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No Fear Shakespeare Graphic Novels is a series based on the translated texts of the plays found in No Fear Shakespeare. The original No Fear series made Shakespeare’s plays much easier to read, but these dynamic visual adaptations are impossible to put down. Each of the titles is illustrated in its own unique style, but all are distinctively offbeat, slightly funky, and appealing to teen readers. Each book will feature:
Illustrated cast of characters
A helpful plot summary
Line-by-line translations of the original play
Illustrations that show the reader exactly what’s happening in each scene—making the plot and characters even clearer than in the original No Fear Shakespeare books
Illustrated cast of characters
A helpful plot summary
Line-by-line translations of the original play
Illustrations that show the reader exactly what’s happening in each scene—making the plot and characters even clearer than in the original No Fear Shakespeare books
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 25, 2008
17 people are currently reading
317 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
December 26, 2018
I didn’t fear Shakespeare, nor did I have fear of graphic novels, which I had never read before. I’m also no fan of comics. I had borrowed this book from the library and I didn’t regret it. For me as a non-native English speaker, the modern English version was, of course, more easy to understand as the 400-year-old Shakespearean language. The scenes are well drawn. It was fun to read and definitely not my last graphic novel.
November 26, 2018
Almost as bloody as hamlet...almost.
April 25, 2022
“To have the thing you desire but feel no satisfaction for it – why then you have spent all to gain nothing.
Those thoughts should have died with the man you think of. That which cannot be remedied shouldn’t be lingered over. What’s done is done.”
Those thoughts should have died with the man you think of. That which cannot be remedied shouldn’t be lingered over. What’s done is done.”
March 11, 2021
Great graphic novel version of the popular play. Overall, a wonderful adaptation perfect for my reluctant readers. One complaint is that the pictures are black/white and characters are not easily distinguishable from one another without often referring to the character pages. Characters are not labeled or identified except by looking for them on character pages and finding their photo and description, which takes students out of the story. 1 star deducted for this reason.
December 11, 2017
A man commits a terrible crime and is consumed with guilt.
A great story but the illustrations, in this graphic novel, were a bit confusing.
A great story but the illustrations, in this graphic novel, were a bit confusing.
April 4, 2022
When I was in high school (maybe on my way to college) I received one of those memorable gifts. I have received many memorable gifts. (Gifts is one of my love languages after all (along with service and then, I suppose, quality time.) For me, a memorable gift is often more than you expected and makes you feel understood. My leather-bound, gold-edged Complete Shakespeare—from my aunt—was one such gift. It also goes to show you what sort of teenager I was and how little has actually changed. I have not read all of the plays (like some that look more boring; yeah, I’m talking to you Richard II and Richard III). But I have read many, some more than once, and the poetry. (My favorite, like any good fan of Sense and Sensibility, is 116.)
