Review (PDF) Richard III (No Fear Shakespeare)
No Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of Richard III on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right. Each No Fear Shakespeare containsThe complete text of the original playA line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday languageA complete list of characters with descriptionsPlenty of helpful commentary
Series: No Fear Shakespeare
Paperback: 360 pages
Publisher: SparkNotes (June 22, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1411401026
ISBN-13: 978-1411401020
Product Dimensions: 1 x 5.2 x 7.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #102,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #57 in Books > Teens > Education & Reference > Study Aids > Book Notes #70 in Books > Literature & Fiction > British & Irish > Shakespeare > Literary Criticism #161 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Literature > English Literature
I'm an English PhD student, and even I have trouble with Shakespeare. His language is beautifully complex, and it can take me a long time to unpack what his characters are trying to say. I've cross-referenced "No Fear" on the SparkNotes website before for other Shakespeare plays, but it's been nice to have a hard copy in hand. I go from the original text on the left and then onto the "modern" text on the right as needed. In this way I'm able to understand Shakespeare without missing out on the richness of his language.There are other publishers that make Shakespeare easier to read, providing original text against a more modern rendering. While those do a fair job, no one comes close (in my opinion) to capturing the ease and user-friendliness of SparkNotes.
This is the perfect book for Shakespeare 101 classes. You get the original play and a translation that keeps the spirit of the text.But don't expect to find a word by word translation (you'd be better off with a dictionary of Elizabethan English), or a detailed analysis of the characters and main themes (Sparknotes has another book for that). It's just the play, easy to read.
The "No Fear Shakespeare" books are a great way to get your kids reading these treasures. I tried the first one when my son asked why it was okay to read translations of great Greek literary works but Shakespeare, which seemed like Greek to him, had to be read in its original form. The nice thing about these books is that they give the original language side-by-side with the modern translation so you get to experience the beauty of the original while having a "translator" readily available when you need it to enhance understanding. All 4 of my children started reading Shakespeare in sixth grade with these books and read 3-5 of them a year. They start out relying heavily on the modern language but eventually abandon it almost entirely. Don't be afraid to try one.
Thank you for these wonderful 'translations' of Shakespeare's works. They make all the difference to me, a new student to Shakespeare, at the ripe age of 59 years old....now I can understand and appreciate these amazing works of literature. Much of what he writes makes my hair stand on end. What a genius !
There were a lot of characters and a complex family lineage to keep track of, but other than the complexities of the story line, it was very good. Richard is the 'so evil its funny' type of villain.The characters made it a little bit harder to follow than some of Shakespeare's other works, but it was a good story nonetheless. I always recommend No Fear for anyone who has trouble with the language. The side notes and translations always serve to give helpful insights to both the analytic reader, and the casual one.
Having the more recognizable language side-by-side makes me not miss a thing. I can understand Shakespeare's language to a point; but I don't want to miss things that I would miss. There are also historical notes for us non-scholars that enrich your understanding of what's being said between characters.
These books are great for the first time you read a Shakespeare play. Having modern English and the original side by side, you understand the story, and after that, can focus on Shakespeare's ability with language.
This is highly, highly recommended for those new to Shakespeare. You get the text of the play and then, line by line on the facing page, there is a modern-day language translation. How does this help newbies? It allows you to immediately grasp what Shakespeare was saying to allow you to actually *think* about the play and even, dare I say, enjoy it. Because the "translations" are line for line on the facing page, it's easy to read the original, glance over at the modern day translation if you need to for clarification, then read the original again to find nuance.All of this ease of reading frees you up to formulate your own thoughts and ideas about the play. So if you're expected to write critical thinking essays and papers about the play, this book makes it much easier to do that. All in all, it will save you an enormous amount time and energy.Note: this is not one of those "cheat" books! It's not going to spoon-feed you ideas about themes, symbols, etc. But it makes it easier for you to come up with all that stuff for yourself. There are books available that talk about characterizations, themes, motifs, etc, but if you need a little help in that department, there's always Google. For what it's worth, if you read the play using this book, I'm willing to bet you won't even need help with all that other stuff....you'll find it in the text itself since you can actually understand what Shakespeare was saying using this translation.
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