Popsugar challenge 2020 - A book with a pink cover

I've managed to live almost four decades without reading or watching this classic and I was pretty excited to get going. On paper this is my ideal story, boy meets girl, girl already has boy. In reality this wasnt my ideal at all, the play format is really not my jam and the theres only so much of 'yee art thou donkey' language that I can take.

Basically I didnt bond with anything except the bottle of poison.

This piece of literature is often associated with romanticizing suicide so from that standpoint it was an interesting read for me. And did I find it romantic? No. Tragic, most definitely yes.

I'm sorry Shakespeare, maybe I'd do better with a more modern translation. Who am I kidding, I'll watch the film!

Who does not know the story of Romeo and Juliet? And these immortal lines,

"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"

"But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."

"Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow."

The very word "Romeo" has become synonymous with "male lover" in English, and the idea of the doomed romantic lovers, whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families, is famous world-wide. It has been adapted numerous times for stage, film, musical, opera and radio; the latest film went on general release just a few months ago in 2013.

However, Shakespeare did not invent the story of Romeo and Juliet. He reworked a long poem by Arthur Brooks, called "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet", written in 1562. The tradition of tragic romances had been well established in literature - in particular Italian literature - for almost a hundred years, but what may be surprising is that many of the plot elements of Romeo and Juliet were all in Brooks' poem. The first meeting of the lovers at the ball, their secret marriage, Romeo's fight with Tybalt, the sleeping potion, and even the timing of their eventual suicides, are all episodes which we usually attribute to Shakespeare. This is characteristic of the author, who often wrote plays based on earlier works.

Shakespeare's text is believed to have been written between 1591 and 1595, and as such was one of his earliest performed plays, although not published until later. It was an immediate success; so popular that Shakespeare continued to rework and hone the notes from the play's performances. It was then first published in 1597, with later editions improving on it still further. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime, and has remained so, now being the most performed of all his plays alongside "Hamlet." Although the initial idea for Romeo and Juliet came from the earlier text, it is Shakespeare's wonderful play which is credited with having had such a profound influence on subsequent literature.

It starts with a short prologue, in sonnet form, which tells the audience what is to follow. Nobody can be in any doubt that the story is a tragedy about young love, and that it will take their deaths to bring an end to family feuds. We are then straight into the action, which is a masterly piece of writing, full of bawdy references to ensure his audiences' attention, while providing all the background information needed to understand the world of the play. We are immediately told about the long-standing hatred between the two feuding families, the Capulets and the Montagues, and then immediately find ourselves engaged by an exciting brawl.

Shakespeare cleverly establishes some of the major themes of the play, right at its start. He also portrays all of the layers of Veronese society starting with the servants, right through to Prince Escalus. Many of the secondary characters important to the play are also introduced here; for instance, Romeo's friend, Benvolio, thoughtful, pragmatic and fearful of the law, and Juliet's cousin Tybalt, a hothead, professing a hatred for peace as strong as his hatred for Montagues. A modern audience becomes aware that in the Verona of this play, masculine honour is not restricted to indifference to pain or insult. Tybalt makes it plain that a man must defend his honour at all times, whether the insult is verbal or physical.

Mercutio is established as another friend; one who who can poke friendly fun at Romeo quite mercilessly. Benvolio is not nearly so quick-witted. Mercutio is confident, constantly joking, making puns and laughing. He is a passionate man, but his passions are different from Romeo's love and Tybalt's hate. Their passions are founded respectively upon two ideals of society - love and honour - but Mercutio believes in neither. He comes across as the character with the clearest vision. Just as Mercutio can see through words to other meanings, he can also see through the ideals held by those around him. He understands that often they are not sincerely held, but merely adopted for convenience.

The characters in this play are multi-layered and complex, and Shakespeare is adept in revealing their subtleties by means of the action. Even as Mercutio dies, he utters his wild witticisms, cursing both the Montagues and the Capulets,

"A plague o' both your houses!
They have made worms' meat of me!"

"Ask for me tomorrow, and
You shall find me a grave man."

