- Paperback: 696 pages
- Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; 1 edition (Nov 1 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0674637127
- ISBN-13: 978-0674637122
- Product Dimensions: 25.4 x 16.6 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 998 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #324,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Helen Vendler's The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets is an incredible work of analysis, criticism--and obsession. In giving these complex poems a close reading, Vendler attempts to enter the mind and esthetics of her subject, resulting in an amazing and comprehensive commentary on the sonnets. But this is not a book for Shakespeare neophytes. Vendler assumes a degree of familiarity with Shakespeare's sonnets, and she writes in the language of literary criticism: "...the couplet--placed not as resolution but as coda--can then stand in any number of relations ... to the preceding argument."). However, for those readers who have a basic knowledge of Renaissance poetics, and Shakespeare's sonnets in particular, The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets is a gold mine of fascinating interpretation. What's more, though Vendler draws on the work of many commentators who went before her, in the end it is Shakespeare's own meaning, and not the interpretation of modern critics, that she reads for. A nice bonus is the CD inside the back cover of the book, which contains the author's reading of 65 sonnets.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
A respected literary critic and Harvard academic, Vendler has created an exhaustive and wonderful work on Shakespeare's sonnets. Most of the many studies of the sonnets focus on the dozen or so most famous ones. Works that do study the complete group usually offer detailed, scholarly annotations, such as G. Blakemore Evans's highly recommended The Sonnets (Cambridge Univ., 1996). Vendler examines the lyrics as works of poetry, presenting all 154 sonnets, first in the 1609 Quarto version and then in Vendler's modernized text. Close readings relate the meaning of the language and the structure of individual sonnets and link them to other sonnets by theme or unit. The work is accompanied by a CD of Vendler reading 65 of the poems. A lengthy, useful introduction; a bibliography; an index of first lines; and two appendixes (of keywords and defective key words) complete the work. This study will become a standard work and is essential for all academic libraries.?Neal Wyatt, formerly with Mary Washington Coll. Lib., Richmond, Va.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A unique contribution to appreciation of The Sonnets,
By richardpinneau.com (Colorado) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (Paperback)
Professor Vendler's unique gift here to all readers is not an attempt to produce the be all and end all of sonnet studies and should not be evaluated against such a (an impossible) standard. More significantly, it has blessed us with a thorough exploration of the poetic process to which Shakespeare dedicated his passion and genius -- an exploration by a foremost scholar of poetry, an extremely respectful reader of these intimate versifications, and a scholar-student who has been immersed in The Sonnets' bounty for a lifetime.As the author acknowledges, this volume is meant to be absorbed gradually over an extended time and with an edition such as Stephen Booth's thoroughly annotated version at one's side. This is not a deficit in this work but an appropriate and practical strategy that keeps this volume a thoughtful and manageable edition to enjoy, digest, and redigest many times. It will contribute immensely to even the most advanced student's appreciation of these works and their creator's mind.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well-intended, impressive, but to what end?,
By
This review is from: The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (Paperback)
At the outset Vendler claims that any comment on Shakespeare's sonnets that could be applied to a prose paraphrasis is not worthy of the name "literary criticism." From this position she proceeds to give a jargon-free, yet exceedingly dense and technical, linguistic analysis of the sonnets. Her readings are informed by post-structuralist as well as formalist criticism. The latter critics, however, always sought to demonstrate how meaning is a function of form, whereas Vender's commitment to structuralist and deconstructionist positions about language forbids her to talk about the "meaning," or content, of the poems.And therein lies the problem. What if a film critic elected to talk about a favorite auteur with no reference to the material that could be gleaned by reading the script as opposed to viewing the film text? Imagine the result--an abundance of observations about shots and countershots, angles and focal distances, camera set-ups and lighting with no reference to anything but to the patterns and symmetry created by the combination of these signifiers. Without acknowledging the "metaphoric," "tropic" role of "content," a tool that enables us to talk about language in ways that make "sense," the critic is in danger of producing a study of language that is undermined by its own failure to accept the semantic and rhetorical uses of language. I'm cheered by a work of criticism that attempts to rescue art from the "sociological" and "political." But Vendler's book fails to rescue Shakespeare from tedium and irrelevancy. While the book is useful for occasional "dipping" (provided the reader knows both Shakespeare and post-structuralist theory), it could do more harm than good if the intent is to help younger and less-informed readers bring the sonnets to life.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vendler's brilliance.,
By
This review is from: The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (Paperback)
Helen Vendler's book on Shakespeare's sonnets is brilliant. Her insights are amazing and the linkages she points out are very helpful. This book is a must-have for any Shakespearian student, and can truly be enjoyed by the non-scholar too. I am just so pleased to have added this volume to my library. Keith Crossland.
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