Macbeth
A Reproduction from the Original 1623 First Folio
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- £1.99
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- £1.99
Publisher Description
This facsimile edition of Macbeth is taken from the large and handsome book known simply as the ‘First Folio’. This is the earliest collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays and was was printed in 1623, just seven years after his death.
For students of Macbeth, going back to these First Folio plays is an essential part of a more complete understanding of Shakespeare's work.
Eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays had already been published in the small, cheap format known as quartos during his lifetime, including such favourites as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. The First Folio added another eighteen, including Macbeth, The Tempest and Twelfth Night all of which are indispensable to the modern repertory. Without the First Folio only half of Shakespeare’s dramatic output would have survived.
Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's tragedies, drawn again from Holinshed's 'Chronicles', although much altered. The First Folio edition is the first ever printing of the play, which is thought to date from 1603 to 1607.
This is an eBookTreasures facsimile edition.
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Based on an HBO animated series, these condensations emphasize the dramatic content of some of Shakespeare's best known works. As abridged by Garfield in consultation with a panel of scholars, the books on the whole retain the magic of Shakespeare's vision and remain true to his poetics. Linguistic fluidity is perforce sacrificed (omitted lines are presented as italicized summaries interspersed throughout the dialogue), but these versions should still fire children's imaginations. Though the artwork varies in quality, the Eastern European illustrators generally capture the underlying theatrics. Palettes are subdued for the dramas, and appropriately brighter for the comedies (though the tone reproductions frequently seem off). Several plays' illustrations have a cartoony appearance; a few exhibit the stilted look of old Classics Comics. While the plays forgo their complexities--many subplots are omitted--as they become more linear in their themes (Macbeth loses much of his humanity, Romeo and Juliet is pared of its politics), their nobility shines through in these visualized introductions. One hopes that readers will be encouraged to move on to the originals. Ages 10-up.
