Shakespeare's Tragedies

Robert N. Watson is Distinguished Professor of English at UCLA, where he was awarded the university's top teaching prize. For years, hundreds of students filled Harvard's biggest classrooms for each of his Shakespeare lectures. He has been a Fellow for terms at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Head Scholar for the National Endowment for the Humanities' Teaching Shakespeare Institutes, a Shakespeare commentator on NPR and the BBC, and author of prize-winning books on Shakespeare and Renaissance culture.

"Rob Watson's exciting explorations into Shakespeare's greatest tragedies distill a lifetime of brilliant teaching into a moving, accessible guide that helps us all—readers, audiences, students, actors—to peer deeply into the very heart of the human drama." —Sir Patrick Stewart"With infectious enthusiasm for the 'wonder-filled house' of Shakespeare, Watson's book speaks to our guts as much as our brains—reviving Shakespeare's dramatizations of our common crises through engagingly accessible prose."—Scott Newstok, author of How to Think like Shakespeare"It is a very long time since I have enjoyed reading a book about Shakespeare's plays a quarter as much as I have enjoyed this one. I have spent my time reading it grinning from ear to ear with delight." —Peter Holland, Chair of the International Shakespeare Association and Past President of the Shakespeare Association of America"Shakespeare's Tragediesought to be a required text. The writing is eloquent, witty, fast-paced, anddelightful to read. A masterwork by one of America's celebrated teachers, Watson's book will reward every reader." —Kent Cartwright, author ofShakespeare and the Comedy of Enchantment"Watson'silluminatingbookshows not just why but< i>how Shakespeare's words have touched so many so feelingly by introducing each of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies in three stages—a lucid overview, a careful, closer guide, and finally a deep cut into Shakespeare's precise and startling craft. It models brilliantly and concretely the kind of flexible, informed, curious questioning and thinking-through that many of us want to develop in our studentand in ourselves." —William N. West, author of Common Understandings, Poetic Confusions"Shakespeare's Tragedies is sure to get students newly excited about Shakespeare. In it, Watson shows how five of Shakespeare's commonly taught tragedies resonate poignantly across time, bringing us face to face with the perplexing nature of humanity itself. Unlike student guides that simplify the plays' language and meanings, this book invites us to be mesmerized by their complexity. Its engaging close readings, which wear their depth and ingenuity lightly, are filled with discoveries and delights. Readers at all levels will find provocative rewards here. —Emily C. Bartels, author ofSpeaking of the Moor"Watson distills a lifetime of teaching and reflecting on Shakespeare into these pages. Accessible, engaging, witty, with a keen eye for detail, Watson is a terrific storyteller.Readers will return to this book time and again for insight and illumination." —James Shapiro, author ofShakespeare in a Divided America