Donald J Richardson: 41 books
The Complete Hamlet
An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
Language: English
Release Date: February 21, 2012
As an instructor of English 102, First-Year Composition, for more than eighty-six times, I have read and taught Hamlet repeatedly. I have come to know the play extensively and, as a result, when we read the play aloud in class I have to stop the students repeatedly to explain various arcane references...
The Complete Midsummer Night’S Dream
An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
Language: English
Release Date: October 3, 2013
A Midsummer Nights Dream is a delightful excursion into Shakespeares fantasy world. With something for everyone, including the courtly world of Theseus and the lovers Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius; the fairy world of Oberon, Titania, and Puck; and the burlesque comedy of Bottom and the other...
The Complete Twelfth Night
An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
Language: English
Release Date: December 19, 2013
Shakespeares Twelfth Night presents a character who is a literary descendant of Sir John Falstaff: Sir Toby Belch. Like Falstaff, Sir Toby is bombastic, mendacious, and pusillanimous. As in Falstaffs case, these character traits might be offset by the humor of the presentation; however, in this readers...
The Complete as You Like It
An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
Language: English
Release Date: June 1, 2015
As You Like It could be termed the archetypal Shakespearean romantic comedy: the lovers retreat to the Forest of Arden, where all their problems are resolved satisfactorily, and all ends in marriage (four marriages, in fact). However, the romance of the play is ameliorated somewhat by the pragmatism...
The Complete Romeo and Juliet
An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
Language: English
Release Date: April 22, 2013
Among teenagers Romeo and Juliet appears to be the most popular of the Shakespeare tragedies. Perhaps this is because of the age of the protagonists. I suspect it is something far deeper than that, however. The depth of passion evinced by both Romeo and Juliet is familiar to most adolescents, and...
The Complete Comedy of Errors
An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
Language: English
Release Date: August 19, 2014
Perhaps the most comedic of all the Shakespeare plays, The Comedy of Errors, verges on farce with its confused identities, slapstick violence, and confused intentions. This play vociferously demands Coleridges willing suspension of disbelief. As comedy, it resists analysis beyond its structure. Perhaps...
The Complete Love’S Labors Lost
An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
Language: English
Release Date: September 17, 2015
Loves Labors Lost is widely considered Shakespeares most intellectually challenging comedy (Bate, back cover). From its extensive wordplay to the plot machinations, a reader (viewer) is continuously challenged. The recurrent bawdy is another factor that forces one to pay close attention. Thus, the...
The Complete Taming of the Shrew
An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
Language: English
Release Date: January 13, 2014
To a contemporary feminist, The Taming of the Shrew is surely anathema. A strong woman is shown to be easily manipulated and ends up subjugated by a somewhat insensitive and boorish man. Yet, despite the real objections, the play has been popular for centuries in itself, in adaptations (Tamed and...
The Complete Macbeth
An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
Language: English
Release Date: January 11, 2013
Of the five major Shakespearean tragediesHamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, and OthelloMacbeth is in some ways the most accessible. For one it is the shortest. For another the witches continue to attract audiences just as they did during Elizabethan times. In addition he cinematographic...
The Complete Richard Ii
An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
Language: English
Release Date: March 4, 2015
Richard the Second is essentially weak and vacillating. Self-indulgent and prodigal, he appears to be a natural candidate for overthrow by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke. He is a man who enjoys the trappings of being king but fails to measure up to the responsibilities. Self-pitying and duplicitous,...
The Complete Henry the Eighth
An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
Language: English
Release Date: January 20, 2016
Despite its title, Henry the Eighth deals with three other, more important stories: the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, the fall of Queen Katherine, and the raising of Anne Bullen (Boleyn). For Elizabethans, the culmination of the play was, of course, the birth of Elizabeth, heralding their queen and her...
by Donald J. Richardson
Language: English
Release Date: November 29, 2013
Language: English
Release Date: November 29, 2013
Like many writers, I suppose I have an idealized picture of the past, of my youth, when everything was green and golden and all the calves sang to my huntsmans horn. All the potential was ours, all that mattered was the immediate present, and the future belonged to some non-threatening, never-to-be-achieved...
The Complete Two Gentlemen of Verona
An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
Language: English
Release Date: January 23, 2015
The Two Gentlemen of Verona doesnt enjoy a high reputation among Shakespeareans. As an early comedy, it suffers from internal inconsistencies and a questionable resolution. However, having produced and directed a radio version of the play (for WSUI in Iowa City, Iowa), I have partial feelings for...
by Donald J. Richardson
Language: English
Release Date: December 15, 2010
Language: English
Release Date: December 15, 2010
Alexandria Hodgeman represents a composite of many people I have known, Catholic and non-Catholic, senior citizens and middle-aged. Her search for definition--for the meaning of her life--I intend as the type of search anyone ought to be pursuing, especially someone who is eighty-nine years old. Her...