Well, Macbeth is not my favorite Shakespeare play, but I chose it because A) it’s one of the few Shakespeare plays that gets read regularly at the high school level and B) I am teaching five 14-16 year old males and I thought Macbeth’s gore and existential/moral darkness might interest them (especially as opposed to Romeo and Juliet). As a bonus, we were able to discuss “manhood” at just about every turn and boy was I glad when we finally got to ol’ MacDuff when he says sure, he’ll seek revenge like a man, but not until after he feels some gol-darn emotions and mourns like a man. (Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have one seriously messed-up idea-web of what it means to be a man, which plays out real toxic-like in their marriage.) Anyhoo…
First, let me say, the boys didn’t hate reading Macbeth. They were really intimidated at first, but when they caught on in class discussions they were interested in both the story and characters. They didn’t hate learning about Elizabethan theater or Shakespeare, either, but they weren’t as interesting as a murderous basket-case and his murderous basket-case wife. Which I might want to explain, in case you are not a Shakespeare buff. (Also note that on my book spine staircase, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare has a stair.) Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known, well-read, and oft-performed tragedies. (It is considered the “cursed play,” so some superstitious folk call it “The Scottish Play,” at least in theaters.) In this tragedy, we meet Macbeth, who looks like the hero straight-off but it won’t stay that way for long. He’s a Scottish thane (lord) and a general/war hero. Three witches (aka. The Weird Sisters) give him a prophecy out of the evilness of their hearts: he is the Thane of Cawdor, he will be King of Scotland, and his children will not be kings but his BFF—who is standing right there—’s will. We’re already all twisted up into a juicy story when a guy comes along and tells Macbeth that he’s the Thane of Cawdor. Duh, duh, duuuuh! Will Macbeth leave well enough alone and let the other prophecies come true on their own or will he immediately feel like he has to kill the king to get what he (and his wife) wants and then become a megalomaniacal paranoid who can’t stop with the sea of blood until the third prophecy is made impossible? One guess. Macbeth features some classic icons like the three witches chanting spells around their cauldron (“Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble…”), a floating dagger (“Is this a dagger I see before me?”), a crazy queen/wife sleepwalking through the castle, twists based on tricky turns of phrases (which may not hold out today as well as in Renaissance England), and more Quotables than you can shake a stick at (“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes,” “Out damned spot!” “There are daggers in men’s smiles,” “Screw your courage to the sticking place,” “What’s done cannot be undone,” etc. Not to mention some silioquys, like Macbeth’s “Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage. And then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
I am aware that not everyone loves Shakespeare or is able to easily read it. The language is about as archaic as English gets for the average, American reader and most people are forced to read it in high school. Perhaps it is not their favorite experience. In order to make this process more enjoyable and easier for my students, I pushed a number of sources beyond the original text. I’m cool like that. They were forced to read the original first (arms crossed and fingers crossed) and then, for each act, I pointed them in the direction of a number of resources. Since I had a subscription to LitCharts, I used the LitCharts synopsis as well as ShakesCleare, a great line-by-line translation in plain English. I encouraged them to find resources online, as well as read along with audio options, graphic novels, and movie adaptations. (Some of them had also seen the play performed, before.) I’ll talk about all this in the below reviews. They all had the Folger edition of the play, as it was, which has notes running on the left-hand page, an introduction, definitions, etc.
So, if you have an interest in Shakespeare, this is a must-read. If you are teaching high school English, it is a good option. Overall, I was a little bummed by this play and it is not my favorite (which I think I already mentioned). I laughed until my students thought I was insane at some of the scenes—especially the banquet scene—where Lady Macbeth is coming up with some ridiculous excuses to keep her husband’s reputation intact. But most of the play is dark and full of death. It’s also lacking in hope, and humanity is pretty easily convinced to turn depraved and lethal, leading to horror for all. There is a hero, in the end, but by then nearly everyone is dead, destroyed, or a hollow husk of their former self. The real question here, I suppose, is about prophecies and fate and how people interact with their destinies. I can’t imagine I’ll be coming back to it, especially after having watched a few of the movies. (I honestly couldn’t keep going with adaptations. I would have finished with The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), but that one is not widely available yet and I couldn’t stomach another dark, depressing version. Which they all are, even when they get all cinematographic.
FURTHER MACBETH REVIEWS
NO FEAR SHAKESPEARE GRAPHIC NOVEL:
So, there are a lot of Shakespeare plays made into graphic novels out there, especially for the “big” plays. Macbeth is no exception, and somehow I narrowed it down to the No Fear Shakespeare version and Gareth Hinds (who I seem to either have a thing for or not be able to avoid). Despite the fine reviews elsewhere, I was not impressed by the No Fear Shakespeare graphic novel. Sure, it would be helpful to kids who are having a hard time understanding the original, but other than that it has no real merit. And since there are many other ways of understanding Macbeth (including other graphic novels), I would not rush out to get a copy of this. I suppose its one redeeming feature is that it sticks closely with the original story and says and shows it as obviously as possible, since the point of it, I believe, is as a learning tool. Other than that, the illustrations are lackluster, I totally lost track of who was whom, I was mystified by how much sweating and how many candles there were, and I felt not the least bit more enlightened as to the meaning of Macbeth. Just, ehn.
