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.
Author
Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English author and poet; she published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later connected to the Labour Party. Edith Nesbit was born in Kennington, Surrey, the daughter of agricultural chemist and schoolmaster John Collis Nesbit. The death of her father when she was four and the continuing ill health of her sister meant that Nesbit had a transitory childhood, her family moving across Europe in search of healthy climates only to return to England for financial reasons. Nesbit therefore spent her childhood attaining an education from whatever sources were available—local grammars, the occasional boarding school but mainly through reading. At 17 her family finally settled in London and aged 19, Nesbit met Hubert Bland, a political activist and writer. They became lovers and when Nesbit found she was pregnant they became engaged, marrying in April 1880. After this scandalous (for Victorian society) beginning, the marriage would be an unconventional one. Initially, the couple lived separately—Nesbit with her family and Bland with his mother and her live-in companion Maggie Doran. Initially, Edith Nesbit books were novels meant for adults, including The Prophet's Mantle (1885) and The Marden Mystery (1896) about the early days of the socialist movement. Written under the pen name of her third child 'Fabian Bland', these books were not successful. Nesbit generated an income for the family by lecturing around the country on socialism and through her journalism (she was editor of the Fabian Society's journal, Today). In 1899 she had published The Adventures of the Treasure Seekers to great acclaim.
