2.5 stars.
This is bowdlerized Shakespeare and little more.
All the enjoyment I got out of this collection was thanks to Marina Warner's introduction, which does much to provide context and explain the purpose and intent of the Lambs. As historical documentation and an exercise in bowdlerization, editing, condensation and translation, it is a fascinating document, but the shortened and censored stories have, for the most part, been stripped of their vitality and ambiguities, becoming one-sided and flat.
As far as style is concerned, I enjoyed Mary's work much more, though she limited herself to the comedies which I actually like less than the tragedies (in their original form). Her renditions uphold standards of story-telling that harken back to Perrault (Cymbeline, All's Well That Ends Well, and Pericles centre around themes and motifs lifted directly from European folk-lore, offering a refreshing interpretation of the plays) and her sense of structure makes for successful unraveling of such complicated plots as The Comedy of Errors.
Charles' 'translations' smack of condescension and moralizing and tended to zoom in on particular dialogues rather than any sort of narrative structure or flow. Here's a typical nugget of his prose from Romeo and Juliet:

Heavy news to young Juliet, who had been but a few hours a bride, and now by this decree seemed everlastingly divorced! When the tidings reached her, she at first gave way to rage against Romeo, who had slain her dear cousin: she called him a beautiful tyrant, a fiend angelical, a ravenous dove, a lamb with a wolf's nature, a serpent-heart hid with a flowering face, and other like contradictory names, which denoted the struggles in her mind between her love and her resentment: but in the end love got the mastery.

It is always interesting to get a glimpse into another time and another interpretation of such fascinating dramatic works as Shakespeare's, but I found this collection to quickly become tiresome. After all, what is The Merchant of Venice without the ambiguities of Shylock's monologue, or Twelfth Night without Malvolio, or The Tempest without socialism?

I really enjoyed this book!

n  Lamb's Tales from Shakespearen are a prose form of Shakespeare's plays for children by the writer siblings Charles and Mary Lamb. While certainly keeping the magic alive by use of Shakespeare's original words but also not letting go of convenience at any point, the language is very easy, but still perfect for Shakespeare.

It's such a powerful rendition of Shakespeare's plays in a very accessible format, interesting and easy to read for adults and children alike.

The book is short but that doesn't stop it from hitting the mark. You have to pay attention to the work to finish it. The authors are extremely talented and are all over Shakespeare, they got it covered!. They keep his message alive. There's no mistaking that this is Shakespeare's work. He lives in the pages. It's like the authors spent a lot of time with the guy.

Maybe it was the short story format without the thick, tricky, hard language and difficult play format which is only my second favorite but I found myself completely enjoying the plays and appreciating them for what they were, and fully commending Shakespeare for being who he was. He's truly the Bard.

My edition had The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth  and Twelfth Night with refresher questions about each play at the end.

Each play is separated into small parts having its own intuitive title with full-page illustrations after every few pages. The plays are relatively short but, nevertheless precise and comprehensive.

So, reading The Tempest I nod off and I see the demons somewhat like in the book in my sleep which conveniently make me wake up in fright. That was the only hitch in my reading this book.

Here I must confess something, I tried picking up Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth like 4.5 years ago but I instantly knew that I wasn't ready for it. Then, about 3.5 years later, while at a Book Fair I just get Julius Caesar, you know, to ease myself into it. I kind of had the feeling that it'd be relatively easy, a good place to start and it was. I enjoyed it, in a weird satisfying way (my first Shakespear and I'm not writhing on the ground). At the start of the year, I read A Shakespeare Treasury, a list of favorite quotes from Shakespeare's works which was quite nice. Then I read King Lear out of an anthology, Eight Great Tragedies, just this last month which I enjoyed not so much. Now I have finally got myself The Complete Works, but when am I gonna read it, I don't know, I have the satisfaction of having it, on my bookshelf, at least, I CAN read it whenever I want to. The whole huge book, it's a big responsibility, not to mention the feeling/weight of being done with all of Shakespeare's works. That's the extent of it. That's all there is to my Shakespeare experience unless watching She's the Man counts (I love the movie, I totally see/love it as a great rendition of Twelfth Night).

Lamb's Tales is another one of my attempts to pave my way into the world of Shakespear. It's my uncle's, so I had easy access to it, so I said why not. I feel such an obligation to prepare myself for this magnificent piece of art, it's a privilege.

Shakespeare seems quite typical of his time but maybe he was radical in his time. There's some deus ex machina going on there too, it's like people have no natures, they just change according to the circumstances.

My individual comments on each of the plays:

n  The Tempestn: Father and daughter stranded on an island, father commands spirit, spirit bring his enemies to the island, the enemies get scared, repent and seek forgiveness. Enemy's son falls in love with the daughter who becomes future queen, the father gets his dukedom back, the spirit takes them back safely to home. 

