How to Read a Shakespeare Play
How to Study Literature

1. Edition June 2006
184 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
This clear and succinct book is designed for general readers who
want to know how to go about reading Shakespeare's works for
pleasure.
* Encourages readers to approach Shakespeare's works
aggressively, interactively, and questioningly
* Focuses on six popular Shakespeare plays - A Midsummer
Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV Part I, Hamlet,
King Lear and The Tempest
* Recommends the best editions, recordings and DVDs / videos of
these plays
* Discusses the production of the plays on stage and screen
* Introduces readers to different genres in Shakespeare -
romantic comedy, English history, tragedy and romance
* Avoids jargon and abstract literary theory
1. How to Read a Shakespeare Play.
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream.
3. Romeo and Juliet.
4. Henry the Fourth, Part I.
5. Hamlet.
6. King Lear.
7. The Tempest.
8. Epilogue.
Further Reading.
Index
"The first chapter is a fabulous, full-frontal, thirteen-page assault that both dispenses information and suggests effective questions that student readers might employ when reading a text in order to 'read aggressively' (p. 9). What is mildly revolutionary is that it is here, in print, ready to be easily disseminated to students and thus to more easily and readily articulate the type of engagement with a text that we hope and expect our students will undertake. Bevington challenges his readers to think in historical, theatrical, and characterological terms. Bevington's list is instructive and at times brutally honest. Schools should consider investing heavily in this text for the benefit of their pupils; college or university-level students would also be aided by Bevington's straightforward, avuncular reading advice." (Year's Work in English Studies, 2008)