The character of Romeo develops significantly from the first impression we have of him as a stock callow youth. At first he is melancholy, distracted and lovelorn, as we expect. But surprisingly he is not lovesick over Juliet, but is in love with Rosaline. This love seems to stem almost entirely from the reading of bad love poetry! We understand from this that Romeo's love for Rosaline is an immature love, more a statement that he is ready to be in love than actual love. Perhaps Rosaline, who never appears in the play, exists only to demonstrate Romeo's passionate nature, his love of being in love.

We meet Juliet in scene 3, and learn that in the Verona of this play, her status as a young woman leaves her with no power or choice in any social situation. Juliet at 13 years old is completely subject to parental influence, and is being encouraged to marry her parent's choice of Paris. Lady Capulet observes wryly that that she had already given birth to Juliet herself when she was Juliet's current age, before she was 14.

In this way the forces that determine the fate of Romeo and Juliet are laid in place well before they even meet. Parental influence in the tragedy becomes a tool of fate. Juliet's arranged marriage with Paris, and the longstanding feud between Capulets and Montagues, will eventually contribute to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The reader enjoys the tension, and knowledge that terrible events are about to happen. Events and observations continually reinforce the presence and power of fate.

Juliet's speeches have many different facets, and are capable of many interpretations. She often professes one thing, whilst we know she has an ulterior motive, and another intention. This is particularly evident when she is speaking to her parents, knowing that she intends to make her own decisions, she perversely wants to speak her mind, but deliberately couches her words in double meanings so that the truth will remain hidden.

Juliet is a strong character in the play, particularly fascinating to a modern reader as she seems almost contemporary. She repeatedly goes against what is expected of women of her time and place, and takes action. The best example of this is when she drinks the sleeping potion. She comes up with many reasons why it might cause her harm, and recognises that drinking the potion might lead her to madness or even death. Yet she chooses to drink it anyway. This demonstrates a willingness to take her life into her own hands - and also hints at future events. There is never just one side to, or interpretation of, any event in this play. It is a portent. Juliet drinks the potion just as Romeo will later drink the apothecary's poison.

Another instance of ominous foreshadowing is when the Nurse teases Juliet by saying that she is too tired to tell her what happened when she first met Romeo. This delay in telling Juliet the news is mirrored in a future scene, when the Nurse's anguish prevents her from relating news to Juliet and thereby causing terrible confusion. Another example of delicious dramatic irony is when Romeo is proclaiming his love to be the most powerful force in the world. Friar Laurence advises caution, saying,

"These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triump die, like fire and powder
Which, as they kiss, consume".

The reader knows that the play is a tragedy, and that Romeo and Juliet will die. Shakespeare ingeniously manipulates the plot, so that we feel the impending doom, and are swept up in the inevitability of it all. Even the characters themselves are sometimes aware that they are pawns. Romeo cries,

"O, I am fortune's fool!"

when he realises he has killed Tybalt. He knows that by killing his new wife's cousin, he will be banished from Verona, and feels the inevitability of the situation. This emphasises the sense of fate - or fortune - that hangs over the play.

Juliet also indicates in her speeches the power of fate and predestination. In her final scene with Romeo, the last moment they spend alive together, she says that he appears pale, as if he were dead. She looks out of her window and cries,

"O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb."

This vision blatantly foreshadows the end of the play. The next time she sees Romeo, he will be dead.

Friar Laurence is a pivotal character in the play. When we first see him he is collecting herbs and flowers for medicinal purposes, demonstrating a deep knowledge of the properties of the plants he collects, and alerting the reader to what may be to come. He meditates on the duality of good and evil that exists in all things; another clearly portentous speech. Referring to the plants, Friar Laurence says that, although everything in nature has a useful purpose, it can also lead to misfortune if used improperly,

"For naught so vile that on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give,
Nor aught so good but strain'd from that fair use
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;
And vice sometime's by action dignified".

