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    Tales From Shakespeare
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    Tales From Shakespeare
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    Tales From Shakespeare
    Ebook343 pages6 hours

    Tales From Shakespeare

    By Charles and Mary Lamb

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    William Shakespeare (1564-1616), a poet and playwright, is acknowledged as the greatest writer and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He excels in plot, poetry and wit, and his talent encompasses the great tragedies of Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth as well as the moving history plays and the comedies such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew and As You Like It with their magical combination of humour, ribaldry and tenderness.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJaico Publishing House
    Release dateJul 1, 2016
    ISBN9788179928325

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    Reviews for Tales From Shakespeare

    4/5

    245 ratings14 reviews

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    • 5/5
      These stories are a perfect way to introduce children to Shakespeare’s plays. I loved this book when I was 10, and I’m convinced it’s one of the main reasons I was a Shakespeare fanatic well before I entered high school.
    • 4/5
      Best introduction to most of Shakespeare's plays. A nice short story for each work.
    • 4/5
      I originally read this in my grandmother's edition (hence the 1915 date), and reviewed again about five years ago. The second reading was a little disappointing, but tempered by the fact that I had to account for the period in which the book was published.
    • 4/5
      Such a slender little volume and how apparently unimportant. After all, if one reads seriously, why a collection of retold versions of the bard aimed at school children. Ah, but they are witty and to the point and entirely delightful.Recently I have been reading something that extolled the virtues of Charles Lamb, so I have been feeling the need to fill in the gaps in my education caused by a far too liberal education. And I have been intrigued by the stories of Mary Lamb, who was a sad and sorry case. This little edition seemed a likely introduction.Ah, well, with the strongly worded warning that the retelling of the Merchant of Venice is distasteful to be kind, may I say that this is a blithe book. I want to buy it for any student who is slogging through class readings without the guide of an inspired teacher. Heck, I want to buy it for all sorts of people who don't get Shakespeare. The two authors quote a smattering of stirring speeches, carefully chosen and in enough quantity to whet and not slake a taste for dialogue. Most of the big plays, the tragedies are the sphere of Charles Lamb, while the comedies belong to his sister. She has a wry wit that flutters happily through Puck, Benedick, Rosalind and she pitches her tone to be as a confident to the reader.On another point,I really like the cover and want to see more Sadowski.
    • 4/5
      The kids begged for more Shakespeare. No, really, they did. Although it was a difficult read aloud with all of it's run on sentences, this was a wonderful version of Shakespeare. Not overly simplified but easier than reading the plays. I had intended to read one story a month to them but ended up doing one or more a week!
    • 2/5
      (Original Review, 1981-01-18)The book industry is becoming like the film industry; no new ideas so just reboot or copy a previous story...Star Trek Into Darkness being the most cynical by simply reorganizing original a Trek film script and a couple of cases word for word."Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead" (an) "interesting, imaginative reworkings of Shakespeare". Up to a point, Lord Copper. R&G riffs marvellously on Hamlet. But it relies on the audience having a pretty solid knowledge of the play, even down to some of the more minor characters in it, and being able to fit them into the large context. The basic pitch --- that the smaller characters have lives of their own --- plays out in front of the (almost completely unseen) "other play". I wonder how many people enjoy R&G without having Hamlet pretty well to hand: not many, to judge from the dire film of it a few years ago.It's one thing to write a text that stands on its own but uses some elements of Shakespeare for those that want to spot it (10 Things I Hate About You) and another to write a text that is intimately bound up with a text you're assumed to know (R&G). But what's being proposed here is a standalone text which doesn't assume you know the play already, but which also provides a gloss on (presumably) most of the play. Whole other situation.(Amusingly, an extract from R&G was one of the unseen texts in the SAT "English Literature" subject test this month. That must have been fun for some of the people taking it). I'm not 'against' it like some of the commenters seem to be but this is about the 100th time I can remember in the last 20 years or so that there has been some scheme to 'bring Shakespeare back to life' and it is pretty daft.Shakespeare is still important to the 'template' for drama, scholars will point out that he (or they...) didn't invent anything but wherever it comes from people are still using Shakespeare all the time.One would think writers, if they have any professional integrity at all, would have sufficient respect for another writer to leave his work alone. But then, of course, there's that money-thing that tempers respect for others.Let's see: Shakespeare died, and five centuries later rewriting his works (which is not at all the same as creating original adaptations, whether it is “Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” or “West Side Story”), but rewriting his works. What a way to note his death: arrogantly believing his works need resurrecting and thinking you can manage it. Oh, my.I can't help feeling as though this is like 'pyramid selling' as the whole exercise stinks of little to do with literature. "IT", I believe is another prime example of the risk averse publishers exploitation. Exploiting