Book 36: Book Stats.

Title: Macbeth
Author: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
First Published/Performed: It was written sometime between 1600 and 1610, and the earliest performance known was in 1611.

My Edition: Barnes and Noble Shakespeare (I prefer these over the other editions. They read easier and have great supplemental materials-you can see my edition at left).
Pages: 328

Other Works Include: Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, etc.

I would be highly offended if you told me you haven't given Shakespeare a try! I love Shakespeare and I find that with the right edition, it is not as difficult to figure out as you might think.

For my challenge, I am reading a whopping 16 plays by William. I have already completed 2-Much Ado About Nothing and The Winter's Tale. I have read a great deal of Shakespeare's work in the past, in college, high school, and on my own. So far in my personal challenge I haven't picked up a Shakespeare play that I haven't already previously read. This will be my fifth or sixth time reading Macbeth, and it has always been one of my FAVORITE Shakespeare plays. It is very dark and sinister and I LOVE the witches.

Before I wrap this up, I just want to mention a couple things about reading Shakespeare. People have a great misconception that Shakespeare is difficult. While yes, his language is tricky, he is not as difficult as you may think. With his plays, it is more important to get the big scheme of things rather than get caught up on every individual word. With that being said, you can buy great editions of his plays that have footnotes and information to help you. I think Barnes and Noble has done a great job with theirs. I also really like No Fear Shakespeare and Folger's editions as well. They are great places to start!

Book 19: Finished.

Well, I finished The Winter's Tale in a very short amount of time. It was a good re-read, as I realized that there were quite a few details that I didn't remember from the first read about 5 years ago. And while I liked the play, it is definitely not my favorite Shakespeare play.

It felt really disjointed to me, almost as if good old Shakespeare wasn't sure what to do with the 4th act. It was as if he realized he needed a 4th act, so he simply threw in some new characters and some comedy and voila! Instant 4th act!

One main thing that really detracted was the appearance of Autolycus. Shakespeare always has a clown character in his comedies (I'm also thinking of Dogberry from Much Ado About Nothing) to liven up the mood and provide a class distinction (higher classes always speak in iambic pentameter, while the clowns, servants, and lower classes do not). However, in The Winter's Tale, I found the clown to be completely distracting and unnecessary. He's an annoying character who jumps in out of nowhere and steals attention away from the romance of Perdita and Florizell. I was not a fan.

I wish that Shakespeare had instead spent a small amount of time showing Perdita and Florizell's courtship rather than the two of them popping up as adults and saying, "I love you!" But who am I to edit Shakespeare?

I still enjoyed the ending and the resolution. And how even thought the play starts in the gloom of winter, spring and summer bring resolution and new life to those involved. It is a very optimistic viewpoint that good for the reader.

Here are a few of my favorite lines from the play:

"A sad tale's best for winter," (2.1.33)-Spoken by Mamillius

"I am a feather for each wind that blows," (2.3.191)-Spoken by Polixenes

"...nature is made better by no mean
But nature makes that mean," (4.4.106-107)-Spoken by Polixenes

"When you do dance, I wish you
A wave o' th' sea, that you might ever do
Nothing but that..." (4.4. 166-168)-Spoken by Florizell

And my favorite stage direction:

He exits, pursued by a bear. (3.3. 64)

Well, off to the next book.

Happy Reading!

Book 19: Shakespeare and Harry.

As I have been flying through The Winter's Tale (I am currently in Act 4, Scene 4), I have been noting the similarities between this play and one of the Harry Potter books. In my post from yesterday, I mentioned how when I read this for my college Shakespeare class we had a long discussion about some similarities. It all came flooding back to me as I started to read.

Now, if you don't want to know the ending of the play, it might be best to stop reading now, because I am certainly going to go there.

You have been warned.

Okay then. The Winter's Tale is essentially about King Leontes of Sicilia. At the beginning of the play, King Polixenes of Bohemia is visiting. Leontes thinks that his wife, Hermione is cheating on him with Polixenes. He creates a scene and accuses her of being a whore, then banishes Polixenes from Sicilia.

Obviously, the name Hermione rings a bell for anyone who has read Harry Potter. The relationship between these three monarchs is a lot like the relationship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione. At times in that relationship, we do see betrayal where one individual is banished or left out. Feelings and miscommunication play a large role in that separation, as it does here.

Moving on in the play, Hermione gives birth to a child, Perdita, who is sent away by Leontes because he thinks it isn't his. Queen Hermione soon "dies" after and Leontes is left grieving for what he did.

While there aren't as many similarities here, there are later in the play.

The fourth and fifth acts resolve the conflict. Sixteen years later (time turner anyone?), Perdita returns with Florizell (Polixenes' son) to Sicilia, as Florizell is banished by his father for wanting to marry a mere shepherd's daughter. No one at the time of this banishment knows that Perdita is actually Leontes' daughter. Once reunited, the group go to pay respects to a lifelike statue of Hermione. Upon seeing it, they are told it is made of stone. Hermione soon comes back to life and everything is solved.

