&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&&R&&LI&&RThe Merchant of Venice&&L/I&&R, by &&LB&&RWilliam Shakespeare&&L/B&&R, is part of the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Shakespeare&&L/I&&R series. This unique series features newly edited texts prepared by leading scholars from America and Great Britain, in collaboration with one of the world's foremost Shakespeare authorities, &&LB&&RDavid Scott Kastan&&L/B&&R of Columbia University. Together they have produced texts as faithful as possible to those that Shakespeare wrote.&&L/P&&R&&LP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&&REach volume in the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Shakespeare&&L/I&&R includes: &&L/P&&R

• &&LB&&RNew Scholarship&&L/B&&R - Premiere scholars introduce each play with contemporary scholarship. An essay on editing the text provides an in-depth look at the quartos and folios used in the edition.
• &&LB&&RContextualizing Essays&&L/B&&R - Essays on Shakespeare's England, language, and life, along with essays on performing Shakespeare and significant performances frame the play in both historical and theatrical context for readers. A look at the lasting influence of the play on music, art, film, and dance creates an interdisciplinary framework with which to approach the play.
• &&LB&&RBetter Notes&&L/B&&R - Through one-word margin definitions, facing-page glosses, and longer end notes after the play, our innovative approach to notes pulls readers away from the text fewer times while providing them with more information and comprehensive analysis.
• &&LB&&RFurther Reading&&L/B&&R - An annotated bibliography of titles, hand-selected by the introduction author, takes readers beyond the edition for further reading.

&&LP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&&RFeaturing one of Shakespeare's most complex and memorable villains, &&LI&&RThe Merchant of Venice&&L/I&&R presents the struggle to find mercy in a world marked by rivalry, cruelty, and prejudice. The editor, &&LSTRONG&&RJulie Crawford&&L/B&&R, restores the play to its historical context, enabling us to better understand how Shakespeare's original audience would have viewed Shylock. &&L/P&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R

&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&&R&&LI&&RThe Tempest&&L/I&&R, by &&LB&&RWilliam Shakespeare&&L/B&&R, is part of the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Shakespeare&&L/I&&R series. This unique series features newly edited texts prepared by leading scholars from America and Great Britain, in collaboration with one of the world's foremost Shakespeare authorities, &&LB&&RDavid Scott Kastan&&L/B&&R of Columbia University. Together they have produced texts as faithful as possible to those that Shakespeare wrote.&&L/P&&R&&LP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&&REach volume in the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Shakespeare&&L/I&&R includes: &&L/P&&R

• &&LB&&RNew Scholarship&&L/B&&R - Premiere scholars introduce each play with contemporary scholarship. An essay on editing the text provides an in-depth look at the quartos and folios used in the edition.
• &&LB&&RContextualizing Essays&&L/B&&R - Essays on Shakespeare's England, language, and life, along with essays on performing Shakespeare and significant performances frame the play in both historical and theatrical context for readers. A look at the lasting influence of the play on music, art, film, and dance creates an interdisciplinary framework with which to approach the play.
• &&LB&&RBetter Notes&&L/B&&R - Through one-word margin definitions, facing-page glosses, and longer end notes after the play, our innovative approach to notes pulls readers away from the text fewer times while providing them with more information and comprehensive analysis.
• &&LB&&RFurther Reading&&L/B&&R - An annotated bibliography of titles, hand-selected by the introduction author, takes readers beyond the edition for further reading.

&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&R &&L/DIV&&R&&LDIV&&RAn extraordinary blend of visual spectacle, story, and poetry, &&LI&&RThe Tempest &&L/I&&Ris Shakespeare's dramatic meditation on the art of power. The editor, &&LSTRONG&&RGordon McMullan&&L/B&&R, illuminates the play by putting it in the context of early modern writings on colonization and political conflict. &&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R

&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&&R&&LI&&RTwelfth Night&&L/I&&R, by &&LB&&RWilliam Shakespeare&&L/B&&R, is part of the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Shakespeare&&L/I&&R series. This unique series features newly edited texts prepared by leading scholars from America and Great Britain, in collaboration with one of the world's foremost Shakespeare authorities, &&LB&&RDavid Scott Kastan&&L/B&&R of Columbia University. Together they have produced texts as faithful as possible to those that Shakespeare wrote.&&L/P&&R&&LP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&&REach volume in the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Shakespeare&&L/I&&R includes: &&L/P&&R

• &&LB&&RNew Scholarship&&L/B&&R - Premiere scholars introduce each play with contemporary scholarship. An essay on editing the text provides an in-depth look at the quartos and folios used in the edition.
• &&LB&&RContextualizing Essays&&L/B&&R - Essays on Shakespeare's England, language, and life, along with essays on performing Shakespeare and significant performances frame the play in both historical and theatrical context for readers. A look at the lasting influence of the play on music, art, film, and dance creates an interdisciplinary framework with which to approach the play.
• &&LB&&RBetter Notes&&L/B&&R - Through one-word margin definitions, facing-page glosses, and longer end notes after the play, our innovative approach to notes pulls readers away from the text fewer times while providing them with more information and comprehensive analysis.
• &&LB&&RFurther Reading&&L/B&&R - An annotated bibliography of titles, hand-selected by the introduction author, takes readers beyond the edition for further reading.

