Books with title All the Tales from Shakespeare

This retelling in prose of twenty of Shakespeare's thirty-seven plays was originally published just for children. Keeping Shakespeare's own words whenever possible but making the plots and language easily understandable, this very listenable collection has entertained and informed generations of adults as well. With such classic stories as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, Hamlet, and more, Shakespeare's most memorable characters come to life anew as magicians and fairies, fools and kings weave their magic, mischief, and madness. The list of 20 plays includes: The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Winter's Tale, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice, Cymbeline, King Lear, Macbeth, All's Well That End Well, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night (or-What You Will), Timon of Athens, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet (Prince of Denmark), Othello, Pericles (Prince of Tyre.)

This collection of stories, adapted from Shakespeare’s plays, was written by siblings Charles and Mary Lamb in 1807—Mary wrote the comedies, while Charles did the tragedies. They simplified the plays, both in language and in plot, such that children could read, understand, and appreciate the Bard’s classics. This digital edition also includes artwork by Danielle Parado.

This is a reproduction of the original artefact. Generally these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way the author intended. Since the original versions are generally quite old, there may occasionally be certain imperfections within these reproductions. We're happy to make these classics available again for future generations to enjoy!

The following Tales are meant to be submitted to the young reader as an introduction to the study of Shakespeare, for which purpose his words are used whenever it seemed possible to bring them in; and in whatever has been added to give them the regular form of a connected story, diligent care has been taken to select such words as might least interrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which he wrote: therefore, words introduced into our language since his time have been as far as possible avoided. In those tales which have been taken from the Tragedies, the young readers will perceive, when they come to see the source from which these stories are derived, that Shakespeare’s own words, with little alteration, recur very frequently in the narrative as well as in the dialogue; but in those made from the Comedies the writers found themselves scarcely ever able to turn his words into the narrative form: therefore it is feared that, in them, dialogue has been made use of too frequently for young people not accustomed to the dramatic form of writing. But this fault, if it be a fault, has been caused by an earnest wish to give as much of Shakespeare’s own words as possible: and if the "He said," and "She said," the question and the reply, should sometimes seem tedious to their young ears, they must pardon it, because it was the only way in which could be given to them a few hints and little foretastes of the great pleasure which awaits them in their elder years, when they come to the rich treasures from which these small and valueless coins are extracted; pretending to no other merit than as faint and imperfect stamps of Shakespeare’s matchless image. Faint and imperfect images they must be called, because the beauty of his language is too frequently destroyed by the necessity of changing many of his excellent words into words far less expressive of his true sense, to make it read something like prose; and even in some few places, where his blank verse is given unaltered, as hoping from its simple plainness to cheat the young readers into the belief that they are reading prose, yet still his language being transplanted from its own natural soil and wild poetic garden, it must want much of its native beauty.

This work gives a perfect introduction to Shakespeare's greatest plays. Charles and Mary Lamb bring vividly alive all the power of "Hamlet" and "Othello", the fun of "As You Like It", and the drama of "Pericles". Conveying all of Shakespeare's wit, wisdom and humanity, and never losing the feel of his beautiful language, these tales are classic literature in their own right.

The plays of Shakespeare can be difficult for younger audiences, however in this collection of retellings they can enjoy the story while still be exposed to some beautiful language. It’s a perfect introduction to the world of Romeo and Juliet, Shylock, Ophelia, Puck, and many other timeless characters.This edition has been rearranged to match the Ambleside Online reading order and contains images from three different printings to help the student connect with the tales even more.