It was okay, quite typical. The writing makes it somewhat special though (writing means everything to me).

n  A Midsummer Night's Dreamn: Magic is in the air. Magical forest, invisible fairies bring lovers together, undetected. Love is created by magic when it isn't there. Everyone lives happily ever after.

It was pretty, funny at times, well executed except the part about "making" the guy fall in love.

n  Much Ado About Nothingn: Cousins, Lords and a Prince. Lord falls for the nice cousin, Prince helps. Short-tempered cousin and Lord bicker all the time. Prince and the Lord along with his betrothed plot to make them fall in love by telling each the other loves them. Half-brother is jealous of the Lord, plans to ruins his marriage.
 
“It would be as possible for me to say I love nothing in the world so well as you; but do not believe me, and yet I do not lie. I confess nothing and I deny nothing.” 

Infinitely more interesting. The quality of the plays is getting better as we move on. The name of the nice cousin is n  Heron, ain't it awesome?!

n  As You Like itn: Cousins (what is it with Shakespeare and cousins?), Duke (has nicer, prettier daughter, gets exiled by brother, lives in forest like Robin Hood), false Duke (kinda evil, of course), daughter falls for father's friends's son who her uncle dislikes, follows father, cousin comes along, daughter dresses up as a boy, befriends beloved who also has come to the forest and has been taken under the wing of the Duke. 

“If I am conquered, well, I was never happy; if I am killed, well I am willing to die. I shall do my friends no wrong, for I have none to weep for me. I shall do the world no harm for in it I have nothing. For I only take up a place in the world which may be better filled when I have made it empty.” 

A tale of love and friendship and a little Robin Hood vibes, so cool!

n  The Merchant of Venicen: Antonio is the titular merchant. Shylock is the Jew moneylender. Antonio hates Shy, spits on him, kicks him, berates him at every moment but when he needs money for his clingy (read: gold-digger) friend (serious bromance going on here) he asks to Shy, who, out to get him, lends him money without interest on the condition that if the money is not paid by a certain date he will  take a pound of his flesh from anywhere he wants, is there a like of this in literature?. Guess what happens (and what doesn't).

“Mercy drops as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath; it is a double blessing, it blesses him that gives, and him that receives it; it is a finer ornament for a king than his crown itself, because it is a quality of God Himself; and earthly power comes nearest to God's when justice is mixed with mercy; remember that we all pray for mercy, that same prayer should teach us to show mercy.” 

One of my favorites, this is my thing, maybe because Mom narrated it to us when we were kids, she brought the CD home, but it was a bit too much for us so we didn't really watch it but the plot was more than intriguing. The first thing is it's in Venice. I loved the names, Shylock, just saying it sends a thrill to your body (Sherlock!). Portia is a nice one too. But I cannot help but ask why are Christians so biased against Jews, first The Jew of Malta and now this, is it because they lent money on interest, and now the whole world is following their example (well played). Feminism (not at first (horrific contradiction) but which gradually develops), a completely rad idea, plot-twist, what more could I want!

n  Macbethn: Macbeth, after receiving a prophecy from the witches of his ascending the throne, along with his wife crosses every line from regicide to witchery to killing his own friends for the crown but they are haunted by the things they have done and it doesn't end well for them.

There is some creepy unrepentant witchery evil going on here but it's so badass. It's so evil it works! This is some great work done here. It's beyond words. Shakespeare has outdone himself. This play is pure perfection, it's the best, The Merchant of Venice coming a close second.

n  Twelfth Nightn: Identical twin brother and sister, separated in a ship wreckage. The sister Viola alone, away from home on a different island decides to be a boy (again Shakespeare, FR?) to become a page to the Duke who is love-struck with the countess. Duke begins to spend all the time with her, brooding, sends her to persuade the countess who falls in love with her. Brother, saved, comes back, you can imagine the rest.

Shakespeare appears to be quite interested in crossdressing, I've always kind of speculated about Shakespeare being gay, his writing, his demeanor, visage, tell-tale signs. The internet, however, says that he might have been bisexual. There is quite a lot of evidence. Enough on that, I'm getting carried away. This was the fun-nest, (maybe because I remember She's the Man).

Now that I know the stories of these plays maybe I'll be more comfortable reading the originals. I'm noticing out of these only Macbeth is one without a happy ending, hmm.

Shakespearian characters change suddenly, not all of them have strong natures, marriages easily happen or break, love at first sight is quite the everyday routine, and they become repentant in the end, however evil they might be.

There is a reason Shakespeare's works have survived to this day. It's timeless, classic and most all unique. About Lamb's Tales, the writing is atypical, top-notch, I loved it! This is a great way to dabble into Shakespeare, it's like dipping a toe, if you want to read Shakespeare or even if you don't plan to read the original works, if you're just curious.