GARETH HINDS’ GRAPHIC NOVEL:
Well, Gareth Hinds has gotten a kind of fame over the last decade or so for his graphic adaptations of classics. (Bloody, dark classics, I might add.) I have read his versions of Beowulf, The Iliad, and The Odyssey. He did Macbeth earlier, and quite frankly it’s not as innovative or even pretty as the others. It’s sketchier, and I mean that literally, lacking the finished, colorful look of the Homer epics. Beowulf was also sort of sketchy, though more inky, but it has this artistic flare to it, an atmosphere of sorts conveyed in the panels. So, what I’m saying is I don’t know if there are better graphic novels of Macbeth, but I found this one to be disappointing. It’s okay. It shows us the story, but without much to make it a special piece of art on its own.
RESOURCE: LITCHARTS AND SHAKESCLEARE:
I bought a subscription to LitCharts at the beginning of the school year (at, I think, $10 per month) to be able to access the resources for most of the novels that we would be reading (and a few others I might use). I have found the resources to be super handy. If I had gone for another subscription, I could have had access to teacher resources (technically, they have those, but I didn’t find them to be much different from the student resources and there were no teacher plans, activities, or worksheets or anything), but I guess I wasn’t thinking that way. I wanted something that my students could likewise use, and maybe even something that they could invest in in the future, for some college literature class, perhaps. Overall, I would say the information is accurate and that it makes literature pretty accessible. Synopses, etc. can sometimes be quite long-winded, and there isn’t much creative teaching going on (like a timeline or infographics or something). There are also no quizzes or whatever. What you have is something like 20 pages of background, themes, quotes, synopses, etc. For Shakespeare, as well, there is access to the ShakesCleare version, which I found to be super helpful. It goes line by line, converting Shakespearean language into modern language and I dare any average person to read it and not understand what is happening. (Sure, they might miss some literary stuff, but that’s what the LitChart is for). Eamon (my 14-year-old) and I used the ShakesCleare to re-read the scenes together after he had listened to (he’s an auditory learner) and read along with the original in his Folger. So just a little plug for LitCharts, ShakesCleare, and reading helps in general. Though I grew up in a generation that balked at and had a fear of reading helps (SparkNotes!) put in them, I fully endorse using these in high school and college (and teaching) along with a reading of the original. In other words, I’m a fan of study guides and I totally get that not everyone is a naturally skilled reader.
MACBETH (1948):
I know it’s a hard sell to get teens (okay, anybody) to watch movies from the 1940s, but this Orson Welles’ version of Macbeth is probably the best for general audiences. In other words, it’s not full of gore and even sex. (Obviously, there was no actual sex or nudity in the original play, especially on-stage (though plenty of innuendo, at times), but movie makers manage it, anyhow.) It’s still dark and drags on (especially since it is black and white and very old-fashioned) but it follows the story-line pretty close and would provide a visual to help with understanding Macbeth without blowing it up considerably to somehow find meaning in the pieces of Shakespeare’s play (which is obviously what some of the other versions do).
MACBETH/THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH (1971):
I would have recommended Roman Polanski’s version, too, for understanding, as it’s not too crazy-adapted, but it’s a bit violent and sexy (Playboy Productions?) for the classroom. It won some awards (like the Best Picture Oscar) way back in the 1970s and does have a 70’s flare, but it’s also mostly Macbeth. Considered by many to be the best version of Macbeth on film, it usurped the 1940s version I was just talking about. If you are curious, there are some interesting backstories related to this movie in regards to the director. So if you’re mature and don’t mind some gore and nudity, then this is probably the best version to key you in to the real Macbeth.
