This book is about stories from the famous poet, Shakespeare. This book consists of Shakespeare's finest works. Shakespeare usually writes his pieces as if it was written for a play, however, this book takes the plays and is rewritten as normal stories. These "normal stories" still contain English and grammar that was used in the 15-1600s. The readers would still get the basic idea of the story, if not the whole story. I would not recommend this book to those who don't understand old English and wants some action. I would recommend it to those who want romance in their book.
Since there're too many stories, I chose the story that I like best.
Midnight's Summer Dream:
This story is about a princess who didn't want to marry to suitor her dad chose for her. She ran away with the person she loved. The suitor tries to find his to-be-fiancee. The princesses' friend loves the suitor and joins him. Puck, a fairy uses a love potion on the wrong people, made the princess have a miserable night because her lover, loves her best friend. In the end, everyone loves the correct people.

An excellent starting place before seeing a full play in person.

I love these retellings. We are reading through my childhood book together. With the age of my boys I've broken it up, so we only read 3-5 pages at a time. The language is rich and beautiful and this makes the stories and characters of Shakespeare like friends who we can look forward to revisiting in full form when we read his entire plays.

This book is a literary work on its own, so while it is a shorter retelling of the plays, these retellings are not a simple bare bones plot- older language, difficult language, complex sentences. Not the book if you just want the gist of Shakespeare.

