The Genius of the Early English Theater
by Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman (Editor), William Burto
Mentor Genius of the Theater Series
On This Page
Description
Presents the unabridged texts of seven medieval and Renaissance English dramas, and includes introductory material, biographical notes, and a series of critical essays.Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Genius might be a bit...strong...for a number of these plays. They are standard issue morality plays from the early English theatre, and many of them are rather tedious. There are some truly great works in here, such as MacBeth and Marlowe's Faust. Jonson's Volpone completes the trifecta of worthy plays. I'm afraid Milton's Samson Agonistes left me cold. It probably reads better as poetry than as a play, but even then, it was too repetitive, and way too much logorrhea.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
49+ Works 4,649 Members
Sylvan Saul Barnet was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 11, 1926. During World War II, he served in the Army for two years. He received a bachelor's degree in English from New York University in 1948 and a master's degree in 1950 and a doctorate in 1954 from Harvard University. For the next three decades, he taught freshman writing and show more literature at Tufts University. He wrote or edited numerous textbooks including An Introduction to Literature, A Short Guide to Writing About Literature, A Short Guide to Writing About Art, The Study of Literature: A Handbook of Critical Essays and Terms, and Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing: A Brief Guide to Argument. In the early 1960s, he decided that his students at Tufts University needed an edition of Shakespeare with each play in a separate volume including an introduction and study aids. He presented the idea to editors at the New American Library. The editors approved of the idea and Barnet became the general editor of the Signet Classic Shakespeare series. He was the co-author with William Burto of Zen Ink Paintings, which was published in 1982. He died of cancer on January 11, 2016 at the age of 89. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
11+ Works 1,264 Members
All Editions
Series
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1962
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 180
- Popularity
- 181,512
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.17)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 9
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 6