MACBETH (2015):
This somewhat popular version is visually stunning and well-acted by Michael Fassbender and Marion Cottilard and cast, but the directions and screen-writing made it a different story with a different meaning. Plus, it can be pretty confusing and much of the would be lost on people who are not familiar with the story, since so much is shoved into a short-ish movie. So, like I said, it is a slightly different story with a quite different meaning. Great reviews, awards, but… phew! It’s a depression slog (not to mention violence and depravity both in close quarters).
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH (2021):
So I haven’t seen this one because—thanks in part to its Oscar for Denzel Washington, I’m sure—its still only available on AppleTV. Despite being completely over the Macbeth movies by now (they are so dark and depressing), I will be screening this one once I can.
Actually, there are a few more adaptations that I would like to see, but they are all of the “based on” variety, as opposed to more versions of the play. They are: Scotland, PA and Throne of Blood. I’m also sure the Patrick Stewart/BBC version is great, but I couldn’t figure out a way to currently watch it.
***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***
Well, Macbeth is not my favorite Shakespeare play, but I chose it because A) it’s one of the few Shakespeare plays that gets read regularly at the high school level and B) I am teaching five 14-16 year old males and I thought Macbeth’s gore and existential/moral darkness might interest them (especially as opposed to Romeo and Juliet). As a bonus, we were able to discuss “manhood” at just about every turn and boy was I glad when we finally got to ol’ MacDuff when he says sure, he’ll seek revenge like a man, but not until after he feels some gol-darn emotions and mourns like a man. (Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have one seriously messed-up idea-web of what it means to be a man, which plays out real toxic-like in their marriage.) Anyhoo…
First, let me say, the boys didn’t hate reading Macbeth. They were really intimidated at first, but when they caught on in class discussions they were interested in both the story and characters. They didn’t hate learning about Elizabethan theater or Shakespeare, either, but they weren’t as interesting as a murderous basket-case and his murderous basket-case wife. Which I might want to explain, in case you are not a Shakespeare buff. (Also note that on my book spine staircase, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare has a stair.) Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known, well-read, and oft-performed tragedies. (It is considered the “cursed play,” so some superstitious folk call it “The Scottish Play,” at least in theaters.) In this tragedy, we meet Macbeth, who looks like the hero straight-off but it won’t stay that way for long. He’s a Scottish thane (lord) and a general/war hero. Three witches (aka. The Weird Sisters) give him a prophecy out of the evilness of their hearts: he is the Thane of Cawdor, he will be King of Scotland, and his children will not be kings but his BFF—who is standing right there—’s will. We’re already all twisted up into a juicy story when a guy comes along and tells Macbeth that he’s the Thane of Cawdor. Duh, duh, duuuuh! Will Macbeth leave well enough alone and let the other prophecies come true on their own or will he immediately feel like he has to kill the king to get what he (and his wife) wants and then become a megalomaniacal paranoid who can’t stop with the sea of blood until the third prophecy is made impossible? One guess. Macbeth features some classic icons like the three witches chanting spells around their cauldron (“Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble…”), a floating dagger (“Is this a dagger I see before me?”), a crazy queen/wife sleepwalking through the castle, twists based on tricky turns of phrases (which may not hold out today as well as in Renaissance England), and more Quotables than you can shake a stick at (“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes,” “Out damned spot!” “There are daggers in men’s smiles,” “Screw your courage to the sticking place,” “What’s done cannot be undone,” etc. Not to mention some silioquys, like Macbeth’s “Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage. And then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
I am aware that not everyone loves Shakespeare or is able to easily read it. The language is about as archaic as English gets for the average, American reader and most people are forced to read it in high school. Perhaps it is not their favorite experience. In order to make this process more enjoyable and easier for my students, I pushed a number of sources beyond the original text. I’m cool like that. They were forced to read the original first (arms crossed and fingers crossed) and then, for each act, I pointed them in the direction of a number of resources. Since I had a subscription to LitCharts, I used the LitCharts synopsis as well as ShakesCleare, a great line-by-line translation in plain English. I encouraged them to find resources online, as well as read along with audio options, graphic novels, and movie adaptations. (Some of them had also seen the play performed, before.) I’ll talk about all this in the below reviews. They all had the Folger edition of the play, as it was, which has notes running on the left-hand page, an introduction, definitions, etc.