In that class, we talked a lot about how Hermione in stone reminded us of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where Hermione spends a good chunk of the novel petrified from the basilisk. She is essentially frozen in time, and time also plays a large part in the play. The manipulation of time in some of Shakespeare's plays is a big deal, and time takes on the role of a character. The same is true for some of the Harry Potter novels. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione can control time with her time turner to correct wrongs in a single night. While Shakespeare didn't utilize time in quite the same manner, he came close with time fast-forwarding often through his plays.

One last connection is the mention of the basilisk. Yep, the mythical snake is mentioned in the same play where the character Hermione is "Cast in stone." Here are the direct lines:

"How caught of me?
Make me not sighted like the basilisk.
I have looked on thousands who have sped the better
By my regard, but none killed so," (I.ii. 465-469).

Leontes is actually speaking in this piece to Camillo (a courtier) as well as Polixenes. I find it interesting to draw the comparison here. Shakespeare also explains that the basilisk was known for killing with its sight, but hasn't yet (in this context). If you recall from Chamber of Secrets), the basilisk doesn't kill anyone, but merely petrifies them until they can be revived. In the play, Leontes petrifies his own wife until she is eventually revived by his acknowledgment of wrong doing.

I have to wonder whether this is all merely a coincidence and I am pulling too much from both texts, or if J.K. Rowling really drew inspiration from the play. It would be an interesting question to ask and from all my reading, I haven't found an answer.

I am hoping that all made sense. In any case, I only have a small portion to go before I finish.

Happy Reading!

Book 19: The Winter's Tale.

I figure it is time to get another Shakespeare play off of my list. Since I am not brave enough to venture into reading a play that I haven't already previously read, I decided to go with a lesser known play this time around (the last Shakespeare play I read was Much Ado About Nothing).

The Winter's Tale is another comedy, although it doesn't seem so at first. I have read it once before, during my college Shakespeare class. At the time, I remember thinking that it was alright. It didn't match up to some of the other plays we read in that class, but I still enjoyed it (unlike The Two Gentlemen of Verona which just annoyed me. Thankfully, I am not reading one for this challenge).

Anyway, even though I enjoyed it, I barely remember the plot line. I know some of the characters names; namely, Perdita, Leontes, and Hermione. I also recall that there are some small similarities between the play and Harry Potter. We discussed this in that class, which is why I remember, so as I read I'll try and pull those details out. I like finding inspiration for modern novels within Shakespeare.

Perhaps after giving another old friend a try I'll summon the courage to tackle a new Shakespeare play. I have reservations about it. It is really easy to re-read a play once you are familiar with the storyline because you know essentially what is going to happen and if some language escapes you, it still makes sense. I'm just a little worried about my abilities to decipher something new and unfamiliar on my own.

Off to Shakespeare land!

Sunday Salon: February 7, 2010.

While Matt is in the other room cuddling with the cats and watching the Super Bowl, I decided to sneak into the second bedroom, aka our "den," to write this quick little post of the week. It's how we do things. :)

I am not a big professional football fan. I mainly watch for the commercials. My two favorites this year were the Doritos commercial with the little boy teaching his mom's date a lesson, and the Dodge Charger commercial. Both were winners in my book. But I still don't like Doritos (I actually don't like any kind of chip), and I can't afford a Charger. So I guess those ads didn't fulfill their purpose, huh?

This has been a relatively decent week in reading. I am still behind in reviews (about a week or so), but I am slowly catching up. I don't like to post more than once a day, so I am trying to space out the posts I already have written. Hopefully it all evens out soon. I don't like being so far ahead. The pressure of not having a post written makes me read faster. Er. Not really. I just pretend it does.

Anyway, I managed to finish The Winter's Tale last Sunday night like I knew I would. I picked up The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain shortly after and managed to fly through it. I finished it Friday night. It was still just as good as I remembered. I started Washington Square by Henry James yesterday and I only have about 30 pages left, so it should get finished tonight.

I'm not really sure what I should read next. I've been more or less just staring at my shelves until a title pops out at me, but nothing is popping. I'm thinking I should read a romance (maybe Wuthering Heights?) seeing as it is February and all, but I don't know if I want to tackle that.

Well, I best go join the husband.

Happy reading everyone!

Sunday Salon: January 31, 2010.

It has been another busy week for us. We finally moved over the last of my things to the apartment, so I am officially moved in! There are only a couple small things to put away and then we are settled...it only took a few months. We were both joking that we don't want to move from here unless we move out of state or we buy a house. We'll see which happens first.

I also spent a lot of time bonding with Sparty, who is growing up so fast. He loves to cuddle and he is finally getting along with Hemi (our older cat). They are currently cuddling together on top of the chair in the living room. We are so happy they are getting along.

In book news, I managed to almost catch up on my reviews. I still need to put all my posts about The Dollmaker up. I should just say now that The Dollmaker was not at all what I expected. But it was very, very, very good. I have lots to say about it, so be prepared.

I am also thisclose to finishing The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare. I only have 1 act left, so I should finish it tonight before bed.

So, goals for this week are:

• Make posts for The Dollmaker
• Finish The Winter's Tale and post
• Start and finish The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Make posts on Tom Sawyer
  
• Start something else??

Now it is time to join the hubby on the couch and watch the rest of the Grammys.

Happy Reading!