vivid and deft storytellers - Mary's account of The Comedy of Errors is virtuoso, straightening out the knots of the plot while keeping each of the four twins distinct in the mind of the reader. Tales from Shakespear [sic] Designed for the Use of Young Persons was finished in 1806 and appeared almost immediately, in January 1807, with Charles Lamb's name alone on the cover, under the imprint Thomas Hodgkins at The Juvenile Library. This was an alias for the radical writer and philosopher William Godwin; using his inflammatory name was deemed poor marketing for a new brand of publishing. King Lear: I think this is much too advanced for kids under 13 or so. Young kids just aren't at a developmental point in their lives to be able to appreciate the emotions/machinations/motivations in King Lear. Young kids are still too self-absorbed (in the developmental sense, not the ego sense) to be able to really appreciate this story to the fullest extent possible. I'm fairly sure it would sail over their heads. I think this is a play/story best served when a kid can think more outwardly than inwardly.

As You Like it: Cousins (what is it with Shakespeare and cousins?), Duke (has nicer, prettier daughter, gets exiled by brother, lives in forest like Robin Hood), false Duke (kinda evil, of course), daughter falls for father's friends's son who her uncle dislikes, follows father, cousin comes along, daughter dresses up as a boy, befriends beloved who also has come to the forest and has been taken under the wing of the Duke. Since 1807, many expert writers for children, such as Leon Garfield, have done up Shakespeare's stories better for the apprentice readers of the day (no "very young" child could read the Lambs now), but the Lambs' Tales remain unique for their command of plot and their voicing of Shakespeare's imagery in readable prose. They have also become a part of literary history in their own right, since they have shaped the reception of Shakespeare in other languages: the first Chinese Shakespeare was not the poet himself, but the 1909 translation of the Tales. The book has never been out of print, and editions still follow one another briskly, with illustrators inventively continuing the work of imagination that the Lambs began.

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My parents certainly wanted that for us. Knowing how poor we were when I was little, I still marvel at the amazing opportunities they conjured up for us to experience so much of the world in an utterly non-judgmental fashion. There was nothing we wouldn't go to, car races or the football as readily as the art gallery or the library. But for me the best, the most wonderful thing we did, was theatre. The Lambs wrote Tales from Shakespeare to introduce "young people not accustomed to the dramatic form of writing" to the famous plays by William Shakespeare. Selecting twenty popular comedies and tragedies which they considered appropriate for children, they simplified the plots and retold them in narrative form. They omitted any parts deemed inappropriate for young readers but preserved Shakespeare's original wording whenever possible. Mercy drops as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath; it is a double blessing, it blesses him that gives, and him that receives it; it is a finer ornament for a king than his crown itself, because it is a quality of God Himself; and earthly power comes nearest to God's when justice is mixed with mercy; remember that we all pray for mercy, that same prayer should teach us to show mercy.”

The perfect introduction to Shakespeare for younger readers, Tales From Shakespeare explores twenty of the bard's greatest plays. Named as one of The Guardian's best 100 non-fiction books, each play has been carefully adapted for children of all ages. If I am conquered, well, I was never happy; if I am killed, well I am willing to die. I shall do my friends no wrong, for I have none to weep for me. I shall do the world no harm for in it I have nothing. For I only take up a place in the world which may be better filled when I have made it empty.” Macbeth: Macbeth, after receiving a prophecy from the witches of his ascending the throne, along with his wife crosses every line from regicide to witchery to killing his own friends for the crown but they are haunted by the things they have done and it doesn't end well for them.Lamb's Tales is another one of my attempts to pave my way into the world of Shakespear. It's my uncle's, so I had easy access to it, so I said why not. I feel such an obligation to prepare myself for this magnificent piece of art, it's a privilege. The Tempest: I've never understood all the fuss about The Tempest, and this adaptation doesn't change my mind. I think kids under 12 would understand this story, I'm just not sure they'd find it to be that fascinating. It's a little bit of a boring story as told in this book, and it takes a lot to grab and hold kids' attention these days. I'm not sure this would do it. In the preface, Mary declared her intentions: first, she wrote, "I have wished to make these Tales easy reading for very young children ... but the subjects of most of them have made this a very difficult task." She thus prepared the way for an adaptation that does not exactly censor, but nevertheless keeps in mind children's sensitivities and understanding. But this is not the full aim of the Tales. The preface then specifies: "For young ladies too it has been my intention chiefly to write, because boys are generally permitted the use of their fathers' libraries at a much earlier age than girls are, they frequently having the best scenes of Shakespeare by heart, before their sisters are permitted to look into this manly book ..." Mary then begged these privileged young men for "their kind assistance in explaining to their sisters such parts as are hardest for them to understand ..." So, reading The Tempest I nod off and I see the demons somewhat like in the book in my sleep which conveniently make me wake up in fright. That was the only hitch in my reading this book. Records of Shakespeare’s plays begin to appear in 1594, and he produced roughly two a year until around 1611. His earliest plays include Henry VI and Titus Andronicus. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice and Richard II all date from the mid to late 1590s. Some of his most famous tragedies were written in the early 1600s; these include Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and Antony & Cleopatra. His late plays, often known as the Romances, date from 1608 onwards and include The Tempest.