This clear and succinct book is designed for general readers who want to know how to go about reading Shakespeare’s works for pleasure.

• Encourages readers to approach Shakespeare's works aggressively, interactively, and questioningly
  
• Focuses on six popular Shakespeare plays - A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV Part I, Hamlet, King Lear and The Tempest
  
• Recommends the best editions, recordings and DVDs / videos of these plays
  
• Discusses the production of the plays on stage and screen
  
• Introduces readers to different genres in Shakespeare – romantic comedy, English history, tragedy and romance
  
• Avoids jargon and abstract literary theory

David Bevington is Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. His recent publications include Shakespeare: The Seven Ages of Human Experience (second edition, 2005) and Shakespeare: Script, Stage, Screen (with Anne Marie Welsh and Michael L. Greenwald, 2006). He has also edited the Bantam Shakespeare in 29 volumes (currently being reedited), The Complete Works of Shakespeare (fifth edition, 2003), and a number of individual Shakespeare plays including Antony and Cleopatra, Henry IV, Part I, and Troilus and Cressida.