Macbeth

By William Shakespeare, David Bevington and David Scott Kastan

No dramatist has ever seen with more frightening clarity into the heart and mind of a murderer than has Shakespeare in this compelling tragedy of evil. Taunted into asserting his “masculinity” by his ambitious wife, Macbeth chooses to embrace the Weird Sisters’ prophecy and kill his king–and thus, seals his own doom. Fast-moving and bloody, this drama has the extraordinary energy that derives from a brilliant plot replete with treachery and murder, and from Shakespeare’s compelling portrait of the ultimate battle between a mind and its own guilt.

Each Edition Includes:
• Comprehensive explanatory notes
• Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship
• Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English
• Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories
• An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9780307807991

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright the world has seen. He produced an astonishing amount of work; 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 5 poems. He died on 23rd April 1616, aged 52, and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.

Reviews for Macbeth

[jcarroll12 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a fabulous retelling of this drama! The author does a fantastic job including all major plot points in clear and descriptive narration. I particularly love the conversation between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as they plan the murder - the plan is never actually stated, so readers must use inference. Beautiful integration of famous lines from the play. The time sequence is also clearer in this version than the play - readers understand Macbeth's reign over several months and understand what Malcolm is doing in England before he returns to Scotland.

[epenton-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a wonderful retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. This version mixes clear language of the present day with actual quotes from the play itself, allowing readers who may not be accustomed to the language of Shakespeare the chance to develop their understanding of it. I love the drawings in this book--they reinforce the dark eeriness that is a major theme of the tale itself. This book could really help students get a feel for the play. I think that the pictures, especially, might spark the interest of a young reader, especially one who enjoys scary stories. Great book!

[mdaniel54 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After reading Bruce Coville's and Dennis Nolan's adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Ann Beneduce and Gennady Spirin's The Tempest, the shift to the more dire tonality of Coville and Gary Kelley's Macbeth was quite jarring. The illustrations of those two books were so fantastic, in both quality and content, that the strikingly serious panels here were difficult to get used to. Ultimately, though, the shift proved the right decision, in my opinion. Macbeth deserves a more grim disposition than most of Shakespeare's works and Coville, as he did with others, recognized the shift and changed pace capably.The language used here is similar to Coville's other Shakespeare adaptations. He masterfully simplifies the goings-on of the story, while not babying the reader, an important negotiation while writing an adaptation of this nature.

[ckarmstr1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Macbeth has become a curse in the theater community. If you say his name three times in a row, your performance is doomed. Knowing this, I wanted to find out what Macbeth was all about. Coville's adaptation of the Shakespearan tale helped me discover this. Macbeth fights with himself over heroism and evil. The witches add a fantasy element. I think this book can be enjoyed by any student grades seven and up!