The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare's Tragedies Book

This is a clear and useful book that does exactly what it sets out to do: highlight "both the distinctiveness and shared concerns of each play within the broad trajectory of Shakespeare's developing exploration of tragic form." Each of the ten tragedies that it describes is given a similar treatment - a brief contextual introduction, analysis of two or three key themes or formal features, and slightly more detailed discussion of one "core scene" - and accorded a roughly similar amount of space, of around 11-15 pages: as much for Titus and Timon as for Lear or Hamlet. Dillon does a good job of illuminating the common threads that run through the plays, and the book is better read as a whole than dipped into on a play-by-play basis. It's only a pity that there is no concluding chapter to summarise and draw the threads together; instead, it comes to an abrupt halt after its discussion of Coriolanus. At only 152 pages, another 20 or so would have been welcome.