A Theatergoer's Guide to Shakespeare

In surveys of the plays that will help readers and viewers follow the action with ease and understanding, Robert Fallon opens a window to ShakespeareAIs time while illuminating the timelessness of his works. Mr. Fallon examines the most frequently staged plays scene by scene, and those less frequently performed act by act. He provides intelligent readers with incisive and engaging commentary on character, theme, setting, poetry, and stage history. Wonderfully reader-friendly.O-William Kerrigan, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

“Wonderfully reader-friendly.”

-- William Kerrigan, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
A nifty compendium...those who pride themselves on their cultural literacy won’t admit it, but this book is as handy as they come. -- Steven Drukman, University of Chicago, Co-Editor of the Plays for Performance Series American Theatre
An eloquent, lucid guide for prospective theatergoers, but also rich enough to enhance digestion when the show is over. -- Nicholas Rudall

Robert Thomas Fallon is professor emeritus of English at La Salle University in Philadelphia. In addition to A Theatergoer’s Guide to Shakespeare (which concerned itself largely with plot), A Theatergoer’s Guide to Shakespeare’s Themes, and A Theatergoer’s Guide to Shakespeare’s Characters, and How to Enjoy Shakespeare (all published by Ivan R. Dee), he has written three books on John Milton. He lives in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia.

Robert Fallon has written a book for those whose encounter with a play by Shakespeare, either in performance or on the printed page, has left them occasionally puzzled as to what in the world is going on. Shakespeare can be difficult: he wrote largely in verse and not in everyday speech; his plays are set in unfamiliar locales; and his lines abound in allusions that were familiar to Elizabethan audiences but not, alas, to us. His plays move us despite these difficulties, but they would even more so if we had a bit of deciphering and knew more about Shakespeare's London. A Theatergoer's Guide opens a window to that time while illuminating the timelessness of Shakespeare's plays, their portrayal of the human condition in any age. Written for the general reader "in plain though not inelegant English," the book is mercifully free of academic jargon or scholarly apparatus. It examines the most frequently staged plays scene by scene, and those less frequently performed act by act, in chapters that may be read in one sitting in anywhere from five to forty minutes. These chapters pursue the sequence of events clearly, but they are much more than tedious plot summaries, and they do not "dumb down" Shakespeare. They provide intelligent readers with incisive and engaging commentary on character, theme, setting, poetry, and stage history, in surveys that will help them follow the action with ease and understanding. Dedicated theatergoers as well as students and teachers unfamiliar with a play will find the book a rich source of pleasure and insight. It is destined to become a standard work in the field.

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