Synopses & Reviews
In his own time, Shakespeare was best known to the reading public as a poet, and even today copies of his Sonnets regularly outsell everything else he wrote. For this new edition, Stephen Orgel offers a warmly personal and original introduction to Shakespeare's best-loved and most widely read poems. Careful readings emphasize their sexual and temperamental ambiguity, their textual history and the special perils an editor faces when modernizing the original quarto's spelling, punctuation, and even layout. The edition retains the text of the Sonnets prepared by Gwynne Evans, together with his detailed notes on each, and a line-by-line commentary. Throughout, the 'voices' of the sonnets appear in all their intricacy and dramatic power.
Synopsis
Updated edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets, with a brand new introduction by Stephen Orgel.
Synopsis
The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. For this second edition of The Sonnets, Stephen Orgel has written a new introduction to Shakespeare's best-loved and most widely read poems. In a series of focused readings he probes the sonnets' sexual and temperamental ambiguity as well as their complex textual history, and explores the difficulties editors face when modernising the spelling, punctuation and layout of the 1609 quarto. Orgel reminds us that the order in which the sonnets were composed bears no relation to the order in which they appear in the quarto and he warns against reading them biographically. This edition retains the text prepared by G. Blakemore Evans, together with his notes and commentary.
Synopsis
This new edition focuses on the Sonnets as poetry--often subtly interlinked in thematic, imagistic and other groupings. The volume also addresses the many questions that have puzzled readers: are the Sonnets autobiographical? What is the nature of the "love" between the "poet," the "youth" and the "Dark Lady?" Can they be identified? When were the Sonnets written and in what order? The volume is introduced by the poet and scholar, Anthony Hecht. The text has been edited and extensively annotated by Gwynne Blakemore Evans. The volume as a whole will appeal to a new generation of students and poetry lovers.
Synopsis
For this new edition, Stephen Orgel offers a warmly personal and original introduction to Shakespeare's best-loved and most widely read poems. The edition retains the text of the Sonnets prepared by Gwynne Evans, together with his detailed notes on each, and a line-by-line commentary.
Table of Contents
List of illustrations; Preface; List of abbreviations and conventions; Introduction by Stephen Orgel; Note on the text; THE SONNETS; Introduction to the commentary; Commentary; Textual analysis; Appendix: Manuscript copies of the Sonnets; Reading list; Index of first lines.