Shakespeare A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Plays, His Poems, His Life and Times, and More

Don't let the overly casual cover mislead you. This book provides excellent understandable commentary on Shakespeare's works. Using the "dictionary format" one may have to look up the invidual characters within a play, in addition to the play itself, to get all the pertinent information. But what excellent information it is! It contains better plot summaries, including character motivation, play sources, "real" facts for historical characters, and performance information presented more clearly and concisely than similar books. Good for virually all levels of study, reading, or watching the plays.

I am a student in high school and this book saved me a lot of time and energy while writing a research paper for English. Any part of "A MIdsummer Night's Dream" that I didn't understnad was right there, explained in terms that anyone could understand. It helped me develop my thesis, and overall saved my paper from a certain 'C+' grade. It was a great book.

I love this book. It's fun to keep it handy and just flip through the pages from time to time. Charles Boyce presents from A ("Aaron" in Titus Andronicus) to Z (Zeffirelli, Franco"), an outrageous potpourri of the fictional and the real, the historic and the apocryphal, the comic and the scholarly. It's crammed with commentary, scene-by-scene synopses of plays, character background, background on the sources for the plays, biographical information on Shakespeare and lots of fun trivial information, too. I know my Shakespeare fairly well, but this delightful book always teaches me something new. (For example, there's an entry for the real-life inspiration for Shakespeare's line in HENRY VIII about "some Indian with the great tool come to court.") I think this book would be a great gift for Shakespeare fans. And if you're going to get a Complete Works for the student you know, why not splurge and get this one, too? It's the perfect companion to Shakespeare and easily accessible to all ages.

I'm just a student in high school, and not long ago was recieved the part as Lady Macbeth for our school play Macbeth. My drama teacher recommended this book to me to get an in depth analysis of my character and the rest of the play. I bought the book and I was totally blown away. The information packed in here is tremendous. In this book is everything you'll ever need to know about each play and every character, even if they don't have a speaking part. This book has also helped me with the other Shakespeare plays I read during school for Literature. It's a great study and reference. It's helped me understand so much about the characters and the play, I recommend this to anyone who reads Shakespeare for school or anything, this tells you things even your teacher wouldn't know. It's been truly a life savor, to me and the rest of my cast who couldn't understand what was going on or what their character was about.

I'm a Shakespeare major, and my shelves are bowing under the weight of all my Shakespeare books. SHAKESPEARE A TO Z is the book I reach for most often, whenever I've got questions about the plays.

This book truly is the essential reference, but it is much more than a typical reference book. It's readable, interesting, and thorough. Inside, you'll find passages on every single one of Shakespeare's characters, no matter how minor; detailed analysis, as well as an act-by-act plot summary, on EVERY play; information on locations used in the plays, and MUCH more. Virtually every topic/character/place/important thing in a play is covered in this book.

I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in Shakespeare's plays, or is involved in the study of Shakespeare. This book not only serves as an accesssible reference, it's also full of thought-provoking facts and ideas.