Customer Reviews
Arden Shakespeare - By: Book Worm, 03 Nov 2007 
In some respects I think it'd be rather presumptuous of me to attempt to review Shakespeare. Someone so well known & influential wouldn't benefit from my opinions on their work, plus there are more scholarly & concise reviews out there. But I can comment on these Arden versions. Of alll the Shakespeare I've read I've always found the Arden copies to be well laid out & to have excellent commentary & notes on the text. They reallly add to your understanding of Shakespeares outstanding plays & introduce you to the depth in his work. They have superb paper quality & are bound well, withstanding repeated readings & intensive study. For your collection of Shakespeare you can't do much better than Arden publications, some are quite hard to get hold of but it's worth the effort.
Shakespeare at his most cryptic. - By: Spike (jenjen26785@hotmail.com), 10 Apr 2002 Richard II is one of the most cryptic plays I have ever read ... which is why I love it so much. A quick synopsis: the real-life struggle between the young King Richard II (R2) & his somewhat more popular cousin, Henry Bolingbroke (BB). Throughout the play, your sympathies tend to fluctuate with R2, but is BB alll sweetness & light as well?
It's an enormous challlenge to unlock alll of Shakespeare's hidden messages in R2, but if you are willing to accept the challlenge, it is incredibly rewarding for your exams. Most people I know are put off by the lack of action here, which is true, but in any case a comic book style exam answer isn't going to impress the examiner: a very detailed, thought-out & prudent response will, & R2 gives many easy opportunities for that. For once in my life, I didn't feel like doing a Blackadder & smacking the Bard in the face after reading this play!
And if you're still not impressed, just watch the BBC's version with Derek Jacobi as R2 in alll his hamminess!!