Friar Laurence ruminates on how good may be perverted to evil and evil may be purified by good. By making plans to marry Romeo and Juliet, he hopes that the good of their love will reverse the evil of the hatred between the feuding families. Shakespeare portrays him as a benign, wise philosopher. But his schemes also serve as tools of fate; secretly marrying the two lovers, sending Romeo to Mantua, and staging Juliet's apparent death. The tragic failure of his plans are outside his responsibility, and due to chance.

The structure of the play is carefully controlled; it would be interesting at this distance to read the earlier versions. Different poetic forms are used by different characters, and sometimes the form changes as the character develops. There are many instances of the sonnet, as the reader would expect, because it is a perfect, idealised poetic form often used to write about love. The play starts with a Prologue in sonnet form, a masterly precis of the story. As it describes Romeo and Juliet’s eventual death, it also helps to create the sense of fate that permeates the entire play.

Romeo himself, develops his expertise in the sonnet over the course of the play. When Romeo and Juliet meet they speak just fourteen lines before their first kiss. These fourteen lines make up a shared sonnet, which creates a link between their love and their tragic destiny, as told in the introductory prologue.

There are numerous instances of such tightly written formal structure, which is remarkable in such an early play. Even the dramatic action of the play has a tight schedule, spanning just 4 days. Perhaps this is why many of the most important scenes, such as the balcony scene, take place either very late at night or very early in the morning.

Shakespeare makes great use of effects such as switching between comedy and tragedy to heighten the tension, and bringing minor characters into the foreground to increase depth and interest. His additional use of sub-plots to enrich the story, is often cited as an early sign of his dramatic skill.

This play has everything; love, beauty, and romance, but also sudden, fatal violence early on. Viciousness and danger are continually present, yet just at the point when they threaten to overcome the reader, the action will be tempered by wit, comedy and humour. We are in a masculine world in which notions of honour, pride, and status are prone to erupt in a fury of conflict, but there is a strong female who defies her confined expectations. Rashness, vengeance, passion, grief; they are all here. The motif of fate continues to the very end of the play. Romeo proclaims,

"Then I defy you, stars" and

"I will lie with thee tonight" in a last desperate attempt to control his own destiny by spending eternity with Juliet.

Yet in this ultimate example of tragic irony, this defiant act seals both his fate, and their double suicide. Shakespeare tells his audience that nothing can withstand the power of fate. The neat twists of the ending are supremely ironic, devastating and heart-wrenching. Here is Romeo, in despair,

"O true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die."

And on waking, Juliet,

"I will kiss thy lips;
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make die with a restorative...
O happy dagger!
This is thy sheath...
There rust and let me die!"

It is said that the best way to appreciate Shakespeare is to go to a live performance of a play. Of course in one sense this is true of any play; the live action is how the play was intended to be experienced. But there is a lot to be said for reading Shakespeare on the page. The structure and poetry of the language is so much more evident. The puns and in-jokes are so much clearer. The reader can give pause to properly interpret the manifold meanings of both the exciting events and the rousing speeches. And above all we can marvel at the mastery of a writer who can still speak to us with relevance, move us with poetry and story, and entertain his audience well over 400 years later.

"For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

د گریتست لاو استوری آو ال تایم، واقعا برازنده این کتابه. اصولا عشقی که به وصال بیانجامه هیچ ارزش روایی نداره؛ بخاطر همینم هست که ما خاطره عشق اونایی که بهشون نرسیدیم رو توی قلبمون جاودانه و باشکوه حفظ میکنیم. اصلا رمز شکوه و جاودانگی همین دست نیافتنه. اگر به دست بیاد آلوده میشه به روزمرگی و ابتذال. خاطره و یاد هرچیزی از خود اون چیز قشنگتره. پس اگه عاشق کسی هستید واقعا، تلاش نکنید بهش برسید.

....
هروقت شکسپیر میخونم، به یاد سی سی میوفتم♡ البته همیشه به یادشم ولی وقتی شکسپیر میخونم انگار با خاطره اون یکی میشم و اونو توی لذت خوندن کتاب حس میکنم. وقتی جایی رو میخونم و خیلی تحت تاثیر قرار میگیرم، تصور می‌کنم که اگر سی سی هم اینجارو خونده بود حتما مکث می‌کرد و دوباره میخوندش یا با خودش تکرارش می‌کرد.
شکسپیر زیبا تو منو غم انگیز میکنی.

