Shakespeare:The Poet & His Plays

Description

Why do Shakespeare's works continue to exert so strong an influence and have such lasting appeal? What do they have to offer modern readers and play-goers? The author seeks to answer these questions in this wide-ranging critical survey of Shakespeare's career as a poet and playwright. The result of Stanley Wells' lifetime work on Shakespeare's plays and poems, this study aims to offer both a useful introduction to the writer and a companion for those renewing their acquaintance with his work either as readers or theatre-goers.

Stanley Wells (b. 1930) is a renowned authority on Shakespeare and other writers of his time. He has published many books and articles on the subject and lectured all over the world. He gained his doctorate at the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham in 1962, and taught there until 1978, and then again from 1987 when he became Professor of Shakespeare Studies, until 1997. He is now Emeritus Professor of Shakespeare Studies of the University of Birmingham in Stratford-upon-Avon. He holds honorary doctorates from Furman University and from the Universities of Munich, Hull, and Durham. He is General Editor of the Oxford and the Penguin editions of Shakespeare. He edited the annual Shakespeare Survey for Cambridge University Press for 19 years. Stanley Wells is Chair of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Honorary Governor Emeritus of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and member of the Board of Directors of the Globe Theatre. In 2007, he was awarded a CBE. His latest book is Shakespeare, Sex and Love (2010). His Shakespeare: The Poet and the Plays was published by Methuen Drama in 1997.