Description
In 2016, the world celebrated William Shakespeare’s four-hundredth anniversary. Students studied his plays, and theatres across the world put on productions, but in all the revelry, little notice was taken of the Bard’s poetry. Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets are considered among the greatest poetry of the English language and, indeed, considered by some to be the genesis of modern love poetry. These poems deserve their day in the sun!
We’re publishing an edition of The Shakespeare Sonnets, laid out by our master typographers, printed letterpress on the finest stock, and hand-bound. In Shakespeare’s time, publishing houses turned to their audiences to bring beautiful editions to life. We want to do just that: so Kickstarter, we need your help!
In his original introduction to our edition, Shakespeare scholar and Harvard University president Neil Rudenstine writes, “Shakespeare’s Sonnets are the greatest single work of lyric poetry in English, and many individual poems are as powerful as those in any language. Yet they are scarcely read, except for the few that are regularly anthologized. This is not necessarily surprising. To be confronted confronted with 154 sonnets is a considerable challenge, especially if the poems are as complex as any work written by Shakespeare. The effort, however, is more than simply rewarding, because the sequence consists of love poetry that is passionate, intimate, daring, searing and lyrical as any that we may ever encounter.”
Indeed, this is a volume that one simply must have.
