Essential Shakespeare: The Arden Guide to Text and Interpretation

Addressing the transition from pre-university to undergraduate Shakespeare studies, this introductory critical guide examines 16 key plays. Each chapter focuses on modern theoretical methods, close reading skills, early modern contexts, and productions from stage and screen spanning several decades.

You will gain insights into each play, develop skills of analysis and be introduced to a diverse range of critical approaches that are central to the study of English today. Suggestions for further reading are included at the end of each chapter, together with examples of Shakespearean adaptation across genres, media and time.

New to the second edition:
* A revised and expanded introduction
* Two additional plays and further critical approaches are covered: As You Like It and Titus Andronicus
* Revised chapters on Othello and Twelfth Night
* Updates to each chapter with wider reading and extended Afterlives sections
* New links between chapters to aid study
* A preface to the revised edition
* An appendix featuring recommended open access online resources
* Glossary of critical terms used in this book

Pamela Bickley is an experienced teacher of A-Level and IB students and taught for many years as a Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.
Jenny Stevens has taught English at both pre-university and degree level. She currently combines literature teaching at the City Lit, London, with academic writing, educational consultancy and series editing for Methuen Drama Student Editions.