William Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies

By: Peter Saccio, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Peter Saccio

Shakespeare's plays - whether a comedy like A Midsummer Night's Dream, a history like Henry IV, or a tragedy like Hamlet - are treasure troves of insight into our very humanity. These 36 lectures introduce you to Shakespeare's major plays from each of these three genres and explain the achievement that makes him the leading playwright in Western civilization.

As you'll see, the key to Shakespeare's massive achievement is his "abundance," according to Professor Saccio; not only in the number and length of his plays but in the variety of experiences they depict, the multitude of actions and characters they contain, the combination of public and private life they deal with, and the richness of feelings they express.

All the major plays are here for you to dive into, explore, and enjoy: The Taming of the Shrew (with its realistic look at bourgeois marriage customs), Measure for Measure (which shows Shakespeare breaking out of comic conventions), Richard III (the source of one of the Bard's most entertaining and frightening historical villains), Henry V (which raises questions about the morality of warfare), Macbeth (with its piercing look into the consciousness of a man hungry for power), and more. As the richness of each of these and other plays is revealed, you'll also touch upon the far-ranging philosophical and theological implications behind them. By the last lecture, you'll have a true understanding of why these comedies, histories, and tragedies endure even to this very day.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©1999 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1999 The Great Courses

learned Shakespeare analysis

The Prof knows his stuff.
A complete analysis of the comedies, histories and Tragedies. If you like Shakespeare you will love this book.

Bravo

Peter is magnificent. His passion for Shakespeare permeates the entire lecture series. Very well done!

Shakespeare Explained

This is a highly engrossing and well performed account of Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies in that order. A knowledge of the Plays is assumed, however this audio can be enjoyed without it. Professor Saccio goes into great detail of the historical background of the plays which highlights and compliments the plots. Being an actor/Director himself, he dramatizes many of the most critical soliloquies and speeches of each play. This is one of my favorite audios and if you love Shakespeare, as I do, it is a very welcome and highly enlightening compliment. Kudos to Professor Saccio!

Superb

Perhaps the best course I have heard so far. Excellent in every way. Peter Saccio is brilliant.

Excellent

Professor Saccio’s interpretation & readings of Shakespeare make me want to read all the plays right now. This was an interesting & stimulating course.

If music be the food of love, play on

Having never been a truly great fan of Shakespeare i approached this set of lectures with more then a great deal of trepidation, sometimes expanding your horizons can be more like trying to look at the midday sun rather then watching a cool sunset.

I was incredibly surprised how Prof Saccio made me fall in love with Shakespeare...not just my personal favourites like Twelfth Night but the histories the tragedies as well. The themes discussed in the lectures coupled with the performance of Saccio makes for an incredibly enjoyable, informative and thoroughly entertaining listen.

Whether you be a fan of Shakespeare or a novice you wont be disappointed.

Brilliant work by Peter Saccio

If you love Shakespeare you'll love these wonderful lectures. Prof. Saccio does a tremendous job explaining and interpreting the plays. The fact that he's an accomplished Shakespearean actor himself is an extra bonus for the listener. His readings from the scripts are a joy to hear. Highly recommended.

Excellent.

Very entertaining and insightful. His delivery is very easy to listen. I’ll definitely be going back to this as I work through some of the plays.

Meaningfully interpreted

Only started this coursework. Clarifying and referencing within is good. I should share more. MyLearning in progress!

Introduction to Everything Shakespeare.

This course requires additional work, reading and also the need to listen to it more than once.I got the professors book Shakespeare's English Kings and also 3 volumes of cliff notes along with a corpus of all of Shakespeare's work. In addition, I bought Saccio's 2nd course Words and Action to work into my rotation over the next year...and there's a particular reason I got these courses. It's not my love of Shakespeare. I have a practical reason to be taking this course

Even after this course, I still don't like Shakespeare, however, I am studying script writing and professional writers reverse engineer Shakespeare into their scripts all the time. Even in my step outline for my novel and screenplays, I do have conflicts reminiscent of the English playwright's work. Whatever it is that attracts people to his work, I will never know but as far as history and the evolution of the written word, I do see the historical significance in the development of the English Language...so I forced myself to listen to this course and absorb what I could the first time around before going back to study more closely.

This professor really knows what he's doing. He reminds me of my HS English teacher my senior year. Saccio introduced me to a Shakespeare play I never heard of and is not in the three major volumes of cliffnotes or in the book I bought that was supposed to contain ALL of Shakespeare's work...Troilus & Cressida...and it gave me an idea to put one of the scenes of that play into an episode/chapter in my 2 novels I'm writing while I write two season of scripts that go with the books. I got my work cut out for me but luckily I found this professor and his courses, putting me on the right track.

If you are going to college for English, I would suggest listening to this course to have a leg up on everyone else in class and that way your professor will know you did extra work and your grades will reflect it. This is your best opportunity to work on your own and the courses are on sale right now. Definitely worth ten bucks.