Shakespeare Made Easy

Julius Caesar

... Show More
The Oxford School Shakespeare has become the preferred introduction to the literary legacy of the greatest playwright in the English language. This exclusive collection of the Bard's best works has been designed specifically for readers new to Shakespeare's rich literary legacy. Each play is
presented complete and unabridged, in large print. Every book is well illustrated, and starts with a commentary and character summary. Scene synopses and character summaries clarify confusing plots, while incisive essays explore the historical context and Shakespeare's sources. Each book ends with a complete list of Shakespeare's plays and a brief chronology of the Bard's life. The detailed explanatory notes are written clearly and positioned right next to the text--no more squinting at microscopic footnotes or flipping pages back and forth in search of endnotes!

The new edition of the series features new covers and new illustrations, including both new drawings and photos from recent productions of Shakespeare's plays around the globe. In addition, the notes and the introductory material have been completely revised in line with new research and in order to
make them clearer and more accessible. Finally, the entire text has been redesigned and reset to enhance readability. The new edition achieves the feat of unprecedented clarity of presentation without any cuts to the original text or the detailed explanations.

175 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1599

Places

This edition

Format
175 pages, Paperback
Published
October 17, 2002 by Oxford University Press
ISBN
9780198320272
ASIN
0198320272
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Gaius Cassius Longinus

    Gaius Cassius Longinus

    Gaius Cassius Longinus (before 85 BC – October, 42 BC) was a Roman senator, a leading instigator of the plot to kill Julius Caesar,[1] and the brother in-law of Marcus Junius Brutus....

  • Brutus, Marcus Junius

    Brutus Marcus Junius

    Marcus Junius Brutus (early June, 85 BC – 23 October, 42 BC), often referred to as Brutus, was a politician of the late Roman Republic. After being adopted by his uncle he used the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, but eventually returned to using his...

  • Calpurnia (wife of Caesar)

    Calpurnia (wife Of Caesar)

    Calpurnia was either the third or the fourth wife of Julius Caesar, and the one to whom he was married at the time of his assassination. According to contemporary sources, she was a good and faithful wife, in spite of her husbands infidelity; and, f...

  • Marcus Aemilius Lepidus

    Marcus Aemilius Lepidus

    Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (Latin: M·AEMILIVS·M·F·Q·N·LEPIDVS),[1] (born c. 89 or 88 BC, died late 13 or early 12 BC)[2] was a Roman patrician who rose to become a member of the Second Triumvirate and Pontifex Maximus. His father, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, ha...

  • Marcus Antonius

    Marcus Antonius

    Marcus Antonius (83 – 30 BC) was a Roman politician and general. He was an important supporter and the loyal friend of Gaius Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator, being Caesars second cousin, once removed, by his mother Julia Anto...

  • Portia Catonis

    Portia Catonis

    the wife of Roman senator Marcus Junius Brutus (fictionalized as a character in William Shakespeares play Julius Caesar as "Portia")more...

About the author

... Show More
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Community Reviews

Rating(0 / 5.0, 0 votes)
5 stars
(0%)
4 stars
(0%)
3 stars
(0%)
2 stars
(0%)
1 stars
(0%)
0 reviews All reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.
Leave a Review
You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.