7/4/23 Update: This summer I learn that the two teens that played Romeo and Juliet in the Zeffirelli film version are suing the Zeffirelli estate for being asked—as minors—to play the “marriage bed” scene naked. They now view this coercion as sexual child abuse. I respect their retrospective regret.

4/11/20 update: I introduced the teens in my house to my beloved (1968) Franco Zeffirelli (RIP, 6/19) version of this tale last night, me with the book out to read along and, you know, help them understand what the heck was going on sometimes; not always appreciated: Da-addd!” When I taught the play to high schoolers I taught decades ago I must have used a somewhat edited version, without the naked marriage bed scene that I hadn’t recalled. My middle schoolers were quiet and we were all a bit embarrassed…. But in general we agreed it was a great play and film, much fine writing and with that sex and violence appeal to the young in it.

Original review, somewhat edited:

“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.”

Reread this after having seen, read and taught it many times, on the occasion of introducing three kids, 10, 11, and 13 to the play for the first time, primarily through seeing the Baz Luhrmann film featuring Leonard DiCaprio and Claire Danes. They loved it, though the highlight of the first half viewing was the 11-year-old saying "Love?! Didn't they just meet like five minutes ago?!" :)

He has a point, but literature condenses experience for us in many ways, and this is a romantic tragedy, with poetry and youthful passion as the central focus, and that worked for them. In this mod and wild and controversial film version, the Montague-Capulet feud, once adapted by Leonard Bernstein for his West Story family feud, gets highlighted as contemporary Italian street violence (complete with contemporary music, switchblades and fast cars), and the romance is as it ever was, fast and furious and fated.

I, the father/English teacher, took the occasion to reread the play for myself and shared poetic passages with them and helped them explain what was going on. So is it a great play?

“My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.”

Is that among the best of Shakespeare's writing? I don't know. I would rank the four tragedies, and Midsummer Night's Dream and oh so many others above this play, but it does best what few of his plays do; it captures youthful passion. Luhrmann even has the moody, love-sick Romeo write love-sick poetry in his journal as he sits by the sea.

But I could still get lost in that balcony scene:

“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
It is my lady, O, it is my love!
Oh, that she knew she were!”

I prefer the Franco Zeffirelli film version, more romantic, with wonderful score. Here's the balcony scene, you are welcome!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qao...

3 ★

Someone broke Shakespeares heart so he came out with this shit to show his one true love how her love story would end if she didn’t marry him and carry his 20 babies.

彡

▸ "

شكسپير از زبان كشيش داستان مي گويد: گياهان فقط از شير يک مادر تغذيه می‌شوند اما گونه‌های‌ متفاوتی دارند

رومئو و ژولیت از دو خانواده اصیل ورونایی هستند که باید وارث کینه پدرانشان می‌شدند
اما آنها خیانت پیشه کردند و ره به سوی ویرانه‌ی عشق نهادند
در سرزمینی که بوی خون می‌دهد بذر دوست داشتن کاشتند
و برای باهم بودن به هر دری زدند
تا شاید خانواده‌ها و سرنوشت خویش را بفریبند
اما چه سود!؟
که فقط مرگ
می‌تواند این مردان متعصب را از غرور بی‌جایشان فرود آورد.

حرف پایانی:

به اندازه‌ی «لیلی و مجنون» از این کتاب لذت نبردم. تقصیر رو یا باید بندازم گردن مترجم یا شاید انتظار نادرستی از این کتاب داشتم. چند سال پیش وقتی که سراغ این کتاب رفتم، دوس داشتم منو سرشار از احساس کنه اما اصلا به اون غلیان احساسات نرسیدم.

