The Cambridge Student Guide to Macbeth provides explanatory notes and guidance to help form the basis for the understanding of the play. It is part of a new series aimed at students from 16 years upwards in schools and colleges throughout the English-speaking world. Background information provides support and prompts inquiry for advanced level study by drawing out issues and themes related to the text. The content of each book in the series follows the pattern of an introduction; detailed running commentary on the text; insight into historical, social and cultural contexts; analysis of the language; an overview of critical approaches and different interpretations; essay-writing tips and lists of recommended resources.

A new series of bespoke, full-coverage resources developed for the 2015 GCSE English qualifications. Approved for the AQA 2015 GCSE English Literature specification, this print Student Book is designed to help students develop whole text understanding and written response skills for their closed-book exam. The resource provides act-by-act coverage of Shakespeare's play as well as a synoptic overview of the text and its themes. Short, memorable quotations and striking images throughout the book aid learning, while in-depth exam preparation includes practice questions and sample responses. See also our Macbeth print and digital pack, which comprises the print Student Book, the enhanced digital edition and a free Teacher's Resource.

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, known as an “actor’s play” for its condensed script and the interpretive freedom it gives actors on stage. As a tragedy of the early seventeenth-century, Macbeth follows a man living in a constructed universe in which he cannot toy with evil without facing consequences. Moreover, readers witness the primary theme that destruction comes to characters who do not fear the outcomes of their actions. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

The Cambridge Student Guide to Hamlet provides explanatory notes and guidance to help form the basis for the understanding of the play. It is part of a new series aimed at students from 16 years upwards in schools and colleges throughout the English-speaking world. Background information provides support and prompts inquiry for advanced level study by drawing out issues and themes related to the text. The content of each book in the series follows the pattern of an introduction; detailed running commentary on the text; insight into historical, social and cultural contexts; analysis of the language; an overview of critical approaches and different interpretations; essay-writing tips and lists of recommended resources.

An indispensable reference tool for Shakespeare students and enthusiasts, this compact guide provides authoritative summaries of each of Shakespeare's works.

An improved, larger-format edition of the Cambridge School Shakespeare plays, extensively rewritten, expanded and produced in an attractive new design.

This lively and innovative introduction to Shakespeare promotes active engagement with the plays, rather than recycling factual information. Covering a range of texts, it is divided into seven subject-based chapters: Character; Performance; Texts; Language; Structure; Sources and History, and it does not assume any prior knowledge. Instead, it develops ways of thinking and provides the reader with resources for independent research through the 'Where next?' sections at the end of each chapter. The book draws on scholarship without being overwhelmed by it, and unlike other introductory guides to Shakespeare it emphasizes that there is space for new and fresh thinking by students and readers, even on the most-studied and familiar plays.

The Cambridge Student Guide to Othello provides explanatory notes and guidance to help form the basis for the understanding of the play. It is part of a new series aimed at students from 16 years upwards in schools and colleges throughout the English-speaking world. Background information provides support and prompts inquiry for advanced level study by drawing out issues and themes related to the text. The content of each book in the series follows the pattern of an introduction; detailed running commentary on the text; insight into historical, social and cultural contexts; analysis of the language; an overview of critical approaches and different interpretations; essay-writing tips and lists of recommended resources.

Since the rediscovery of Elizabethan stage conditions early this century, admiration for Measure for Measure has steadily risen. It is now a favorite with the critics and has attracted widely different styles of performance. At one extreme the play is seen as a religious allegory, at the other it has been interpreted as a comedy protesting against power and privilege. Brian Gibbons focuses on the unique tragi-comic experience of watching the play, the intensity and excitement offered by its dramatic rhythm, the reversals and surprises that shock the audience even to the end. The introduction describes the play's critical reception and stage history and how these have varied according to prevailing social, moral and religious issues, which were highly sensitive when Measure for Measure was written, and have remained so to the present day.

Guides readers through the last of Shakespeare's magnificent tragedies, Macbeth, and explores the keys to virtuous behavior as well as the psychology of guilt. Part of the Christian Guides to the Classics series.