Shakespeare: staging the world - Tapa dura

"A fascinating account of Shakespeare's cosmopolitan world, illustrated with breathtaking images that bring to life the rich material culture that shaped Shakespeare's writings and his age. This is a superb volume, one that will have pride of place on my bookshelf." -Professor James Shapiro, author of 1599 and Contested Will

"Every student of English literature should have his own copy." - Brian Sewell, The London Evening Standard

"I'm going to spend a lot of time this summer reading an exhibition catalogue, Jonathan Bate's and Dora Thornton's Shakespeare: staging the world (British Museum). Their show about Shakespeare's creative imagination gripped me like no other I've seen in years, and the catalogue is one of those books where you can t turn the pages fast enough. At least I couldn't." -Richard Dorment, The Daily Telegraph

"Superb" -Caroline McGinn, Time Out London

"Full of illuminating wonders" -Jerry Brotton, BBC History Magazine

"This richly illuminated - and illuminating - book is a brilliant introduction to the world Shakespeare inhabited, refashioned in his capacious imagination, and bequeathed to us." -Stephen Greenblatt, author of Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare and general editor of The NortonShakespeare
"This beautifully illustrated historical treasure trove breathes new life into the conception of, and reactions to, such characters as Shylock, Hamlet, Richard II and King Lear, against the backdrop of the Tudor and Stuart monarchies of the time. Jonathan Bate and Dora Thornton have produced a fascinating and scholarly study of the writer and his rich range of influences." -Editor's choice, The Good Book Guide
"For the Shakespeare scholar it's a valuable addition to the bookshelf, for the historian it's a smorgasbord of early modern artefacts. For the general reader it's a beautifully illustrated and informative guide to the world of Shakespeare. Highly recommended." -Shakespeare's England blog
"Bate and Thornton [weave] Shakespeare's plays into his lived reality seamlessly, with the pictures aiding the task. ... As an object itself, the book gives permanence to the exhibition, in the way that Shakespeare's folios preserve 17th-century England in their pages." -Telegraph India

"Gets into the very fabric of both literature and life." -Saturday Scotsman

"A fine catalogue, [one] which increases the value of an outstanding, not-to-be missed exhibition". -The Lady

"Sumptuous, rigorously-researched and beautifully illustrated." --Dr. Claire Cochrane, theatre scholar of the University of Worcester, Blenheim Palace Literary Festival at Woodstock 2012

"Published to complement an exhibition on the same theme held at the British Museum, the book goes beyond its apparent purpose. The text by Bate and Thornton weaves Shakespeare's plays into his lived reality seamlessly, with the pictures aiding the task. ... As an object itself, the book gives permanence to the exhibition, in the way that Shakespeare's folios preserve 17th-century England in their pages". --The Telegraph India

Included as one of The Spectator's 2012 Books of the Year

"Stands by itself as a scholarly and enormously enjoyable portrait of an age and of the world as known to its greatest dramatist". --Philip Ziegler, The Spectator

Shakespeare: Staging The World is more than just a museum catalogue, it's a stunning collection of early modern objects brought vividly to life by Jonathan Bates and Dora Thornton. I'd endorse it for anyone with an interest in Shakespeare or early modern England. For the Shakespeare scholar it's a valuable addition to the bookshelf, for the historian it's a smorgasbord of early modern artifacts. For the general reader it's a beautifully illustrated and informative guide to the world of Shakespeare. Highly recommended. --Shakespearesengland.com

Authoritative, surprising, evocative and original, Shakespeare: staging the world offers a completely new approach to one of the most exceptional creative imaginations in history. While matters of religion, trade and war were being contested, the role of the playwright developed to inform, persuade and provoke debate on the concerns of the day. This richly illustrated book presents an extraordinary collection of objects from the British Museum's unrivalled collection, as well as key pieces from Britain and elsewhere. Simon Forman's diary of 1611 gives a vivid account of attending a contemporary performance of A Winter's Tale; a dagger fished from the Thames gives new resonance to the gang violence of Romeo and Juliet; while Guy Fawkes's lantern illustrates the Catholic counterculture revealed through the failed Gunpowder Plot, which was later to prove the inspiration for Macbeth. Shakespeare: staging the world is a fascinating view of the early modern world through the eyes of Shakespeare, his players and audiences. "A fascinating account of Shakespeare's cosmopolitan world, illustrated with breathtaking images that bring to life the rich material culture that shaped Shakespeare's writings and his age. This is a superb volume, one that will have pride of place on my bookshelf." -Professor James Shapiro, author of 1599 and Contested Will