و دیگه اینکه فیلم شکسپیر عاشق که درباره نوشتن این نمایشنامه اس خیلی جالبه
نمیدونم بر اساس واقعیت هستش یا نه
ولی فیلم زیبا و پر احساسی بود

the amount of pure spite and enjoyment I got from one-starring this play is concerning.

eh.

I read this in 8th grade English class. We had to read this out loud. After we read it, we watched the black and white movie of the same and the teacher had blacked out the morning after coitus scene since they showed his butt. I mean, butts are so salacious, right? Anyway, small town politics.

It was my first introduction into Shakespeare and the language was difficult. I didn't have the vocabulary skills yet to appreciate it. Plus, we had tons of vocab words to go with it. I eventually saw the play live and feel in love with it.

I re-read this during my great Shakespeare read where I read all his plays and enjoyed it so much more then.

I think we all know the story of star crossed lovers. It's used all the time now in stories. Do you think Shakespeare was saying that the only kind of true love is the one where you die before it ends? How come true love is a tragedy and not a comedy. It's starts out lite enough. I used to think this was so romantic and now I see that it's the lust, puppy love, and romantic notions of children. It's the thing that happens before you really fall in love with someone as mature people. It's seems a whim, their first real crush. It also shows how fickle Romeo is. He was in love with Rosalind and all it took was a gaze across a room at Juliet and she was forgotten. Would that have happened to Juliet later? I think most likely. Who knows, maybe this is real love, but real love endures hardships.

Still, I enjoy this play up until act 5 when it gets so serious. I love to see that first love play out. The love scenes are so tender and doesn't it remind us all what that first love felt like.

This is not my favorite Shakespeare. I love his comedies and we never studied those in school. Of his tragedies, this is my favorite, certainly. He captures first love so well.

"JULIETA: ¿Crees que volveremos a encontrarnos?
ROMEO: Sin duda, y estas penas servirán en el futuro para dulces charlas.
JULIETA: ¡Oh, Dios! ¡Mi alma presiente tantos males!"

Aunque había leído algunos fragmentos es la primera vez que leo la obra completa y fue motivado luego de ver una excelente adaptación infantil en un teatro de aquí de Lima.
Debo confesar que decepcionado por los parlamentos románticos, son pocos y no tan elocuentes. El clímax alegre así mismo pobremente relatado. Y más bien mucho espacio utilizado en parlamentos cómicos (como es clásico en el teatro de la época) y otros hechos triviales. Sin embargo el final tuvo más impacto que el que vi en la representación, por obvias razones. El final es contundente y me gustó mucho. Y la historia de Romeo y Julieta es en sí misma un clásico de relación romántica más allá de todo idioma y continente.
Luego de leer esta obra me pregunto la gran disparidad de valoraciones morales de aquella época y creo como siempre lo he hecho que las obras deben ser valoradas en su contexto y en el aporte de la humanidad, de otra manera, esta obra sería crucificada por el grado de misoginia que contiene.

YouTube kitap kanalımda Shakespeare'in hayatı, mutlaka okunması gereken kitapları ve kronolojik okuma sırası hakkında bilgi edinebilirsiniz: https://youtu.be/rGxh2RVjmNU

Romeo ve Juliet, Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth ve Kral Lear gibi oyunların yazarı olan Shakespeare’in esas adı Şeyh Pir miydi ve gizli bir Müslüman mıydı? Hamlet'teki "To be or not to be" kısmının gerçek hali acaba "Töv be or not töv be" şeklinde miydi? Yoksa Shakespeare diye biri hiç yaşamadı mı?

Bu tür gerçekdışı iddialardan kurtulmanız için hazırladığım bu inceleme, aslında oldukça detaylı ve yeterli bir okuma rehberi olacak. Çünkü Shakespeare'den okuduğum 42 adet kitabı herkesin okumaya zamanı olmayacağını bildiğim için ben de en önemli bulduğum kitaplar konusunda bir okuma rehberi incelemesi yapacağım.