So, if you have an interest in Shakespeare, this is a must-read. If you are teaching high school English, it is a good option. Overall, I was a little bummed by this play and it is not my favorite (which I think I already mentioned). I laughed until my students thought I was insane at some of the scenes—especially the banquet scene—where Lady Macbeth is coming up with some ridiculous excuses to keep her husband’s reputation intact. But most of the play is dark and full of death. It’s also lacking in hope, and humanity is pretty easily convinced to turn depraved and lethal, leading to horror for all. There is a hero, in the end, but by then nearly everyone is dead, destroyed, or a hollow husk of their former self. The real question here, I suppose, is about prophecies and fate and how people interact with their destinies. I can’t imagine I’ll be coming back to it, especially after having watched a few of the movies. (I honestly couldn’t keep going with adaptations. I would have finished with The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), but that one is not widely available yet and I couldn’t stomach another dark, depressing version. Which they all are, even when they get all cinematographic.
FURTHER MACBETH REVIEWS
NO FEAR SHAKESPEARE GRAPHIC NOVEL:
So, there are a lot of Shakespeare plays made into graphic novels out there, especially for the “big” plays. Macbeth is no exception, and somehow I narrowed it down to the No Fear Shakespeare version and Gareth Hinds (who I seem to either have a thing for or not be able to avoid). Despite the fine reviews elsewhere, I was not impressed by the No Fear Shakespeare graphic novel. Sure, it would be helpful to kids who are having a hard time understanding the original, but other than that it has no real merit. And since there are many other ways of understanding Macbeth (including other graphic novels), I would not rush out to get a copy of this. I suppose its one redeeming feature is that it sticks closely with the original story and says and shows it as obviously as possible, since the point of it, I believe, is as a learning tool. Other than that, the illustrations are lackluster, I totally lost track of who was whom, I was mystified by how much sweating and how many candles there were, and I felt not the least bit more enlightened as to the meaning of Macbeth. Just, ehn.
GARETH HINDS’ GRAPHIC NOVEL:
Well, Gareth Hinds has gotten a kind of fame over the last decade or so for his graphic adaptations of classics. (Bloody, dark classics, I might add.) I have read his versions of Beowulf, The Iliad, and The Odyssey. He did Macbeth earlier, and quite frankly it’s not as innovative or even pretty as the others. It’s sketchier, and I mean that literally, lacking the finished, colorful look of the Homer epics. Beowulf was also sort of sketchy, though more inky, but it has this artistic flare to it, an atmosphere of sorts conveyed in the panels. So, what I’m saying is I don’t know if there are better graphic novels of Macbeth, but I found this one to be disappointing. It’s okay. It shows us the story, but without much to make it a special piece of art on its own.
