This is one of Paddy’s and very good. Emma Smith is an Oxford Professor but this book really tries to demystify Shakespeare, and approaches each play from quite weird and unconventional angles. So A Midsummer Night’s Dream is mainly about sex, Macbeth about causality. It was quite hard work in places, particularly if you didn’t know the plays well (The Merchant of Venice, Coriolanus for me), but certainly made one (both of us) want to re-read the plays.
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