ISBN Tales from Shakespeare

Tales from Shakespeare

THE SIGNET CLASSIC SHAKESPEARE SERIES
The Work of the World’s Greatest Dramatist

A great way to enjoy twenty of Shakespeare’s timeless plays, this volume is a retelling of the stories in prose by the famous nineteenth-century brother and sister Charles and Mary Lamb. Keeping Shakespeare’s own words whenever possible but making the plots and language easily accessible, this entertaining and readable collection has enthralled both children and adults ever since it first appeared in 1807. Here Shakespeare’s best-known tragedies and comedies come to life. Defined by moving drama, vivid action, great wit, or fantastic imagination, each play comes alive with charm and clarity for readers of any age—as a helpful preface to the original Elizabethan version or even as enriching, unforgettable stories in themselves.

With an Introduction by Susan J. Wolfson and an Afterword by Sylvan Barnet, general editor of the Signet Classic Shakespeare series.


About author(s)
Charles Lamb (1775-1834) is now best known for his wonderful Essays of Elia. Lamb enjoyed a rich social life and became part of a group of young writers that included William Hazlitt, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and Samuel Taylor Coleridge with whom he shared a lifelong friendship. Lamb never achieved the same literary success as his friends but his influence on the English essay form cannot be underestimated and his book, Specimens of the English Dramatic Poets is remembered for popularising the work of Shakespeare’s contemporaries.