I'm also weirdly glad to have read some Shakespeare criticism by a woman. If you're a Shakespeare scholar, you might quibble with some of her interpretations, but for the lay-person, Garber makes accessible the depth, the beauty, and the majesty of Shakespeare's inventiveness and language. Margorie Garber has an open mind and a sharp eye for what matters. Just interesting perspectives and a marvelous close reading of each play. Here are some fascinating essays on the plays of Shakespeare. I would rather have Garber's insight than anyone else's. Listen, I bought this book for my shelf and for my Kindle. I read a Shakespeare or two every year, and I always return to this book gleefully as soon as I'm done. Her writing style - these are actually adapted from her lectures, she's a Harvard professor - is engaging and fun. She spends, I don't know, 20 or 30 pages on each of them, so that's a fair amount of depth. So those in-between people.īecause Garber gets into each play - the plot, the characters, some of the themes, a few of the tricks. Whatever those people know, let's say you don't know it.

But you don't know, like - well I don't know what you would know if you were a serious Shakespeare scholar, if I knew that I would be one. Like, let's say this isn't your first party with Shakespeare let's say you know about the second-best bed and you can read a speech without being more than a little confused. My friend Sammy recommends this for 'in-between' Shakespeare fans, and I love that. It's not because I make funny voices and gallop all over the room. This is my go-to book for deepening my understanding of whatever Shakespeare play I just staggered through or tripped over or read to my toddler, which by the way he is very into and the reason is that he's a genius.

Garber shakespeare after all