Öncelikle Shakespeare diye biri hiç yaşadı mı? Mina Urgan'ın Shakespeare ve Hamlet kitabında Shakespeare'in aslında kim olduğuna dair bugüne kadar şu isimlerin ortaya atıldığı söylenmiş: Francis Bacon, Earl of Southampton, Lord Rutland, Sir Walter Raleigh, Earl of Derby, Earl of Oxford, Christopher Marlowe. Shakespeare diye birinin hiç yaşamadığını, onun esasında Francis Bacon olduğunu söyleyenler konusunda ise şöyle diyor Mina Urgan:
"Bu tür iddiaları ileri sürenlerin ya bilgisiz ya şarlatan ya da delirmiş olduklarını kabul etmek zorundayız." (s. 31)

Mina Urgan'ın dediği gibi biri olmak istemiyorsanız bir de biyografi yazarı Park Honan'ın Shakespeare: Bir Yaşam biyografi kitabında William Shakespeare'in tapularından arazilerine, oynattığı tiyatrolardan bağlı olduğu tiyatro kumpanyalarına, arkadaşlarından oynattığı oyunculara, eşlerinden çocuklarına kadar olan bütün bilgiyi görebilirsiniz.

Ayrıca Shakespeare neredeyse her oyunu için bir kaynaktan ya da eski bir hikayeden beslenmiştir fakat kitaplarına kendi Shakespeare özünü her zaman katabildiği için gerek çevirmen ve tiyatrobilimci Özdemir Nutku'nun onun için yazdığı önsözlerde gerekse de Shakespeare için yazılmış biyografi kitaplarında onun bu eserleri nasıl tekrar ele alıp kendi dönemine ve kişiliğine de özgün bir şekilde uyguladığını anlayabiliriz.

Romeo ve Juliet kitabı hakkında da çok küçük bir şey söyleyecek olursam, karanlık ve aydınlık, zamanın yavaş geçmesiyle hızlı geçmesi, aşk ve nefret, iyilik ve kötülük gibi zıtlıkların mücadelesinin olduğu bir atmosferde toy, bilinçsiz ve masum bir aşk anlatılırken mesela Shakespeare, olgunluk dönemi eserlerinden biri olan Antonius ve Kleopatra eserinde de siyasi karışıklıklar içerisinde daha detaylı, olgunca ve zor bir aşkı anlatıyor. Böylece Romeo ve Juliet bize hem erken dönem Shakespeare hakkında tüyolar veriyor hem de ileride kullanacağı psikolojik çözümlemeleri hangi kitaplarında ilk olarak denemeye başladığını söylüyor.

Romeo ve Juliet'in bize demeye çalıştığı şey de aslında şu: Aileleriniz sizin aşkınızı hiç istemese de bazen aşk uğruna ölmeye bile değerdir, çünkü en azından kendiniz için haklı bir mücadele uğruna ölmüşsünüzdür ve gözünüz arkada kalmamıştır. Ne Romeo Romeoluğundan ödün vermiştir, ne de Juliet Julietliğinden...

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Bu kadar şey dedikten sonra sıra Shakespeare'in bütün kitaplarını okuduğum için önermeye hakkımın ve deneyimimin olduğunu düşündüğüm okuma rehberi kısmına gelsin.

Bütün kitaplarını okumayayım ama Oğuz Aktürk'ün en önemli bulduğu kitapları okuyayım sırası:
- Özdemir Nutku, Dram Sanatı (Tiyatro konusunda bir başlangıç bilgisi elde etmenizi sağlar.)
- Alfa Yayınları, Shakespeare Kitabı (Okumalarınız sırasında kronolojik bir sıra takip etmek istiyorsanız bu kitabı bölüm bölüm takip edebilirsiniz.)
- Hırçın Kız
- Titus Andronicus
- Aşk ve Anlatı Şiirleri
- Romeo ve Juliet
- Venedik Taciri + Olmak ya da Olmamak filmi (1942) ile Piyanist filmi (2002)
- Kral IV. Henry 1-2
- Windsor'un Şen Kadınları
- Julius Caesar
- Hamlet
- Soneler
- Othello
- Kral Lear + Kurosawa'nın Ran filmi (1985)
- Macbeth + Yumuşak Kalpler filmi (1949)
- Antonius ve Kleopatra
- Coriolanus'un Tragedyası
- Shakespeare için yazılmış biyografi kitaplarından en az 1 tanesi (Mesela bütün kitaplar okunduktan sonra Mina Urgan'ın Shakespeare ve Hamlet kitabını okumak gayet yeterli olur)