However, let this not stop you from reading the original works of Shakespeare, because let me tell you, these are kind of over-simplified, censored versions (because children) missing some crucial parts which make Shakespeare so popular to this day, Shakespeare is so much more than that. And, also, some of the Roman plays like Julius Caeser haven't been adapted so let this be a stepping stone, not the destination.

It's not perfect but it is a good work to have a general idea about Shakespeare's plays...

Recommended by my Shakespeare teacher, “Tales from Shakespeare” is a collection of short stories written in the 19th century for children to learn about Shakespeare works since childhood. The language was perfectly understandable, and in the end, the whole book was captivating and very engaging from the very start. It is a great thing for people who want to refresh their memory about Shakespearean plays.

I read this book because I wanted to have a basic knowledge of Shakespeare's stories. Because, let's face it, it's likely that I won't read all of his production.

The book is directed to children and youth, but to be honest I wouldn't read all of these stories to children. I mean The Tempest suggests that keeping Caliban as slave is okay because he's a son of evil witch and lazy and ugly. And The Merchant of Venice has a old stereotype of evil, greedy Jew.

Also the stories are simplified. Most of Shakespeare's rich language is cut to minimum and what is left are the plots which from todays perspective seem like they could be from any soap-opera. (I almost stopped reading with The Comedy of Errors urgh.) *sigh* So if you ask me, it's better to read Shakespeare's plays properly, with all the dialogue.

There were few stories in this book which I did enjoy (and I'll probably read them again properly):
Timon of Athens
Hamlet
King Lear
Romeo and Juliet
Macbeth
Othello
Measure for Measure
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
(Whoops most of them are tragedies. Oh well...)

Shakespear is weird. But I appreciate the short summaries and introductions.

Boy, was this a disappointment. I'm glad I had read/seen most of the plays featured here before reading this - also glad my mother never insulted my intelligence by giving me this as a child.

Turns out that when you strip away the excellent dialogue/soliloquising, get rid of the subplots, and pretend no one has sex, Shakespeare's plays become sexist, racist, classist stories (All's Well That Ends Well being a particularly striking example - how do you make a retelling of a Boccaccio story LESS modern???) that don't even have the benefit of being original (placing The Winter's Tale and Much Ado About Nothing back-to-back really drew attention to one particular recycled plot device; at least they didn't do the same with The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night).

Good for starting a discussion, but if you also want to have a good time reading retellings of Shakespeare then I'd advise reading Leon Garfield's Shakespeare Stories (I and II) instead.

In honor of April being the month of William Shakespeare's birth and death, I thought it was time to read some of his works. I haven't read much Shakespeare since H.S. English class so I thought that perhaps by reading abridged versions I would become familiar with the characters and plots and then more wisely choose which of his original plays to tackle first.

This book by Charles and Mary Lamb proved to be just the thing as well as a very enjoyable read. The authors seemed to have done a great job in retelling the plays and "translating" Shakespeare's Elizabethan English without losing too much of the feel of the originals. Of course, I know it still would be richer to read the real things.

I also read an abridged version by E. Nesbit which was charming in its own way. This copy of Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children had the feel of an old fashioned storybook with sweet illustrations of young people as the characters of the stories and each page of text surrounded by a decorative border.

Each book would work perfectly fine on its own, but I was glad that I had read them simultaneously (they conveniently contained the same 20 plays) to receive a more complete picture of what each play was about. Of the two, perhaps the book by E. Nesbit was for a younger audience.

Even in prose, Shakespeare's tales translate well. Too many LONG paragraphs, but a good read.

I’ve been wanting to read this for ages, wanting to read more about Mary Lamb.

I wish I had found this book earlier, it would have made tackling Shakespeare plays easier if I read this first.

Not all plays are included but it has 21 of the 32 plays, which would have given me a good start. Of the plays that I have read here, it varies from a loose adaptation to sticking fairly closely to the plot. Winter’s Tale, a play that I have not read yet is sad and also beautiful  but has a happy ending, and I was really willing for Lady Macbeth to be shown with more depth than being the instigator to Macbeth’s downfall, but this was originally published over two centuries ago.

So glad to have finally read this after owning it for so long! This was lovely, and I adored the illustrations (especially those by Arthur Rackham, which is what I expected.) I agree with the description on the back of the book that says Shakespeare's stories are really suited to this kind of fairytale feeling / set-up.

Given that this was first published in 1807, there is a hefty sprinkling of "of its time" elements on top of those already present in Shakespeare. I especially noticed this in Othello and The Merchant of Venice (racism and antisemitism, respectively), as well as a general pervasive sexism throughout the text, so do keep that in mind if you plan to pick this up.

CW: Grief, antisemitism, racism, sexism, misogyny, murder, suicide, violence, sexual extortion / threat of rape