Romeo and Juliet & As You Like it & A Midsummer Night's Dream

About the Book

The Shakespeare Novels:  The novelization of Shakespeares plays adds an entirely new dimension to the enjoyment and fuller appreciation of his work.  Although he wrote thirty-seven magnificent plays, few people other than English and drama majors are familiar with more than a handful of them. Yet all his plays are intricately plotted and among them they contain all the elements of great fiction: romance, comedy, tragedy, intrigue, dramatic climaxes, surprise twists and denouements, war, murder, rape, incest, mystery, madness, revenge, deadly duels, the clash of mighty opposites, noble sacrifices, tyranny, villainous plots, horror, superstition, the supernatural, mistaken identity, religion, miracles, panoramic epics, history, hilarity, delight, farce, sagacity, and the worlds greatest love stories, including deadly triangles, suicides, dark rendevous, pandered love, sizzling sensuality, jealousy, betrayal, seduction, star-crossed lovers, summer love, eternal love, and even the inimitable Falstaff in love, by order of Queen Bess.  Although Shakespeare did say Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love, his great love stories give that quip the lie.  Now fortunately you dont have to go to school and take a class in English lit to understand and enjoy Shakespeare.  Here are the worlds most memorable plays in everyday English, in easy, highly readably novel form, written initially for the student and the playgoer yes, but really for anyone seeking a great story.  Shakespeare as youve never known him, except that ironically, this time,

Romeo and Juliet: The Novel:  Little needs to be said about Romeo and Juliet.  Star-crossed lovers says it all.  It is perhaps the most famous love story of all time, and it seldom ceases to leave the reader or watcher misty eyed, no matter how many times weve read or seen it before.  Like so many of Shakespeares great stories, the characters become quite real to us.  Indeed, few of us cannot help but recall our own first love as Romeo and Juliet succumb to Loves power at their first meeting.  Thus it is too, that when Escalus, the Prince of Verona, expresses his outrage at the civil disturbances caused by the ongoing feud of the Montagues and the Capulets, we hope that theyll behave better.  And who can witness the merry antics of the incomparable Mercutio without being thoroughly entertained.  Certainly weve all known our share of mindless rich-boy delinquents like Tybalt, and mercurial old men like Capulet, whose company we enjoy but whom we fear crossing.  Nor are Benvolio, who tries so conscientiously to protect his friends, the wonderfully human Friar Laurence, the garrulous old Nurse, nice, sincere dilettantes like Count Paris, and even the impoverished apothecary types unknown to us, playing their parts more like real persons than fictional characters.  So powerful is the effect of the play that in the end, if we read with our hearts, we feel a real, tangible loss as the tragedy unfolds.  Here in novelized form the story is presented with as many of Shakespeares memorable lines preserved as consistent with clear prose, for your fullest enjoyment.

As You Like It: The Novel: Love in the mystical Forest of Arden?  Of what use, one might ask, is such idyllic love to the modern soul?  Perhaps we should turn to science for our answer, for do not scientists isolate their problems in order to study them?  Well, such seems to be Shakespeares intent, to entertain us with a charming dramatization of love in its elemental form. To paraphrase Rosalind, In your quest for fame and fortune, take timeout for love, lifes greatest adventure.  Indeed, nowhere in Shakespeare are there more discussions and litanies concerning what love is and what it is not, making the play a perennial favorite of the young.  Everyone, no matter how limited his or her experience, ha

About the Author

(Bio for author listing on web site) The author is a longtime teacher of Shakespeare who has through a fifteen-year project converted the immortal Bard’s plays into novels in order to make all of them understandable and relevant, especially as the number of Shakespeare’s plays taught in school is limited to so few.