Tales from Shakespeare

a very useful book for an illiterate dumbass like me

Writers: Charles and Mary Lamb

Genre: Children’s Literature

Ratings: 4/5

Warning: The review may contain some spoilers for those who haven’t read William Shakespeare’s plays.

The book ‘Tales from Shakespeare’ is a prose retelling of William Shakespeare’s plays, by Charles and Mary Lamb. Charles Lamb was a celebrated prose writer of the Seventeenth Century and ‘Tales from Shakespeare’ is a work that he wrote in collaboration with his elder sister Mary Lamb who was also a writer and poet, to acquaint the young readers with Shakespearean plays. Therefore, Charles Lamb retold the tragedies and Mary Lamb retold the comedies in the story form. When I dug a little deeper to know more about Lamb siblings I learned that Mary Lamb suffered from some mental illness and in a fit once mortally wounded her mother as a result of which she was confined to mental facilities for most of her remaining life. However, the comedies were written so beautifully that it was astonishing that a person suffering from mental illness could write so beautifully. The plays transformed into stories by Lamb siblings are, ‘The Tempest,’ ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ ‘The Winter’s Tale,’ ‘Much Ado About Nothing,’ ‘As You Like It,’ ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona,’ ‘The Merchant of Venice,’ ‘Cymbeline,’ ‘King Lear,’ ‘Macbeth,’ ‘All’s Well That Ends Well,’ ‘Taming of the Shrew,’ ‘The Comedy of Errors,’ ‘Measure for Measure,’ ‘Twelfth Night or, What You Will,’ ‘Timon of Athens,’ ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ‘Hamlet,’ ‘Prince of Denmark,’ ‘Othello,’ and ‘Pericles, Prince of Tyre.’

Although I enjoyed reading all the stories except one, my favourite stories are ‘Tempest,’ ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ‘Timon of Athens,’ and ‘Merchant of Venice.’ I loved ‘Tempest’ and ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ because it has a fairytale quality with fairies and other elements of fantasy which made them my favourite reads and I am tempted to read them in their original forms as well. I found the story ‘Romeo and Juliet’ quite moving and I do not know why ‘Timon of Athens’ reminded me of Johnathan Swift’s misanthropic ideas. Moreover, the story ‘Measure for Measure’ revolved around the theme of abuse of power and though it does not explicitly explain the inappropriate advances of Lord Angelo towards Isabella, however, this story, in my opinion, is not for the young readers but maybe I am wrong.

The one story that I extremely disliked in this whole book was “The Taming of the Shrew.” Though this story was meant to be a comedy yet I found it anything but comic. I found it quite disturbing as in the story the husband, in order to tame his ill-mannered wife, starved her, sleep-deprived, and humiliated her so she can submit to his will. In short, by this inhumane behavior, he aimed at making her an “obedient wife.” Till the end, I was waiting for some element of genuine respect or love between the couple but to my disappointment there was none. This story reminded me of the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. When we were studying it, our teacher told us something that I still remember to this day, that the Blacks in Congo were starved and forced into so much labor that they could not break the shackles of slavery forced onto them by their oppressors. Hence, they were bound to live in slavery because the only thing they could think was of food and survival and would never think of revolting against their oppressor. This is what Taming of the Shrew illustrated with the husband who forces his ill-tempered wife into submission by starving and depriving her of sleep so the only thing she could do in order to survive was to submit to her husband’s will. And this is why I did not find anything comic about this horrible story. However, I do understand that it was written in different times and the situation of women during those times was entirely different from what it is now yet this story was still unsettling.

The only story that I can compare to its original form is ‘Hamlet, Prince of Denmark’ because that is the only play I read of Shakespeare. In my opinion, Charles Lamb had very nicely summarized and adapted the play into the story form for young readers. It included almost all the parts of the play. The siblings have done a great job of rewriting the plays that are written in poetic form into the story form and tried as best as they could to retain the essence of the original writing.

Also, ‘Othello,’ in my opinion, is a very stupid story. It was more like the crap we watch in most of our Pakistani dramas where a husband loses his trust in his wife because some Tom Dick and Harry tell him that his wife is not faithful to him. Hence, I see Othello as a world-class loser. I mean who does that? A general of high repute who has the whole army under his command and is shrewd enough to win battles and all is so dumb that he falls for another man’s slandering about his wife’s character. And he falls in his trap just because of an insignificant handkerchief as proof enough to believe in his wife’s infidelity and is cruel enough to murder her. I have zero sympathies for him in this whole story.

Apart from all that, in my opinion, the book is a great read and reminded me of my childhood memories of reading bedtime stories before going to sleep. The plays were beautifully transformed and penned into story form. I just fell in love with their writing style and how they connected one incident to the other so smoothly. Though the stories were meant for the young readers and I am not sure what age was their targeted audience, however, in my opinion, the language was a bit too heavy for the young readers, especially of the modern age. Since I haven’t read most of Shakespeare’s plays, hence, the surprise element in the stories made it all the more interesting and worthwhile to me. Also, I see that the plots of all the stories/plays were quite different and unique however, stories shared some similarities for example women took the appearance of a man, or King or a Prince was banished from their Kingdom, and so forth in many of the stories. Yet, the stories were told and presented in a unique manner which made me enjoy most of them.

This book is a great way for the readers who had never read or watched Shakespeare’s play to get acquainted with them through these short stories. Also, the stories were quite didactic and the young readers can learn various lessons as Lamb siblings put in the Preface of their book, “What these Tales shall have been to the young readers, that and much more it is the writers’ wish that the true Plays of Shakespeare may prove to them in older years – enrichers of the fancy, strengtheners of virtue, a withdrawing from all selfish and mercenary thoughts, a lesson of all sweet and honourable thoughts and actions, to teach courtesy, benignity, generosity, humanity: for of examples, teaching these virtues, his plays are full.”

