lou's library

I know what you’re thinking, Shakespeare is bloody intimidating. Yes, he is, but trust me when I tell you his work is also bloody relatable. His plays still resonate today because their themes are universal. They’re essentially about love and friendship, power and deceit, history and destiny. And while his style isn’t exactly as approachable as your modern day romance book, I promise it does get easier once you got the hang of it. And there are lots of great editions of his plays providing context and help with the vocabulary, so don’t you fret! I haven’t read all of Shakespeare’s plays (not even close) but I’m slowly making my way through them and thought I’d share some of my favourites so far. Enjoy!

King Lear

I watched a movie adaptation of this starring Florence Pugh, Emma Thompson and Emily Watson (an iconic trio if ever there was one) as the three sisters and I still haven’t recovered from it. In general, I find watching adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays (be that as actual plays or movies) incredibly helpful to understand the dynamics between the characters better. After all, these plays were written to be performed, not read. King Lear is one of my favourites because of the scope of its themes. It asks so many big questions and as the reader/audience, it’s so frustrating to watch it all go horribly wrong without being able to do anything. No character in this play is flawless, in fact I believe the many flaws of the protagonists are one of the driving forces of the plot. They’re all almost disturbingly human, which makes it all the more devastating a play. Every time I read this I find myself hoping against hope that somehow, this time round they are gonna be fine. A tough contender for my favourite Shakespearean tragedy.

Romeo and Juliet

But we all know that title must go to our favourite star-crossed lovers!! Yes, I know, how basic of me. But what can I say? Romeo and Juliet has everything I want from a cracking tragedy and defies expectations. Romeo is a silly goose unable to think with his brain and Juliet frantically has to try and save the day. Given that she’s a bloody teenager, no wonder she fails! But oh, they’re so in love and it’s all so romantic and terribly, terribly sad. Honestly, I’m here for all of it. I also love how this story is now so deeply ingrained in Western culture that simply everyone knows about it and understands references to it. Recently, I’ve gotten into reading books that adapt the story or add to it (if this sounds interesting to you, go read Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons immediately). It’s such a sprawling universe by now and I love to get lost in it.

The Winter’s Tale

I had no idea what this was about before I read it for a seminar at university, but I really enjoyed this one. There are some unexpected plot twists in this, particularly towards the end (if you know, you know), but I can see past that in comedies (how very gracious of me) and I had such fun reading this! I loved that it’s set in Sicily, because it makes the vibes immaculate and there are so many twists and turns in this one I genuinely had to stay focused the whole way through to understand what was happening (happens to me quite often when reading Shakespeare, to be fair). I also really liked some of the characters, particularly Hermione (I’m just realising something – perhaps whenever there’s a Hermione in a book she automatically is the best character? I mean, Hermione in Harry Potter is unarguably also the best!! Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice. Proof me wrong, someone). And it’s always fun to know that all the drama is going to be resolved in the end, because this is a comedy, after all.

Twelfth Night

Another comedy I enjoyed lots! There’s a bit more disguising and pretending to be someone else going on in this one, which I thought was very fun. I love how everyone is so confused about who they actually love at one point, and how in the end everyone obviously finds just the right person for them. It poses so many questions about identity as well. What does it mean when a woman falls in love with a woman whom she believes to be a man?? In Shakespeare’s day, as well!! The scandal!! So I guess what I enjoy about Twelfth Night is that it’s all fun and games on the surface, but actually pretty profound if you dig a little deeper.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

This is my favourite Shakespeare comedy and it will hold that title forever because we performed this play in drama club in middle school. It was my first ever encounter with Shakespeare (in German, mind you, my English was NOT good enough for Shakespeare in the original back then) and it was the most fun I’ve ever had on stage (that makes it sound like I’m some professional actor when my acting career literally consists of three school plays). This play is just so whimsical and profoundly silly and fun to both perform and watch! There’s not a boring SECOND, I promise you!! So much disguising and horny people chasing each other through woods. Also, a play within the play, to make it meta. What’s not to love?? I saw this performed at the Globe last summer and think about it once a week, it was that good. PERFECTION!!

Okay, I’ll stop rambling now. But please let me know your favourite Shakespeare play if you’ve read any, and if you haven’t, WHY NOT??