Shakespeare - again, exploiting the talent of authors by coercing them to void originality and re-hash, and exploiting consumers with such a blatant marketing spin. Random House should know better, this, even if good will be the literary equivalent of big brother. The literati academics are quick to knock Jourdan and her 50th book out (she must be the only author to have written more books than she has read) - but this is just a highbrow version of the same thing!This has nothing to do with writing, or literature, just sales. I know I got some shit because of the style and content of my book, but at least I can stand up and say it had integrity. Sadly, I remember the National Gallery pulling a similar carry-on with famous paintings.The idea that contemporary authors cannot create genuinely new work inspired by the canon is very narrow, and if you'll forgive me, probably held by people who are not themselves writers. Winterson has frequently proposed in her own novels that stories are not linear, static objects. She has an extraordinary gift of invention and I am sure is quite capable of adding to the joy of The Winter's Tale by working through in her own mind what the play might mean to her, and to us. Even school-level reading of Shakespeare is an act of reinvention and interpretation. I think we should look forward to that act being performed by a writer of her distinction. But will their poetic and dramatic skills be up to it ? If genuine, why not bring to the masses more overlooked greats like Chaucer, Blake, Homer? We all know Shakespeare is a household name, throw in a known writer and BOOM - literary recycling.
    • 5/5
      Shakespeare is pretty hard to follow when read just as text. His plots are complex and characters numerous. And Charles Lamb set out to turn them into straightforward stories. He seems to have achieved this aim because his book is still being produced and read 200 years later. It suffers a little bit in that the language has changed somewhat but by and large it still fulfils the original aim...to make the stories from Shakespeare, more readily accessible.This particular book is enlivened by the illustrations of Arthur Rackham...some in colour and some in black and white. It is interesting that Charles Lamb felt that he was able to use direct quotes from the original Shakespeare with the tragedies but it was more difficult to use direct quotes with the comedies or lighter works.I think it does the job and I've recently persuaded my sone to read Otello in this Lamb version before trying out the original Shakespeare. I have yet to see if this was a good strategy or not. But must confess that i have only dipped into the volume and have not read it from cover to cover. In many cases, i have not felt the need as I've studied a number of these plays extensively in the original, have watched live performances or TV performances, films etc. I rather like the book and think it's worth 4.5 stars.
    • 3/5
      Mijn eerste kennismaking met Shakespeare, toen ik 16 was. Ik was er toen niet zo weg van, maar latere lectuur deden me deze heel mooie proza-vertellingen veel beter smaken!
    • 5/5
      This is an audio version of Tales From Shakespeare, the IDEAL primer for anyone interested in becoming familiar with the works of the great bard. The stories’ warmth and clarity make them pleasurable reading even to confirmed Shakespeareans. The brother/sister team of Charles and Mary Lamb retold Shakespeare’s fourteen comedies and six tragedies in prose form in 1807, they wanted to make the stories accessible to children and to offer moral education to the young – something for which Shakespeare had a natural talent. Let us not underestimate young readers: they love a complex story with many and varied characters, twists of plot, and turns of fate as much as anyone — but they draw the line at reading in unfamiliar language. The Lambs provide a real feast of plain fare, and flavor it with as many tasty tidbits of Shakespearean language as they felt the young reader could easily digest. This is a FOUNDATIONAL book to one’s education. It WILL add to one’s cultural literacy.
    • 3/5
      These are twenty stories from Shakespeare's works, retold for children. The old language and play format have been removed. Frankly, they don't appeal to me much, though for smaller children who are not ready to read Shakespeare, I suppose they could be a good thing.The reason I love this book is the illustrator. I will buy anything which Arthur Rackham has illustrated, and the pictures in this volume are fine, though I wish there were more.
    • 5/5
      I think this book is great to approach before reading the original. I had read Romeo and Juliet before I read this book and had some confusion in some parts. However, if I had read this book before reading the original, I would have had less trouble at reading Romeo and Julliet. Also, all the stories are quite short and fast-paced. I was able to finish one story before I got bored.I really enjoyed reading this - more than I thought I would.
    • 5/5
      From the foreword: ”In the twenty tales told in this book, the Lambs succeeded in paraphrasing the language of truly adult literature in children’s terms.”And they succeeded beautifully. Each tale is about twenty pages long. I confess that I’ve never actually read Shakespeare, and frankly found myself somewhat daunted by the thought. This was a lovely way to taste the stories, in a thoughtful retelling for children.
    • 3/5
      These are the Comedies told in "story" form suitable for boys and girls. The Notes by the Editor, William Rolfe reveal him to be an idiot (clueless about children), so I worry about his "editing", and wonder what Charles and Mary Lamb did originally.
    • 5/5
      Date unknown, but must be prior to 1970 because the marked price is five shillings. Contains Charles and Mary Lamb's retellings of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "As You Like It", "The Merchant of Venice", "Romeo and Juliet", "King Lear", and "Othello." These sweet and unpretentious re-tellings of stories from some of Shakepeare's most important plays prepare a child for the real thing, and the woodcut illustrations add life to the tales.