It’s a good sampling of Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies, but I can’t help wondering why they omitted his histories? What about Julius Caesar or Richard III? Goodness gracious if children can deal with Hamlet and Macbeth, they can deal with the former and even absorb some—well according to Shakespeare anyway—history as well.

But aside from that technical complaint, it is an enjoyable collection and well-written. Charles and Mary Lamb do an excellent job capturing the essence of each of the plays, the language of the Bard, humor/pathos, and overall storyline. It is a commendable way to introduce young people (of all ages) to Shakespeare.

Personally, I prefer the tragedies. I used to think it was because there was something wrong with me, but reading the plays all together like this, it is easy to see the tragedies are each uniquely unforgettable whereas the comedies are similar, repetitive, and start to to run together in your mind after you have read a few … like so many modern romance movies and books? Not that they aren’t clever. They are, but many of the same devices (women dressing as men, twins/doubles, lovers switching) are repeated, undoubtedly because they were successful and popular.

My favorites? Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear. What are yours?

A good thing to read while one is listening to a bio of Shakespeare.

A very good way to introduce kids to the stories of Shakespeare. Apparently I found Comedy of Errors just as hilarious then as I do now, and I was very indignant with Regan and Goneril's treatment of their father Lear ("I would never do that to MY dad"). And anything that makes Hamlet accessible to a Grade 6 student is probably a good thing.

Also am I crazy or does Shakespeare have an earring on the cover of the Puffin Classics edition?? I totally think he does and was utterly amused by that discovery.

Yeah, sure it's for children. Not today's children, not unless they are familiar with old English, just not as old as Shakespeare, haha. I was hoping for more simple summaries of the plays so I could read/reread the actual plays with already knowing what's happening.  Since that helped me last year, but I've forgotten a lot and the summaries I used were digital copies. The whole point of this was to be able to listen to it on my way to and from work. I'm still not sure what happens in most of the plays that this book included.

Still lovely, just not what I wanted. Although, I appreciate that it introduced me to plays I don't know yet like The Tempest, King Lear, and Othello.

Nem vagyok nagy Shakespeare-rajongó, de ezzel az olvasással tartoztam – leginkább magamnak. A történetek mondjuk harmadát ismertem (ezek töredékét olvastam is drámaformában, a maradékot inkább film- és/vagy színházi feldolgozásból.)

Igazából maguk a történetek sem tudtak megfogni. Még az is, amelyiket szeretem (mondjuk a Vízkeresztet kifejezetten szeretem, bár ott is valószínűleg a feldolgozások érték el ezt), itt idegesített. Tudom, hogy kvázi ez a mesék feladata, de a rengeteg sztereotípia és agyonhasznált toposz/fordulat is csak eltávolított. Például A velencei kalmár végletekig gonosz uzsorás zsidója a 20. század tükrében kifejezetten nyomasztó volt – és ezt most nem felróni akarom, csak egyszerűen ezt éreztem. Emellett viszont nagyon ideje volt már megismernem a Hamlet történetét vagy mondjuk az Othellot.

Ami viszont kifejezetten pozitív élmény volt, az az Ahogy tetszik. Egyszerűen azért, mert amikor azt olvastam, akkor még a drámaformátum olvasása élénken élt bennem, és így tudatosan figyeltem arra, hogy mit ír le másképp egy próza, hogyan fűzi össze a jeleneteket, amiket a dráma különösebb nehézség nélkül csak egymás mögé pakol. Több helyen vélt vagy valós magyarázat is megjelenik történésekre, gondolom részben a potenciális gyerekolvasókra való tekintettel, részben a szöveg gördülékenysége miatt. Illetve szintén a gyerekek miatt valószínűleg a bolond és az álruhás-Rosalindba szerelmes lány (és az őt szerető ifjú) is kimaradtak a történetből. Őszintén szólva én ezt irodalomórán egy kihagyhatatlan lehetőségnek tartanám, hogy bármely kötelező Shakespeare-drámához el kelljen olvasni a mesét is, így a történeten kívül a két műnem és műnem-eszköztár közötti különbséget is lehetne elemezni.

És most már azt is elmondhatom, hogy olvastam óangol szöveget, ha mégoly keveset is hagytak meg Lambék, hűen követve az előszóban leírt koncepciójukat.

Well, I had my own renditions and doubts before starting Tales From Shakespeare. Even though the blurb said that it is "prose retellings of Shakespeare's plays", I was besotted with doubts because reading summaries of Shakespearean plays is the last thing on my mind right now. Hence I thought of reading all the read plays from it and even though it is a retelling, Shakespeare's magic doesn't seem to have lost.

This edition of Tales From Shakespeare has twenty plays by Shakespeare - comedies, tragedies and tragicomedies - in prose. Though short, it demands meticulous attention to be read and understood. It was such a delight to have read and get the essence of Shakespeare from none other than Charles and Mary Lamb. This reading also gave me a to-read play that I normally might not have thought to read. Pericles, Prince of Tyre is on top of my to-read list as far as Shakespearean plays are considered.

I read these to the Podlings out of order; as a result, we ended with Othello! They were suitable horrified. From a content standpoint, the Lambs have done well curtailing these stories for children. From a language standpoint, we're nearly beyond the point of usefulness, since no one really talks like this anymore, especially not kids.