Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Shakespeares schönste Geschichten
Für wen es gedacht ist
For young readers, parents and teachers who want a gentle first meeting with Shakespeare, and anyone who enjoys lovers, magicians, ghosts and disguises or wants the plots straight before seeing a play.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare is a book of Shakespeare's plays retold as short prose tales for young readers. It was written by E. Nesbit and published in 1907. Nesbit was a British author best known for her children's books. She wanted to give young readers the plots, people and feelings of the plays before they met the full text on the stage or in a classroom.
Each tale takes one play and turns it into a story you can follow in a single sitting. There are lovers, magicians, ghosts, kings and clowns. There are also storms, feuds, disguises and a few dark deeds. Nesbit keeps the shape of each plot, and she keeps some of Shakespeare's own words along the way. If you have always found the plays a little forbidding, this is a friendly door. Let us begin with how the book is built and what Nesbit does to make old plays easy to hear.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1Nesbit turns plays into talesFree
- 2Magic rules the island and the wood
- 3Comedies run on disguise and scheming
- 4Romeo and Juliet shows love in a feud
- 5The tragedies bring ghosts, crowns and storms
- 6What the stories share and how they sound
Punkt 1 von 6
Nesbit turns plays into tales
Shakespeare wrote his plays to be spoken and watched on a stage. A child who opens one cold may meet long speeches, old words and many characters at once. Nesbit solves this by writing each play as a story told in plain prose, with a narrator who guides you from scene to scene.
She was not the first to try this. Charles and Mary Lamb had made their own Tales from Shakespeare in the early 1800s, and Nesbit wrote in that tradition for a new generation. Her voice is lively and warm. She speaks to the young reader as someone clever enough to follow a real story.
She also decides what to keep. The main plot stays, the chief people stay, and long side threads are trimmed. Where a line of Shakespeare says something so well that it cannot be bettered, she lets it stand inside her own sentences.
The result is a book of separate tales that can be read in any order. Each one gives you a clear map of a play. That map is useful whether you go on to read the text, see a performance, or simply want to know what people mean when they mention Hamlet or Portia.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Who’s who
- Prospero
- Prospero is a magician and former duke who lives on an island with his daughter Miranda.
- Puck
- Puck is Oberon's mischievous fairy servant, causing comic trouble among the lovers in a wood near Athens.
- Portia
- Portia is a wealthy, clever woman of Belmont whose sense of justice shapes her dealings with others.
- Viola
- Viola is a shipwrecked young woman who disguises herself as a boy to work in a duke's household.
- Juliet
- Juliet is a young Capulet of Verona who loves Romeo despite the feud between their families.
- Hamlet
- Hamlet is a Danish prince whose father's ghost brings troubling news and demands a response from him.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 48,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 3 h 15 min
- Listening time5 h 20 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about Shakespeares schönste Geschichten
What is Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare about?
It is a book of Shakespeare's plays retold as short prose stories for young readers. Each tale follows the main plot and people of one play, from comedies such as Twelfth Night to tragedies such as Hamlet and Macbeth.
Who wrote Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare?
E. Nesbit wrote the retellings, which were published in 1907. The plots, characters and many phrases come from William Shakespeare's plays, but the prose telling is Nesbit's own work.
Is Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare hard to read?
No. Nesbit uses clear, plain prose and a steady storytelling voice, so the plots are easy to follow. It is written for young readers and works well read aloud.
Is this the same as reading Shakespeare's plays?
No. The book gives you the stories and characters, not the full poetry and drama of the plays. It is a good first step that makes the originals easier to enjoy later.
Is Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare worth reading for adults?
Yes, if you want a quick, clear refresher on the plots before seeing a play. Adults who want Shakespeare's full language and verse will need the original texts too.