Shakespeare Stories
Posted in Reviews on June 29th, 2009 by ethanlap | Permalink | Share/Save
Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield
Because a Shakespeare play is so difficult to read with its English from another time and place, a book like this makes the stories accessible to younger readers and listeners. Garfield has taken select Shakespeare plays and retold them. I’d recommend reading a given story from this book or its second volume before reading or seeing a Shakespeare play in its original. –Kind of like reading the storyline before attending an opera or becoming familiar with certain classical music pieces before hearing them in concert. It ups the enjoyment factor of the real thing immensely, in my opinion.
While these stories are retold beautifully, they are not an easy read. To read them independently, perhaps one would need to be at least 13 years old, or even older. With an adult reading aloud and retelling much along the way, this book is working well for my 10 and 11 year olds. And while we don’t have immediate plans to head out to a Shakespeare play, this is a good read just for the sake of these most interesting stories.