Lectures on Shakespeare

Front Cover
Princeton University Press, 2019 M10 8 - 432 pages
1 Review

From one of the great modern writers, the acclaimed lectures in which he draws on a lifetime of experience to take the measure of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets

"W. H. Auden, poet and critic, will conduct a course on Shakespeare at the New School for Social Research beginning Wednesday. Mr. Auden . . . proposes to read all Shakespeare's plays in chronological order." So the New York Times reported on September 27, 1946, giving notice of a rare opportunity to hear one of the century's great poets discuss at length one of the greatest writers of all time. Reconstructed by Arthur Kirsch, these lectures offer remarkable insights into Shakespeare's plays and sonnets while also adding immeasurably to our understanding of Auden.

 

What people are saying - Write a review

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - TyUnglebower - LibraryThing

Far too pompous and long winded. Some accuse Auden of making things too common and accessible. Not only do I not agree that that is possible, I certainly do not agree he did it. Not in this book of ... Read full review

LECTURES ON SHAKESPEARE

User Review  - Kirkus

Lectures on Shakespeare delivered by British poet and critic Auden in 1946 at the New School for Social Research in New York, carefully reconstructed by Kirsch from students' notes.While Auden ... Read full review

Selected pages

Contents

Henry VI Parts One Two and Three 3
3
13
13
The Comedy of Errors and The Two Gentlemen of Verona 23
23
Loves Labours Lost
33
A Midsummer Nights Dream
53
The Taming of the Shrew King John and Richard II
63
Henry IV Parts One and Two and Henry V
101
The Merry Wives of Windsor
124
Alls Well That Ends Well
181
Antony and Cleopatra
231
Timon of Athens
255
Pericles and Cymbeline
270
Concluding Lecture
308
APPENDIX I
321
Fall Term Final Examination
341
Audens Markings in Kittredge
347

Troilus and Cressida
166
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Lectures on Shakespeare
W. H. Auden
Limited preview - 2002
Lectures on Shakespeare
W. H. Auden
Limited preview - 2002
Lectures on Shakespeare
W. H. Auden
Limited preview - 2019
View all »

Common terms and phrases

aesthetic Ansen’s notes Antony and Cleopatra Auden beauty become Benedick Brutus Caliban characters comedy comic contrast convention Coriolanus Cymbeline death desire doth Duke Elizabethan evil example eyes Falstaff father feeling fool forgiveness give Gloucester Griffin Hamlet hath heart Henry Henry IV Henry VI hero human I.ii I.iii Iago II.i III.i individual interest IV.i IV.ii kill kind King Lear Lady lecture Leontes live look Love’s Labour’s Lost Macbeth man’s marriage marry murder nature never notes by Ansen Octavius one’s Othello passion person poem poetry Posthumus prose Prospero reconstructed from notes relation Richard Richard III Roman Romeo and Juliet says scene sense Shakespeare Shakespeare’s plays society Sonnet speak speech storm suffering T. S. Eliot talk tells Tempest thee There’s thing thou Timon tion tragedy tragic Troilus and Cressida verse W. H. Auden wants words writes York

About the author (2019)

Arthur Kirsch is the Alice Griffin Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia and the author of books on Shakespeare as well as Auden.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Lectures on Shakespeare
TitleLectures on Shakespeare
Princeton Classics
W.H. Auden--critical editions
AuthorW. H. Auden
EditorArthur C. Kirsch
Editionreprint
PublisherPrinceton University Press, 2019
ISBN0691197164, 9780691197166
Length432 pages
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan