Off the shelf
New ideas for summer reading
Explore great Shakespeare-related ideas for summer reading from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s online book club, blogs, and podcast.
A memorable Macbeth: Setting the Scottish play in 19th-century Haiti
Read about the 1936 “voodoo Macbeth” in this excerpt from The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War by James Shapiro.
How do Shakespeare’s characters react when they lose family or love?
Stephen Greenblatt explores this question in this excerpt from Second Chances: Shakespeare and Freud, a book co-authored with Adam Phillips.
Judi Dench's take on Viola in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
What’s going through Viola’s head as she woos Olivia on Orsino’s behalf? Dame Judi Dench reflects on this key scene in this excerpt from her newly published book.
The African Company and Black Shakespeare in 1820s New York
Joyce Green MacDonald is the author of this excerpt from The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Race, a collection of essays edited by Patricia Akhimie.
Excerpt: "Shakespeare's House"
“When it came to Elizabethan furniture, you could never be completely certain that it wasn’t bewitched,” writes Richard Schoch.
The education of Henry VIII
How did Henry VIII’s childhood and education help shape him into the king he would become? This excerpt from Hunting the Falcon offers some intriguing insights.
A witty Fool and foolish wit: Christopher Moore’s Pocket Chronicles
Austin Tichenor writes about Christopher Moore’s trio of comic novels, which follow the fool from King Lear as he interacts with other Shakespeare characters.
Excerpt: "Shakespeare in Bloomsbury" by Marjorie Garber
The young Virginia Woolf encounters Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and gives her opinions.
Excerpt: "The Great White Bard"
Farah Karim-Cooper explores the way that race is represented by Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello, in this excerpt from her new book, The Great White Bard.
Excerpt: "Shakespeare's tutor: The influence of Thomas Kyd"
Learn more about authorship and influence among the playwrights of Shakespeare’s day in this excerpt from a recent book by Darren Freebury-Jones.
Excerpt: "King Lear: Shakespeare's Dark Consolations"
“King Lear is about insiders who with terrible suddenness are shoved outside, and what they learn or don’t learn from finding themselves positioned there,” writes Arthur Frank.