The Shakespearean imagination

the long version

Hollands book examines basic issues as how to read a Shakespearean play; why one play is better than another; to what extent we can think of Shakespeare's characters as living people; what are the great themes and symbols that dominate he plays and how they evolved through his play writing career. The book provides an up-to-date summary of the facts of Shakespeare's life and theater, showing how the conditions of that theater affected the products of his imagination. The book establishes two approaches: looking at the plays through the eyes of the age in which Shakespeare lived and wrote and looking at the plays simply with our twentieth century selves.