Shakespeare's Reading Book

If you want to know more about Shakespeare but you don't want to read a long book, this is probably more worthwhile than most of those "little introduction to Shakespeare" books. You learn way more about Shakespeare as an artist and jobbing-playwright here than you would from a biography or overview of his "times." Miola really knows Shakespeare AND his sources, so you see what choices Shakespeare made, what he invented, what he cribbed, and how he worked. Almost every play is discussed in about 2-3 pages each, with the proper respect for genre and audience. Highly recommended.