Böyle bir okuma sırası önermemin sebebi ise hem Hırçın Kız, Titus Andronicus ve Romeo ve Juliet gibi serbest dönem eserlerini tanıyacak olmanız hem Shakespeare'in yükselmeye başladığı dönem olan I. Elizabeth dönemi içinde yazılmış Venedik Taciri, Julius Caesar, Hamlet gibi eserleri okuyabilecek olmanız hem de olgunluk dönemi olan I. James dönemi içinde yazılmış Othello, Kral Lear, Macbeth ile Antoinus ve Kleopatra gibi eserlerle tanışma fırsatınızın olması. Yani 42 kitaplık Shakespeare külliyatının tadını 15 kitap şeklinde okuyarak da alabilirsiniz diye düşünüyorum.

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Ama eğer ki kronolojik sırayla bütün kitapları okumak istiyorsanız:
Veronalı İki Soylu Delikanlı
Hırçın Kız
Aşk ve Anlatı Şiirleri
II. Richard
Kral IV. Henry-1
Kral IV. Henry-2
Kral V. Henry
Kral VI. Henry-1
Kral VI. Henry-2
Kral VI. Henry-3
III. Richard
Kral VIII. Henry
Titus Andronicus
Yanlışlıklar Komedyası
Aşkın Emeği Boşuna
Romeo ve Juliet
Bir Yaz Gecesi Rüyası
Kral John'un Ölümü
Venedik Taciri
Windsor'un Şen Kadınları
Kuru Gürültü
Julius Caesar
Size Nasıl Geliyorsa
Hamlet
On İkinci Gece
Troilus ve Cressida
Soneler
Kısasa Kısas
Othello
Kral Lear
Atinalı Timon
Macbeth
Antonius ve Kleopatra
Yeter ki Sonu İyi Bitsin
Pericles
Coriolanus'un Trajedisi
Kış Masalı
Cymbeline
Fırtına
İki Soylu Akraba
Cardenio
Biyografi kitaplarından da Terry Eagleton'ın William Shakespeare, Mina Urgan'ın Shakespeare ve Hamlet, Park Honan'ın Shakespeare: Bir Yaşam, Talat Sait Halman'ın Türk Shakespeare ve Alfa Yayınları'nın Shakespeare Kitabı gibi ekstra kitaplarını okuyabilirsiniz.

4 aylık bir emek sonucu böyle bir okuma rehberi hazırlayabildim, bu yüzden daha çok okurun faydalanabilmesi için beğenilerinizi eksik etmezseniz sevinirim, emeğe saygı +rep. Ayrıca Shakespeare ve kitapları hakkında aklınıza takılan şeyler varsa yorumlarda da bana soru olarak yazabilirsiniz. Keyifli okumalar dilerim.

This great book (drama of course) I read in a single night. Naturally, an English graduate seldom can remain away from Shakespeare and his realm. However, even as an individual, before I began my studies seriously, Shakespeare and some of his creations were on the list 'to be read'. Romeo and Juliet is a play, to be clear at the beginning. Yes, as critics (modern ones) claim, this is perhaps the most 'unlikely' play which does not synchronise with the reality as others by the same dramatist. Nevertheless, let's give the 'play' its due - it surely does create that sensation which Shakespeare wanted to. The ephemeral romance between the 'first sight lovers' and the enemies sworn to suck the blood out of their lives... everything went on perfectly to (at least) create the star of today's Hollywood - Leo!
The book has its merits as well as the demerits. Shakespeare is the vacuum. You can keep your experiments going on... I would like to rather appreciate him for his creation this time. I enjoyed reading the play and truly did!

no