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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorRichard III
William Shakespeare · 192 pages
"containing his treacherous plots against his brother Clarence, the pittiefull murther of his innocent nephewes, his tyrannicall usurpation, with the whole course of his detested life and most deserved death" (Subtitle of the 1597 edition.)
Henry VI: Parts I, II and III
William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate, Eric Rasmussen · 428 pages
Richard II
William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine · 130 pages
Written in 1595, "Richard II" occupies a significant place in the Shakespeare canon. It marks the transition from the earlier history plays dominated by civil war and stark power to a more nuanced representation of the political conflicts of England's past where character and politics are inextricably intertwined. Deftly combining history with tragedy, its tale of bad government and usurpation had
The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex/Oedipus at Colonus/Antigone
Sophocles · 272 pages
King John
William Shakespeare, Paul Werstine · 176 pages
Complexities of power and loyalty in King John, a historical play by William Shakespeare. Set against the backdrop of England’s turbulent politics, this gripping narrative explores the reign of King John, who faces internal betrayal and external threats. As he grapples with his own legitimacy and the loyalty of his nobles, the play delves into themes of authority, identity, and human frailty.
Caesar and Cleopatra
George Bernard Shaw · 136 pages
Caesar and Cleopatra satirizes Shakespeare's use of history and comments wryly on the politics of Shaw's own time, but the undertone of melancholy makes it one of his most affecting plays.
The Spanish Tragedy
Thomas Kyd · 138 pages
A revenge play or revenge tragedy. Its plot contains several violent murders and includes as one of its characters a personification of Revenge. Contains the play-within-a-play used to trap a murderer and a ghost intent on vengeance, which became popular motifs in plays that followed.
Amadeus
Peter Shaffer · 128 pages
0riginating at the National Theatre of Great Britain, Amadeus was the recipient of both the Evening Standard Drama Award and the Theatre Critics Award. In the United States, the play won the coveted Tony Award and went on to become a critically acclaimed major motion picture winning eight Oscars, including Best Picture. Now, this extraordinary work about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is avai
The Revenger's Tragedy
Thomas Middleton, Cyril Tourneur · 130 pages
A vivid and often violent portrayal of lust and ambition in an Italian court, the play typifies the satiric tone and cynicism of much Jacobean tragedy. The play fell out of favour at some point before the restoration of the theaters in 1660; however, it experienced a revival in the twentieth century among directors and playgoers who appreciated its affinity with the temper of modern times.
Wolf Hall / Bring Up the Bodies
Hilary Mantel · 265 pages
"Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell novels are the most formidable literary achievements of recent times, both recipients of the Man Booker Prize. Adapted by Mike Poulton, the plays were premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in December 2013, directed by Jeremy Herrin. This edition contains a substantial set of notes by Hilary Mantel on each of the princ
Murder in the Cathedral
T.S. Eliot · 88 pages
A dramatization in free verse and with features derived from ancient and medieval theatre of the killing of Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury under King Henry II. Eliot used the device of a chorus, an ancient Greek invention, to express certain concerns and observations, and the killers take their turn to justify their action. When I read this play as a grammar school student in England, I
Becket
Jean Anouilh · 128 pages
Portrays the conflict of loyalties to church and state as they influenced the lives of two powerful men in English history.
The Lion in Winter
James Goldman · 110 pages
"Insecure siblings fighting for their parents. Attention; bickering spouses who can't stand to be together or apart; adultery and sexual experimentation; even the struggle to balance work and family: These are themes as much at home in our time as they were in the twelfth century. In James Goldman's classic play The Lion in Winter, domestic turmoil rises to an art form. Keenly self-aware and motiv
Salomé
Oscar Wilde · 92 pages
'Salomé' is a short, but bewitching tragedy based on the biblical story of King Herod in the New Testament. Telling a tale of lustful desire and power, the language of the play is saturated and verbose, and the imagery, decadent and lush. The sequences of seduction and passion are consistently offset by the grotesque, most evident in the sudden suicide of the Young Syrian, and the presentation of
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Tom Stoppard · 126 pages
Acclaimed as a modern dramatic masterpiece, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead is the fabulously inventive tale of Hamlet as told from the worm’s-eve view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare’s play. In Tom Stoppard’s best-known work, this Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy finally get a chance to take the lead role, but do so in a world where echoes of
Les Liaisons dangereuses
Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos · 400 pages
Cet ouvrage, ou plutot ce recueil, que le public trouvera peut-etre encore trop volumineux, ne contient pourtant que le plus petit nombre des lettres qui composaient la totalite de la correspondance dont il est extrait. Charge de la mettre en ordre par les personnes a qui elle etait parvenue, et que je savais dans l'intention de la publier, je n'ai demande, pour prix de mes soins, que la permissio
The Oresteia
Aeschylus · 195 pages
The Oresteia -- Agamemnon, Choephori, and The Eumenides -- depicts the downfall of the house of Atreus: after King Agamemnon is murdered by Clytemnestra, their son, Orestes, is commanded by Apollo to avenge the crime by killing his mother, and he does so, bringing on himself the wrath of the Furies and the judgment of Athens. Together, the three plays are one of the major achievements of Greek ant