Loving Shakespeare

Advantages: A movie with it all
Disadvantages: None

...Having a few recent conversations it strikes me that 1998's Shakespeare In Love is an incredibly misunderstood movie, furthermore those that are in the category "misunderstood" have some serious wrong views of exactly what Shakespeare In Love is about, many believe it is a straight laced romance. From first viewing 8 years ago it has become one of my favourite movies; a great romance, an epic tale, a intriguing romance, and last but not least a hysterical sense of humour. The owner of the Rose theatre Henslow (Geoffrey Rush) is in severe dire straits financially, owing money to everyone it seems. But Fennyyman (Tom Wilkinson) for whom he is most in debt too is by far the most eager to get his money from Henslow. To avoid a terrible torture Henslow promises to get dried up author William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) to write a new play...

sghawken 16.10.2007 · Read review
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Review of Shakespeare In Love (DVD)

In Love With Shakespeare

Advantages: Beautiful period piece with a great cast and there are sword fights guys.
Disadvantages: It's a girly, romantic film and nothing blows up. Sorry guys.

...Another Sunday on my own has rolled around (husband on a stag do in the Peak District) so it's time for another girly film review. Sorry men! I am realising that my taste in film may be coming across as a little shallow, but in 1998 everyone fell in love with "Shakespeare in Love" which went home from the Oscars with 7 awards including Best Picture. A decade later, does it still hold up? THE PREMISE Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) has written a couple of plays, but is no match for the brilliance of the playwright of the day, Christopher Marlowe (Rupert Everett) and still a player for hire who dreams of greater things. Something of a womaniser, Shakespeare has writer's block when it comes to his latest work, "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter" because he cannot find his muse. Meanwhile the beautiful and wealthy Viola De...

Mountainlilly 21.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of Shakespeare In Love (DVD)

Help, more Shakespeare

Advantages: Lots to write about
Disadvantages: Very long

...Hi everyone, its good to be back!! Been away a while studying, but im back for a bit to get your valued opinion on my last peice of English Literature corsework, i struggle with Shakespeare and I would greatly appretiate your honest opinion, which i know you will do otherwise you would not be a ciaoer!!!! thanks. #################################### How would a modern day audience respond to the presentation of women in Hamlet? William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in 1603. Hamlet is a play of its time in the presentation of female characters. There are only two women in Hamlet. Gertrude, Hamlets mother, and Ophelia, Hamlets lover, the daughter of Polonius. Hamlet was written in the Elizabethan period, in this time many women were confined to the domestic sphere, they were often unhappy, oppressed, and commonly abused by...

loz989 02.04.2004 · Read review
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Review of Hamlet - William Shakespeare

Just what is the Shakespeare Secret?

Advantages: Excellent plot, well drawn characters
Disadvantages: A little long winded in places

...Review of ?The Shakespeare Secret?, a novel by J.L. Carrell. The Book I am reviewing the paperback version of the book, ISBN number 0751540358 , 480 pages, published by Sphere Books, in 2008. Genre Thriller. Cover price £6.99. First published in the USA in 2007 by Dutton. The Plot American Katherine Stanley is the youngest ever director of Shakespeare's Hamlet which is being performed at The Globe Theatre in London. As an American, her role has caused a few raised eyebrows among the Shakespearean acting circles. Katherine, or Kate, as she prefers to be known, is a well respected student of Shakespeare. Her mentor, Professor of Shakespeare at Harvard University, Roz Howard, pays Kate a surprise in London and gives her a mysterious gift. As Kate is busy with rehearsals, they agree to meet later that evening. Before...

brittle1906 04.08.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Shakespeare Secret - J.L. Carrell

Shakespeare Hotel

Advantages: central position, low priced, friendly staff & beautiful building
Disadvantages: needs renovating, breakfast, not handicapped accessible

...When I went to London last summer with my English class, our teacher chose the Shakespeare hotel for our stay. As there wasn't enough room for all, some of our group stayed at the Dolphin hotel next door, but I was one of those who were fortunate (?) enough to stay at the Shakespeare hotel. Hotel in general The Shakespeare hotel is located very central at Norfolk square, north of the Hyde Park and 2 minutes away from the Paddington station. There are plenty of restaurants, bars and supermarkets nearby, but we didn't try any of them except for the coffee shop where we used to get our breakfast. It is located in a very quiet tree lined street and there is a small park directly outside the hotel which makes it look even more peaceful. From outside the hotel looks really beautiful and exclusive and when I first saw it I was...