&&L/DIV&&RWidely regarded as Shakespeare's most perfect comedy, &&LI&&RTwelfth Night&&L/I&&R follows the twisting paths that lead to love. The editor, &&LSTRONG&&RClaire McEachern&&L/B&&R, provides an illuminating context for the play, showing how England's struggle to define a national religious identity underlies many of the play's conflicts. &&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R

Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, is part of the Barnes & Noble Shakespeare series. This unique series features newly edited texts prepared by leading scholars from America and Great Britain, in collaboration with one of the world's foremost Shakespeare authorities, David Scott Kastan of Columbia University. Together they have produced texts as faithful as possible to those that Shakespeare wrote. Each volume in the Barnes & Noble Shakespeare series includes:

• New Scholarship - Premiere scholars introduce each play with contemporary scholarship. An essay on editing the text provides an in-depth look at the quartos and folios used in the edition.
• Contextualizing Essays - Essays on Shakespeare's England, language, and life, along with essays on performing Shakespeare and significant performances frame the play in both historical and theatrical context for readers. A look at the lasting influence of the play on music, art, film, and dance creates an interdisciplinary framework with which to approach the play.
• Better Notes - Through one-word margin definitions, facing-page glosses, and longer end notes after the play, our innovative approach to notes pulls readers away from the text fewer times while providing them with more information and comprehensive analysis.
• Further Reading - An annotated bibliography of titles, hand-selected by the introduction author, takes readers beyond the edition for further reading.

When Romeo and Juliet was first performed, its two title characters would have seemed like very unlikely tragic heroes, since they possess no historical importance or political status. The editor, Mario DiGangi, restores the play to its original context, demonstrating in detail how Shakespeare elevated his teenage characters' plight to make them the most famous tragic couple in literature.

The most familiar assertion of Shakespeare scholarship is that he is our contemporary. Shakespeare After Theory provocatively argues that he is not, but what value he has for us must at least begin with a recognition of his distance from us.

On December 19, 1601, John Croke, then Speaker of the House of Commons, addressed his colleagues: If a question should be asked, 'What is the first and chief thing in a Commonwealth to be regarded?' I should say, 'Religion.' If, 'What is the second?' I should say, 'Religion.' If, 'What the third?' I should still say, 'Religion.' But if religion was recognized as the chief thing in a Commonwealth, we have been less certain what it does in Shakespeare's plays. Written and performed in a culture in which religion was indeed inescapable, the plays have usually been seen either as evidence of Shakespeare's own disinterested secularism or, more recently, as coded signposts to his own sectarian commitments.

Based upon the inaugural series of the Oxford-Wells Shakespeare Lectures in 2008, A Will to Believe offers a thoughtful, surprising, and often moving consideration of how religion actually functions in his plays: not as keys to Shakespeare's own faith but as remarkably sensitive registers of the various ways in which religion charged the world in which he lived. The book shows what we know and can't know about Shakespeare's own beliefs and demonstrates, in a series of wonderfully alert and agile readings, how the often fraught and vertiginous religious environment of Post-Reformation England gets refracted by the lens of Shakespeare's imagination.

The essays in Staging the Renaissance show the theatre to be the site of a rich confluence of cultural forces, the place where social meanings are both formed and transformed. The volume unites some of the most challenging issues in contemporary Renaissance studies and some of our best-known critics, including Stephen Orgel, Margaret Ferguson, Catherine Belsey, Jonathan Goldberg, Marjorie Garber, Lisa Jardine, and Jonathan Dollimore-- demonstrating the variety and vitality not only of contemporary criticism, but of Renaissance drama itself.

The most familiar assertion of Shakespeare scholarship is that he is our contemporary. Shakespeare After Theory provocatively argues that he is not, but what value he has for us must at least begin with a recognition of his distance from us.

The essays in Staging the Renaissance show the theatre to be the site of a rich confluence of cultural forces, the place where social meanings are both formed and transformed. The volume unites some of the most challenging issues in contemporary Renaissance studies and some of our best-known critics, including Stephen Orgel, Margaret Ferguson, Catherine Belsey, Jonathan Goldberg, Marjorie Garber, Lisa Jardine, and Jonathan Dollimore-- demonstrating the variety and vitality not only of contemporary criticism, but of Renaissance drama itself.

A Companion to Shakespeare is an indispensable book for students and teachers of Shakespeare, indeed for anyone with an interest in his plays.

• Contains 28 newly commissioned essays written by the most distinguished historians and literary scholars
• Situates Shakespeare in the historical and cultural conditions in which he wrote

This book is a authoritative account of Shakespeare's plays as they were transformed from scripts to be performed into books to be read, and eventually from popular entertainment into the centerpieces of the English literary canon. Kastan examines the motives and activities of Shakespeare's first publishers; the curious eighteenth-century schizophrenia that saw Shakespeare radically modified on stage at the very moment that scholars were working to establish and restore the genuine texts, and the exhilarating possibilities of electronic media for presenting Shakespeare now to new generations of readers. This is an important contribution to Shakespearean textual scholarship, to the history of the early English book trade, and to the theory of drama itself.

This book is a authoritative account of Shakespeare's plays as they were transformed from scripts to be performed into books to be read, and eventually from popular entertainment into the centerpieces of the English literary canon. Kastan examines the motives and activities of Shakespeare's first publishers; the curious eighteenth-century schizophrenia that saw Shakespeare radically modified on stage at the very moment that scholars were working to establish and restore the genuine texts, and the exhilarating possibilities of electronic media for presenting Shakespeare now to new generations of readers. This is an important contribution to Shakespearean textual scholarship, to the history of the early English book trade, and to the theory of drama itself.