Shakespeare Study Programs: The Comedies

Porter, Charlotte Endymion, 1859-1942Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 167K words
Chapters: 17

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Shakespeare Study Programs; The Comedies by Clarke and PorterAuthor: Porter, Charlotte Endymion, 1859-1942,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jan 15, 2005

Editor's review

This book is a study guide to Shakespeare's comedies co-written by Charlotte Endymion Porter and Clark, belonging to the early "study program" tradition of guided reading: around comedies such as As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, it provides act-by-act and scene-by-scene reading steps, character relationship summaries, and discussion questions, helping readers turn "reading the play" into "doing the coursework." Its value lies not in cutting-edge scholarly views but in showing how Anglo-American classrooms over a century ago systematically trained close reading: first clarifying the plot lines, then savoring the language and puns, and finally settling on character and moral issues. For today's Chinese readers, it is both a primary source for understanding the reception and teaching history of Shakespeare's plays and an imitable framework for slow reading. The text is in English and not long, making it suitable as an auxiliary handbook for close reading of Shakespeare's comedies, used alongside the original plays; it is more effective at cultivating the habit of questioning scene by scene than reading through a collection of criticism.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-language readers currently doing close reading of Shakespeare's comedies who need scene-by-scene discussion questions and a close-reading framework
Students of English and American literature who want to understand early Shakespeare teaching and the form of study programs
Self-learners with good English reading ability who wish to train play analysis through slow reading

Not a good fit for

Beginner readers of Shakespeare who would find it fragmentary before having read the original plays
Readers expecting modern critical theory, feminist, or performance studies perspectives
Readers who struggle with English and need sentence-by-sentence Chinese explanation

Reading tips

Read the corresponding comedy in full first, then answer the act-by-act, scene-by-scene questions in the book one by one, avoiding looking at conclusions first.
Keep a notebook and record one note each on character motivation and language puns per scene, then review and organize after finishing the whole play.
You can form a group and discuss one play per week in the "study program" format, using the book's questions as a discussion outline.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for reading Shakespeare with zero background?

Not very. The book assumes readers have read or are reading the original plays, and the discussion questions go directly into plot and character without plot summaries or background铺垫. Readers with zero background should first read an annotated original play or a Chinese introduction, then use this as a close-reading workbook.

Are the views in the book outdated?

As study-program material from over a century ago, its moral judgments and teaching methods bear the marks of their time and should not be taken as contemporary authoritative conclusions. However, its scene-by-scene questions and close-reading path still have practical value; it is best regarded as material on teaching history and a reference for reading methods rather than the only interpretation.

How difficult is the English, and what level is needed?

The original is in English, aimed at student readers of the time; the sentences are not very difficult, but they involve Shakespearean character names and plot terminology. University-level English reading ability and reading alongside the original plays are sufficient; for unfamiliar play titles and characters, consult the corresponding chapters in a Chinese translation first.

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About the author

Porter, Charlotte Endymion, 1859-1942 Author

Charlotte Endymion Porter (1859-1942) was an Anglo-American literary researcher and editor active from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, though details of her life remain relatively limited in publicly available sources. One work by her is held in this collection, Shakespeare Study Programs: The Comedies, which suggests that her writing and editorial work centered on the study and teaching of Shakespeare's plays. The book approaches Shakespeare's comedies through a program of study, designed for self-study, reading-group discussion, and classroom use, and reflects a practical style that emphasizes close reading of the text and proceeds topic by topic. Such editorial work translated scholarly Shakespeare studies into learning materials accessible to general readers, giving it a certain significance in the literary popularization and reading education of its time and leaving later generations a reference for understanding how Shakespeare was taught in that era.