SarahJennifer 11.09.2008 · Read review
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Review of Shakespeare Hotel, London

Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare

Advantages: great story
Disadvantages: none

...Romeo and Juliet was written in 1595 by William Shakespeare as a play. It is classed as a tragic play, therefore involves a protagonist that has a peak in his or her life involving good fortune, but then on after good fortune turns quickly into bad, ending up in sadness and misfortune for the protagonist. All tragedies follow the same pattern, only changing the peak point and the speed of good fortune going bad. When mentioned, Shakespeare is often thought to be associated with romance and beautiful imagery, which in some cases is true, but this romance is a needle in a haystack amongst the violent, sexual, crude and malicious imagery. This is a trick that is used to make the romance stand out more, Romeo and Juliet is a very famous piece of Shakespeare's work, but is often thought to be extremely romantic and 'lovey-dovey', however...

pixels91 23.04.2009 · Read review
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Review of Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare

Any Wife (Shakespeare's Wife - Germaine Greer)

Advantages: interesting social history
Disadvantages: houses of straw biographicaly

...Until I read this book, I had not been aware of the extent of the cult of Shakespeare, which Greer calls 'Bardolatry', and which naming doesn't prevent her from using the insufferably pretentious moniker of The Bard for Shakespeare in her own book. But of course it's understandable that the greatest English language writer, and arguably the greatest writer ever will generate not only huge amounts of scholarship relating to his work, but also endless biographical and gossipy speculation about his personal life. Not an awful lot is known about Shakespeare's life, and even though he was married for most of it, almost nothing is known about his wife. What we know about Ann is what we know of many a middle-class women of her era: Ann Hathaway was a daughter of a farmer, born around 1556, she married William Shakespeare at the age of 26...

magdadh 19.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of Shakespeare's Wife - Germaine Greer

Hamlet by William Shakespeare:Wonderful Pyschological Analysis

Advantages: Brillant insight of the human mind!! Easily transposed in modern context
Disadvantages: Might be difficult to read

...Hamlet remains the major psychological work of Shakespeare. In fact, a psychoanalyst Shakespearian fan will rejoice over the marvelous display of Freudian and Lacan theories, as well as the deep insights into the dark thoughts and contemplations which secretly arise even within the best of us. I personally believe that the character of Hamlet is the perfect depiction of a brilliantly troubled mind: ?To Be or Not to Be? have become legendary words. In fact, this dilemma portrayed by Shakespeare is not only found all throughout, but readers/audiences of the play will be marveled as they transpose these words into their everyday lives. The historical To Be or Not to Be within the context of murder does echo the dilemma of the modern housewife: Spaghetti or not for dinner tonight? That?s only one petty example but avid readers will soon...

diamond_sparkles 11.06.2009 (15.07.2009) · Read review
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Review of Hamlet - William Shakespeare

Shakespeare and all That!

Advantages: Highly entertaining, approachable, wittily-illustrated guide
Disadvantages: Purists may cringe occasionally!

...William Shakespeare would weep if he could see the manner in which his works are sometimes studied today. He would surely be bemused to see the seriousness with which lines of wit from his comedies have been dissected and analysed to extract their double-or-treble-or-quadruple entendres when it is a well-known fact that humour is lost when jokes have to be explained. I wonder what he would make of some of today?s productions at the Globe Theatre, or the many film versions of his plays. Would he on balance be amused or incensed were he ever to view a video of ?Shakespeare in Love?? Would he smile as he read Lamb?s tales, or be irritated by their over-simplifications? Would he roll with laughter at a performance by the Reduced Shakespeare Company? Or lament the irreverence shown to some of the more serious themes? There are no...

Discerna 02.03.2005 · Read review
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Review of Shakespeare in a Nutshell: A Rhyming Guide to All the Plays - James Muirden

Shakespeares Conspiracy Theory

Advantages: Good for a train read
Disadvantages: Predictable

...It starts with the burning of The Globe on the anniversary of its original incineration. Kate, a professor of Shakespeare now director of Hamlet at the Globe, is visited by an old friend who gives her a small Victorian brooch, only to die in the fire. Kate along with an old actor avoids giving any evidence to the police and returns home to America and to her old college Yale. It is here that the book begins to come alive. It is obvious that the author feels more at home writing about America than England. The descriptions of the old library rooms of Yale are so vivid you can almost smell the old dusty books. Kate picks up the trail of clues left by her old friend and uncannily bumps into the killer but is rather predictably rescued by Ben a convenient nephew to her old friend. From this point the book ambles along with Kate...

PERFIDIOUS 16.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Shakespeare Secret - J.L. Carrell