From Hamlet and The Tempest to Henry V and Romeo and Juliet, the Essential Shakespeare Handbook is a user-friendly, beautifully illustrated guide to every play in the Shakespearean canon, as well as a compelling portrait of the Bard's life. "Essential Shakespeare Handbook deserves a place next to your edition of Shakespeare's plays. Leslie Dunton-Downer, a former lecturer at Harvard, and Alan Riding, the European cultural correspondent for The Times, have written a guide to the poems and plays that is scholarly without being recondite, succinct without being superficial." – The New York Times Book Review

"Students will like the glossy, well-illustrated format; it is an English teacher's dream. Recommended." – Library Media Connection

"This simple, colorful handbook is a perfect companion to the playwright's complete works." – Library Journal