tl;dr - reawoke (??) my love for shakespeare and my desire to see his plays live. good stuff. i feel like this is my best work.
The Tempest
i have such fond memories of doing this for ssf (shakespeare schools' festival) back in the day, and my english teacher reciting this to us even further back in the day so i'm always happy to be reminded of this story. a cute retelling - missing 'we are such stuff as dreams are made on', caliban's rap and david bowie but prospero is #king.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
'Lysander presently opening his eyes, and seeing his dear Hermia, recovered his reason which the fairy charm had before clouded, and with his reason, his love for Hermia; and they began to talk over the adventures of the night, doubting if these things had really happened, or if they had both been dreaming the same bewildering dream.'
what a crazy story. vaguely ashamed that i've never read this/ known the story before (sauf Dani's castle and Ballet Shoes) so i very much enjoyed. also does oberon play a prank on titania by making her fall in love with a guy with a donkey's head? alsoooo oberon and titania are iconic fairy monarchs from the rainbow fairy books and i'd like that to be shakespeare's legacy.
The Winter's Tale
again this brings back fond memories of that same english teacher who had a fire exit sign that was normal except for the bear... good times. i was waiting for the aforementioned classic line but obvi there are no stage directions. i would totes go see this if it was on, a classic shakespeare story, i like to guess the ending cos i'm a shakespeare nerd and i'm proud that i guessed that hermione's statue was actually just her - mad times.
here we pause for sadness as in my contents page it says much ado about nothing is next but the actual book doesn't seem to have it #devo
As You Like It
Shakespeare knew what worked for him:
-banished duke
-women dressing as men
-hence, dramatic irony
-men falling in love at first sight
-hence, carving names on trees
-snakes and lions?
-the name Ganymede
just a good one. a classic. was missing 'i do desire we may be better strangers' but i'll forgive seeing as i wore that badge for like 3 years at secondary school as if i wanted to be called a nerd.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
more women dressing up as men and dramatic irony!!!! lovin' life. shakespeare characters have such good names i meeean Thurio, Valentine, Silvia, Proteus what bops.
tbh i wasn't that into it generally, probably because i was listening to a north and south podcast whilst reading so was distracted. but i'm slowly catching up!!
The Merchant of Venice
my first love.
'Antonio was the kindest man that lived' - yeah he was!!!
we did this for my first year of ssf and guess who i was... yeah, antonio. what a play. women dressing as men, dramatic irony, money problems, bromance, all that good stuff. miss the lorenzo/jessica storyline, and the 'all that glitters is not gold' but it's chill nothing can dampen my love of mov. me like will.
Cymbeline
just me who thought that cymbeline was some magical fairy? he's a king actually. some classic shakespeare antics in this: women dressing as men, banished sons, warring fams, death-like sleeping draught and some great names (pisanio, iachimo, posthumus, polydor and cadwal).
i'm racing through these now... sorry to update them so frequently but if i don't now then i'll forget.
King Lear
literally had no clue about the story of this one and ooooh we're into the tragedies! cool. not my vibe... personally... but still great things. especially the name Goneril.
Macbeth
still haunted by Macbeth the Musical from year 11. also missing the picture of muscly man for untimely ripped #comedy. also still haunted by the version i saw at the theatre where lady macduff is handed her dead children in plastic bags... traumatised me the way only my secondary school could. also #banquoisthebest
All's Well That Ends Well
man i was really loving it. helena was a cool gal and as were all of the women supporting her #girlpower but then, something akin to the bed trick in m4m? not cool. even though bertram is a horrid man. and after all that she still wants to marry him? and he, not confessing his love for her or ever really being nice to her, is like 'ah cool if it was you then sure i'll stay married' like... will? seriously? i could have totally got on board with helena and her gal pals taking on the world but... not like this. (also i understand that these stories have been edited by the Lambs to be easier to read and understand but the plot is still all shakesy p ).
The Taming of the Shrew
don't you love a play all about ridding your wife of all personality so that she's obedient to you? don't you love it when a man thinks he'll marry you so that he can tame you, and then says 'i will marry you, whether you will or not'? don't you love that? i don't. not a hit will.
speed reading these so i don't have to do my maths homework #life hack
A Comedy of Errors
mans got identical twins and decides to name them both antipholus, then buys identical twin babies off this poor family(?!?!?!) and names them both dromio like mate you did this to yourself. the most comedic of errors. back on track shakesy...
Measure for Measure
was interested to see how they would cope with this play- as syphilis, prostitutes and sexual assault aren't that child friendly. it was good, like they coped well. but isabella accepts the duke's proposal at the end? come on now lads. leave her silent. let her look disgusted. she wants to be a nun let her be.
Twelfth Night
a crackin' one; twins shipwrecked at sea, a woman dressing up as a man, people falling in love at first sight... also orsino is a great name. missing the hilarious 'some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.' (still the version that i find funniest is from a secondary school where the guy did like an interpretive dance for that speech, iconic).
Timon of Athens
mm it was fine. not surprised it's not taught cos it's no Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth but it was fine. he just like stripped off in the middle though? cool man, whatever you feel like doing.
gonna binge read the rest now for my night-off, even though i give myself a night-off every night
Romeo and Juliet
blimey this story is a tragedy if ever there was one. i mean, have none of these characters seen west side story?
Hamlet
tragedies are not my thing, especially ones where literally everyone ends up dead by the end because what's the point? but seriously the bit about ophelia was real good.
Othello
wow i had no idea of the story of othello except of iago (from the brooklyn 99 joke 'emphasis on the iago, backstabber...') so this was a shock in me in all sorts of ways!!! he smothered his wife to death? he was a great guy really but was just tricked into it? sounds like a much ado about nothing retelling except claudio is nice.
Pericles
a classic shakey play to end on; a shipwreck, a storm, love at first sight (or fight, as the case would seem), death, great names (thaisa is really pretty), death-like sleep, separated families and mistaken identities. man i was so scared that this would be a tragedy so i'm happy that this was such a happy one to end on,,, would like to go and see this plz.
.
do i want to read because of the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society? yes. yes i do.

1807

Nowhere near as good as the original!

Right, I may be in the minority here but this book was a mangled mess in my eyes missing the comedy particularly of the original plays. Whilst I could give the treatment of "Romeo and Juliet" and "Othello" 4 stars, the (mis)treatment of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was shameful, missing all the fun and froth of the original play.

I really only picked it up because of the references from Graham Greene's "Our Man in Havana" as well as "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society". Knowing about half of the plays in their original, I chafed at the archaic language and obtuse prose missing the lyricism and cadence of the original scripts. Particularity in performance, these plays from the 16th century carry far more interest, activity and and colour than these dull offerings.

Published in the early 19th century for children by 2 childless adults, I cannot really see its current attraction? Head to Wikipedia or, ideally, the real script, to enjoy the whole shabang.

Shakespeare is so difficult to wade through. Charles and Mary Lamb took difficult language and made the stories accessible enough that my 6 year old and I have enjoyed getting to know these classics. Of course, we used Barbie dolls and stuff animals to represent all the different characters so that we wouldn't get completely lost, but still... :)

I'm blessed enough to have my grandmother's 1923 edition published by The MacMillan Company. Not sure if the illustrations the same as the original first edition from 1807, but definitely representative of older books.

