View source for Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare

{{Short description|1970 book by Isaac Asimov}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare
| image         = Isaac Asimov - Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying the Works of Shakespeare.jpeg
| caption       = Cover of the first edition
| author        = [[Isaac Asimov]]
| illustrator   = [[Rafael Palacios (artist)|Rafael Palacios]]
| cover_artist  =
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        =
| subject       = [[William Shakespeare]] 
| publisher     = [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]]
| release_date  = 1970
| media_type    = Print ([[hardcover]])
| pages         = 843
| isbn          =  978-0-517-26825-4
| oclc= 4498736
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   =
}}
'''''Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare''''' (1970) by [[Isaac Asimov]] is a two-volume guide to the works of the celebrated English writer [[William Shakespeare]]. The numerous maps were drafted by the artist [[Rafael Palacios (artist)|Rafael Palacios]].

==Structure==
The work gives a short guide to every [[Shakespeare]] play, as well as two epic poems. Asimov organizes the plays not in the usual way – as [[Shakespearean tragedy|tragedies]], [[Shakespearean comedy|comedies]], and [[Shakespearean history|histories]] – but regionally, as follows:
* Greek
* Roman
* Italian
* English

The last two categories are treated broadly; "Italian" applies to neighbouring countries, and both ''[[Hamlet]]'' and ''[[Macbeth]]'' are listed with "The English Plays". Asimov gives a detailed justification for doing this.

Within each category, the plays are arranged according to internal (historical) chronology, making allowance for the several not based on actual events. Asimov notes how much is real history, and describes who the historical people were, where applicable. He traces those characters who appear in more than one play, and provides maps to explain key geographical elements.

==Asimov’s categories==

{{Main|Shakespeare's plays}}

It being "the most straightforwardly mythological" and tracing "farthest backward (if only dimly so) in history," Asimov includes in his regional categorisation, beginning with the "Greek", Shakespeare’s first narrative poem, ''Venus and Adonis'' (1593). He also includes Shakespeare’s second narrative poem, ''The Rape of Lucrece'' (1594), amongst the "Roman", it dealing with "the earliest event, the [[Overthrow of the Roman monarchy|legendary fall of the Roman monarchy in 509 B.C.]]". More precise [[Setting (narrative)|settings]] are indicated in [[Subscript and superscript|superscript]] and [[Bracket#Parentheses_or_round_brackets|parentheses]].

{{col-begin}}
{{col-1-of-4}}

===Greek===

# ''[[Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare poem)|Venus and Adonis]]''
# ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]''
# ''[[The Two Noble Kinsmen]]''
# ''[[Troilus and Cressida]]''<sup>([[Troy]])</sup>
# ''[[Timon of Athens]]''
# ''[[The Winter's Tale]]''<sup>([[The Winter's Tale#The_seacoast_of_Bohemia|"Sicily and Bohemia"]])</sup>
# ''[[The Comedy of Errors]]''<sup>([[Ephesus]])</sup>
# ''[[Pericles, Prince of Tyre]]'' <sup>(Multiple locations including [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]])</sup>

{{col-2-of-4}}

===Roman===

# ''[[The Rape of Lucrece]]''
# ''[[Coriolanus]]''
# ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]''
# ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]''<sup>(Rome and [[Alexandria]])</sup>
# ''[[Titus Andronicus]]''

{{col-3-of-4}}

===Italian===

# ''[[Love's Labour's Lost]]''<sup>([[Kingdom of Navarre|Navarre]])</sup>
# ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]''
# ''[[The Two Gentlemen of Verona]]''
# ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]''
# ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]''
# ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]''
# ''[[As You Like It]]''<sup>(France)</sup>
# ''[[Twelfth Night]]''<sup>([[Illyria]])</sup>
# ''[[All's Well That Ends Well]]''<sup>(Italy ''and France'')</sup>
# ''[[Othello]]''<sup>(Venice ''and Cyprus'')</sup>
# ''[[Measure for Measure]]''<sup>(Austria)</sup>
# ''[[The Tempest]]''

{{col-4-of-4}}

===English===

# ''[[King Lear]]''
# ''[[Cymbeline]]'' <sup>([[Prehistoric Britain|Pre-Roman Britain]] ''and Rome'')</sup>
# ''[[Hamlet]]''<sup>(Denmark)</sup>
# ''[[Macbeth]]''<sup>(Scotland)</sup>
# ''[[King John (play)|King John]]''
# ''[[Henry IV, Part 1]]''
# ''[[Henry IV, Part 2]]''
# ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]]''
# ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]''
# ''[[Henry VI, Part 1]]''
# ''[[Henry VI, Part 2]]''
# ''[[Henry VI, Part 3]]''
# ''[[Richard III (play)|Richard III]]''
# ''[[Henry VIII (play)|Henry VIII]]''
{{col-end}}

==Reception==
Asimov's approach is not popular with some readers' prejudices:

{{quote|Fans of Asimov's science-fiction generally have little taste for door-stopper books such as ''Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare'' or ''The Shaping of England,'' and specialists are never happy to see clever outsiders make hay in their fields.|Peter Temes{{sfn|Temes|2002}}}}

==Publication data==
''Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare'', vols I and II (1970), {{ISBN|978-0-517-26825-4}}. Gramercy Books.

Nearly 800 pages long plus an index, the work was originally published in two volumes; Greek, Roman and Italian in the first and 'The English Plays' in the second.

Asimov dedicated the work to his late father, Judah Asimov.

==See also==
* [[Isaac Asimov bibliography (chronological)]]

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|15em}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1970 |title=Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare, Volume One: The Greek, Roman, and Italian Plays |url= https://allshakespeareproject.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/asimovs-guide-to-shakespeare-volume-i-the-greek-roman-and-italian-plays.pdf |publisher= [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]]|isbn=978-0-517-26825-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1970 |title=Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare, Volume Two: The English Plays |url= https://allshakespeareproject.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/asimovs-guide-to-shakespeare-volume-ii-the-english-plays1.pdf |publisher= [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]]|isbn=978-0-517-26825-4}}
* {{cite journal
  |title = Shakespeare: Annotated World Bibliography for 1979: Reference Works
  |last1 = Meserole
  |first1 = Harrison T.
  |last2 = Smith
  |first2 = John B.
  |journal = [[Shakespeare Quarterly]]
  |publisher = [[Folger Shakespeare Library]]
  |issn = 0037-3222
  |eissn = 1538-3555
  |volume = 31
  |issue = 4
  |year = 1980
  |pages = 492–93
  |jstor = 2869590
  |doi = 10.1093/sq/31.4.468
 }}
* {{cite web
  |last = Temes
  |first = Peter
  |title = 100 Words a Minute, But Finally Stopped by AIDS
  |url = http://www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.03.15/arts2.html
  |website = Forward
  |access-date = 25 March 2017
  |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20030307041051/http://www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.03.15/arts2.html
  |archive-date = 7 March 2003
  |date = 15 March 2002
  }}

{{William Shakespeare|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:1970 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Books by Isaac Asimov]]
[[Category:Doubleday (publisher) books]]
[[Category:American non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Works about William Shakespeare]]