Coriolanus: Third Series

Description

This Roman play is one of Shakespeare's last tragedies, best known for its political and military themes. Its hero, Coriolanus, is a proud General who does not hesitate to show his arrogant and outspoken contempt of the Roman rabble. The Tribunes banish him and he raises an army to take his revenge on Rome. He finally concedes to the pleas of his mother to spare the city and leaves only to be publicly killed by his former allies. Peter Holland is a former Director of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon and President of the Shakespeare Association of America. He is a pre-eminent international scholar. His comprehensive introduction and commentary notes open up the language, themes and ideas in this complex yet richly rewarding play for the student and teacher. The play is discussed in its historical and critical contexts and its theatrical history is analysed too.

Peter Holland holds the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies in the Department of Film, Television and Theatre and is Associate Dean for the Arts at the University of Notre Dame. He was formerly Director of the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon and is editor of Shakespeare Survey and co-general editor of the Oxford Shakespeare Topics series.

This is a mighty powerhouse of a work: passionately outward-looking in its engagement with the play's afterlife in theatre, poetry and film ... Holland's style is delightfully engaging and inclusive ... This is a remarkable piece of scholarship, and an indispensable work for anyone wishing to understand Coriolanus better. -- Jane Kingsley-Smith, Roehampton University, UK * Around the Globe * Holland's edition offers an idiosyncratic and entertaining version of Coriolanus that is suited to a play that poses relatively few textual problems, demonstrating that even a play that only exists in one early witness is reproduced differently in each edition, performance and re-reading ... The edition is a triumph of careful work, and testament to the importance of aligning theatrical, linguistic and historical approaches in the careful preparation of an edition. -- Peter Kirwan, UK * Editionen in der Kritik * This is a rich and creatively suggestive Coriolanus edition that does justice to the play as product of a complex social, stage, and literary history and as an equally complex cultural performance text. -- Barbara Correll, Cornell University, USA * Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen * Great introduction - strong on political context and topicality, and great treatment of the new Fiennes movie adaptation. The best modern edition of Coriolanus on the market. -- Matthew Woodcock, University of East Anglia, UK