Shakespeare Study

Don’t be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bard’s plays accessible and enjoyable.

The multi-award-winning SmartPass study guide with and without commentary options. Full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Hear "A little touch of Harry" whenever you want to! Examine and appreciate the powerful language of leadership in this guided history play, considered to be Shakespeare's greatest creative statement about war.

 The Life of the Author: William Shakespeare delivers a fresh and exciting new take on the life of William Shakespeare, offering listeners a biography that brings to the foreground his working life as a poet, playwright, and actor. It also explores the nature of his relationships with his friends, colleagues, and family and asks important questions about the stories we tell about Shakespeare based on the evidence we actually have about the man himself.  

The multi-award-winning SmartPass study guide with and without commentary options. Full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. When characters have to ask "Are all the people mad?" you need a guide! Explore this topsy-turvy world to understand, enjoy, and analyse the language, imagery, and themes of Shakespeare's dark comedy.

The multi-award winning SmartPass full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play.

The multi-award winning SmartPass full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play.

Here is the multi award-winning SmartPass study guide, with and without commentary options. This is a full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis to allow any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Meet literature's greatest villain in this tragedy, fuelled by jealous rage. Journey into the twisted mind of Iago, who freely admits, "I am not what I am", and truly get under the skin of this wondrous play.

Here is the multi award-winning SmartPass study guide with and without commentary options. This is a full-cast, unabridged performance, with comprehensive commentary and analysis, enabling students to fully understand and appreciate the play. Judge for yourself whether Lear is "a man more sinned against than sinning" in this moral tale that pits wisdom and age against ambition and youth. Experience and examine the power of Shakespeare's most cruel and violent tragedy.

In an innovative and engaging narrative of everyday life in Shakespeare's England, Ramie Targoff carries us from the sumptuous coronation of Queen Elizabeth in the mid-16th century into the private lives of four women writers working at a time when women were legally the property of men: Mary Sidney, accomplished poet and sister of the famous Sir Philip Sidney; Aemilia Lanyer, the first woman in the 17th century to publish a book of original poetry; Elizabeth Cary, who published the first original play by a woman and Anne Clifford, a lifelong diarist.

David Sterling Brown offers nothing less here than a wholesale deconstruction of whiteness in Shakespeare's plays, arguing that the 'white other' was a racialized category already in formation during the Elizabethan era—and also one to which Shakespeare was himself a crucial contributor.

A full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Universally accepted as Shakespeare's finest play, we peel back the layers of Hamlet to discover how and why it deserves such a place of honour in world literature.

The multi award-winning SmartPass study guide, with and without commentary options. This is a full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Soak up the atmosphere of ancient Rome. Decide for yourself whether Caesar's power and ambition was a threat to the Republic, and whether assassination can ever be justified.

Discover the genius of William Shakespeare in this entertaining and educational full-cast drama, designed to whet the appetite and introduce you to the man, the life, the legacy. Includes key scenes from the major plays.

An award winning Drama from SmartPass. Unabridged with guided description to set the scene and fill in visual moments.

Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's greatest and best loved tragedies. In this series for GCSE English Literature, we analyse all aspects of the play, ensuring that you gain a full understanding of the various complexities - including the context and a detailed analysis of all the scenes - helping whilst you study and revise. Furthermore, we have two dedicated chapters on preparing for your exam, so when it comes to the big day you know what to expect.

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's great tragedies, and in this study guide we analyse the key meanings and subtleties within the play. We discuss the main protagonists, the key themes and the context and break down the core scenes so that you have all the necessary facts and arguments at your disposal. Written by Catherine Hartley and Stella Vassiliou, both of whom have master's degrees in English literature from Cambridge and Oxford Universities respectively.

This CliffsNotes study guide on William Shakespeare's Othello supplements the original literary work, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the work and critical commentaries, all for you to use as an educational tool that will allow you to better understand the work.

This CliffsNotes study guide on William Shakespeare's King Lear supplements the original literary work, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the work, and critical commentaries, all for you to use as an educational tool that will allow you to better understand the work.

This CliffsNotes study guide on William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar supplements the original literary work, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the work, and commentaries, all for you to use as an educational tool that will allow you to better understand the work. This study guide was written with the assumption that you have read Julius Caesar.

This CliffsNotes study guide on William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream supplements the original literary work, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the work, and critical commentaries, all for you to use as an educational tool that will allow you to better understand the work.