Customer Reviews
All description, no analysis - By: Roman Clodia, 30 Dec 2008 
I was looking forward to reading this book after the glowing reviews here but am sadly disappointed. I don't like dismissing a scholar as distinguished as Kermode but I'm afraid I found this book bland, unilluminating & undistinguished. Yes, Kermode is himself enthralled by Shakespeare & that undiminished enthusiasm certainly comes over. However the book itself never seems, to me, to really *engage* with the plays themselves. Too many of these essays (and Hamlet is a good example) re-tell the plot, albeit from the view of the language used, but they don't offer interpretations or readings of the plays. Indeed, Kermode dismisses the way other scholars have interpreted Shakespeare & deliberately eschews this approach. I wouldn't, of course, expect a single definitive reading of texts which are so deliberately multiplicitous, but I would have been interested to read how, for example, Kermode interprets Hamlet. But he doesn't, at leastin this book. And even his reflections on the language don't discuss the prevalence of imagery that underpins the plot-line.
Literary scholars from school age are always taught to analyse rather than describe: sadly this book only does the latter. I appreciate that the intersted amateur or general reader might not want the depth of a scholarly work, but people like James Shapiro or Jonathan Bates are far more provocative, stimulating & enlightening than this while still being accessible.
The best book about Shakespeare's plays - By: James F. Graham, 16 Feb 2008 
This is easily the finest, most intelligent, most helpful, most gripping book about Shakespeare's plays that I have ever read. Everyone who sees or reads any of Shakespeare's later & greater dramas should read the relevant chapter of this book either immediately before or afterwards: their enjoyment & appreciation of these plays can only be massively increased. Packed with insights & beautifully written. Trenchant, scholarly & deeply intelligent yet entirely accessible. A masterpiece.
A wonderful book that I hope to read many times - By: , 14 Apr 2001 I think that the true mark of an expert is one who can get his point across to a non professional audience - & Frank Kermode is an expert.
This book demonstrates a level of learning & understanding that few can match, & if I were to try to sum this book upin one word it would be - glorious
A magnificently erudite, readable study - By: , 27 Jun 2000 If you never thought that Shakespeare criticism could be compulsive reading, then think again. Frank Kermode's book is a masterpiece that lives up to the justified reputation of his other works. In the wake of Harold Bloom's atrocious rubbish, it is bracing to read a study that is enriching, sensible & rootedin the reality of Shakespeare's words, rather than abstract musings & supposition. Kermode's book really does enhance appreciation & enjoyment of Shakespeare's plays, by reminding us of what it is that makes them peerless - their language & the unparalleled mastery that Shakespeare demonstratesin his technique.