Since they are part of our cultural repertoire, I felt like I should be familiar with more of Shakespeare's plays (without actually troubling to read them). Charles and Mary Lamb wrote these stories for children in 1807, but the archaic language they used would make them hard for today's children to understand. They took pains to include some of the best bits of Shakespeare's writing ver batim, which I liked. Many of these were stories I was not familiar with at all--others were vague in my mind. It struck me how many devices Shakespeare used over and over, causing the stories to run together in my head a bit. A young woman who dresses as a young man and fools everyone (has anyone truly been fooled by that before?), a ring given with some sort of promise attached, amazing coincidences, murder and mayhem...these are the stuff of Shakespeare. I really enjoyed getting to know these stories and would like to follow them up with volume two.

Even though this is good if you just want to get an idea of the plots of Shakespeare's dramas, I recommend you read the original to get a better understanding of Shakespeare.
Perfect for children :)

When the recent adaptation of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society sparked my interest in the works of Charles Lamb, I was surprised to find that he – with his sister, Mary – had written a compilation of Shakespeare’s plays, annotated for a younger audience. Now, though I don’t necessarily fit into that group, I thought I’d give them a try. How glad I am that I did! These short stories do an excellent job of capturing the meat of Shakespeare’s theatrical works as best as anyone can do without replicating them truly. (And I say that having listened to the few adaptations done by Jason and Carissa Weiser on their podcast, Fictional. Those were good but these are better. Sorry, Weisers!) I can now honestly say that I understand Shakespeare – and his appeal – much better.

If you, like me, are a closet Shakespeare-phobe, I encourage you to give this book a try. It’s available for free on the public domain, so it’s quite easy to obtain. I’d love to hear your thoughts if you decide to read it. (PS – please skip over the introduction or read it only for laughs. Mr. Lamb’s opinions on his young female readers would certainly NOT go down well with today’s audience! Please remember the generation in which he was writing and forgive him his sexist views.)

OK, first: I am literature purist, and generally am very adverse to "children's versions" of anything. I would instead start by teaching a simpler play like Romeo and Juliet or Julius Caesar in say, sixth or seventh grade as an introduction to Shakespeare. I suppose the Lamb version is all right to introduce the Bard to very young students. For my fifth grade class, I taught the Lamb version and I still fear it may have done them a disservice. Actually, I was so concerned that it might bleed out any interest they had in the Bard, that I condensed Romeo and Juliet (every line was unedited Shakespeare, as I wanted them to get familiar with the sheer poetry and power of his language) into a 10 minute play for them to perform, which they nailed! They absorbed and understood an impressive amount of all that Shakespearean English, and by the end, they could all recite the entire skit from memory. Reading the real thing makes students hungry for more and eager to become better readers. Being spoon-fed the toothless Lamb version, runs the risk of students wrongly assuming that Shakespeare is as dry as the Lambs.

P.S. Mary Lamb was declared insane FOR STABBING HER MOTHER TO DEATH. That always concerned me.

This book is a true jewel. A home schooling treasure. Oh the plays we read! Oh the wonderful conversations we had!

Iago's character in Othello lead to long talks about "tricky people" (predators) and the different things they do to allure people. We talked about why people would write humorous comedies as we laughed through "Much Ado about Nothing" and "Comedy of Errors." We talked about greed in "The Merchant of Venice" and true versus false friends in "Two Gentlemen from Verona" and gangs in "Romeo & Juliet" (with a little help from West Side Story). "Winter's Tale" allowed us to discuss the responsibilities of family leadership and how a father's decisions can make things go horribly wrong. And all throughout we talked the importance of choosing wisely in marriage. It was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

The plot lines are complicated. Making action maps, having stuffed animals play characters, acting it out, making paper popsicle stick actors, and listening in the car were all helpful.

Highly recommended way to introduce children as young as 6 years old to Shakespeare. Of course, readers of all ages will enjoy it.

* Please note: We used the Yesterday's Classics version. This publication is available for purchase, and also because it is copy write expired, available as an mp3 from audio book sites.