Susannah Carson

A erudite collection of essays considers Jane Austen's lasting influence and popularity in literary circles as well as her work's reflection of humanity, in an anthology that includes pieces by such writers as Virginia Woolf, C. S. Lewis and E. M. Forster.

33 Great Writers on why We Read Jane Austen

A Truth Universally Acknowledged

Why Shakespeare? What explains our continued fascination with his poems and plays? In Living with Shakespeare, Susannah Carson invites forty actors, directors, scholars, and writers to reflect on why his work is still such a vital part of our culture. We hear from James Earl Jones on reclaiming Othello as a tragic hero, Julie Taymor on turning Prospero into Prospera, Camille Paglia on teaching the plays to actors, F. Murray Abraham on gaining an audience’s sympathy for Shylock, Sir Ben Kingsley on communicating Shakespeare’s ideas through performance, Germaine Greer on the playwright’s home life, Dame Harriet Walter on the complexity of his heroines, Brian Cox on social conflict in his time and ours, Jane Smiley on transposing King Lear to Iowa in A Thousand Acres, and Sir Antony Sher on feeling at home in Shakespeare’s language. Together these essays provide a fresh appreciation of Shakespeare’s works as a living legacy to be read, seen, performed, adapted, revised, wrestled with, and embraced by creative professionals and lay enthusiasts alike. F. Murray Abraham ● Isabel Allende ● Cicely Berry ● Eve Best ● Eleanor Brown ● Stanley Cavell ● Karin Coonrod ● Brian Cox ● Peter David ● Margaret Drabble ● Dominic Dromgoole ● David Farr ● Fiasco Theater ● Ralph Fiennes ● Angus Fletcher ● James Franco ● Alan Gordon ● Germaine Greer ● Barry John ● James Earl Jones ● Sir Ben Kingsley ● Maxine Hong Kingston ● Rory Kinnear ● J. D. McClatchy ● Conor McCreery ● Tobias Menzies ● Joyce Carol Oates ● Camille Paglia ● James Prosek ● Richard Scholar ● Sir Antony Sher ● Jane Smiley ● Matt Sturges ● Julie Taymor ● Eamonn Walker ● Dame Harriet Walter ● Bill Willingham ● Jess Winfield

Essays by Writers, Actors, and Directors

Living with Shakespeare

Why Shakespeare? It’s been 400 years since his death and yet we continue to find inspiration, revelation, solace, and entertainment in his poems and plays. In this original collection, Susannah Carson invites 38 actors, directors, scholars, and writers to share their own personal connections with Shakespeare and explore how he came to shape our world so completely. Along the way, we reminisce on a childhood spent constructing makeshift matchstick theatres with Isabel Allende, grapple with Coriolanus for a modern audience alongside Ralph Fiennes, hear from James Earl Jones on reclaiming Othello as a tragic hero, share in Julie Taymor’s transformation of Prospero into Prospera, join Sir Ben Kingsley on his mission to keep Shakespeare’s ideas alive for all generations through performance, and muse with Brian Cox on social conflict in Shakespeare’s time and in ours. Together they offer fresh insight into Shakespeare’s work as a living legacy to be read, seen, performed, adapted, revised, wrestled with, and loved.

Susannah Carson

About

Books

Join the club