RESOURCE: LITCHARTS AND SHAKESCLEARE:
I bought a subscription to LitCharts at the beginning of the school year (at, I think, $10 per month) to be able to access the resources for most of the novels that we would be reading (and a few others I might use). I have found the resources to be super handy. If I had gone for another subscription, I could have had access to teacher resources (technically, they have those, but I didn’t find them to be much different from the student resources and there were no teacher plans, activities, or worksheets or anything), but I guess I wasn’t thinking that way. I wanted something that my students could likewise use, and maybe even something that they could invest in in the future, for some college literature class, perhaps. Overall, I would say the information is accurate and that it makes literature pretty accessible. Synopses, etc. can sometimes be quite long-winded, and there isn’t much creative teaching going on (like a timeline or infographics or something). There are also no quizzes or whatever. What you have is something like 20 pages of background, themes, quotes, synopses, etc. For Shakespeare, as well, there is access to the ShakesCleare version, which I found to be super helpful. It goes line by line, converting Shakespearean language into modern language and I dare any average person to read it and not understand what is happening. (Sure, they might miss some literary stuff, but that’s what the LitChart is for). Eamon (my 14-year-old) and I used the ShakesCleare to re-read the scenes together after he had listened to (he’s an auditory learner) and read along with the original in his Folger. So just a little plug for LitCharts, ShakesCleare, and reading helps in general. Though I grew up in a generation that balked at and had a fear of reading helps (SparkNotes!) put in them, I fully endorse using these in high school and college (and teaching) along with a reading of the original. In other words, I’m a fan of study guides and I totally get that not everyone is a naturally skilled reader.
MACBETH (1948):
I know it’s a hard sell to get teens (okay, anybody) to watch movies from the 1940s, but this Orson Welles’ version of Macbeth is probably the best for general audiences. In other words, it’s not full of gore and even sex. (Obviously, there was no actual sex or nudity in the original play, especially on-stage (though plenty of innuendo, at times), but movie makers manage it, anyhow.) It’s still dark and drags on (especially since it is black and white and very old-fashioned) but it follows the story-line pretty close and would provide a visual to help with understanding Macbeth without blowing it up considerably to somehow find meaning in the pieces of Shakespeare’s play (which is obviously what some of the other versions do).
MACBETH/THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH (1971):
I would have recommended Roman Polanski’s version, too, for understanding, as it’s not too crazy-adapted, but it’s a bit violent and sexy (Playboy Productions?) for the classroom. It won some awards (like the Best Picture Oscar) way back in the 1970s and does have a 70’s flare, but it’s also mostly Macbeth. Considered by many to be the best version of Macbeth on film, it usurped the 1940s version I was just talking about. If you are curious, there are some interesting backstories related to this movie in regards to the director. So if you’re mature and don’t mind some gore and nudity, then this is probably the best version to key you in to the real Macbeth.
MACBETH (2015):
This somewhat popular version is visually stunning and well-acted by Michael Fassbender and Marion Cottilard and cast, but the directions and screen-writing made it a different story with a different meaning. Plus, it can be pretty confusing and much of the would be lost on people who are not familiar with the story, since so much is shoved into a short-ish movie. So, like I said, it is a slightly different story with a quite different meaning. Great reviews, awards, but… phew! It’s a depression slog (not to mention violence and depravity both in close quarters).
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH (2021):
So I haven’t seen this one because—thanks in part to its Oscar for Denzel Washington, I’m sure—its still only available on AppleTV. Despite being completely over the Macbeth movies by now (they are so dark and depressing), I will be screening this one once I can.
Actually, there are a few more adaptations that I would like to see, but they are all of the “based on” variety, as opposed to more versions of the play. They are: Scotland, PA and Throne of Blood. I’m also sure the Patrick Stewart/BBC version is great, but I couldn’t figure out a way to currently watch it.
***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***
February 6, 2019
*3.5/5 stars
Glad I finally read this play! Or at least, some complete version of it so I can have context whenever I see it referenced.
I think it helped to read the graphic novel because it made keeping all the characters separate pretty easy, since they were all drawn differently. With Shakespeare's typical large cast of characters, that was definitely an upside to this format.
However, I do think that I would have enjoyed the complete play a bit more. Many of the lines were apparently trimmed in this edition, so the dialogue didn't read as especially "Shakespearean". It felt more modern, which is great for helping people understand the story who are struggling with it, but less great for someone (like me) who was hoping for a more authentic experience.
As such, some of the more iconic scenes and lines ended up slipping right past me. The wording was different for quite a few of them, and the graphic novel format made it difficult to sit with those lines and scenes rather than zoom through the subsequent pages.
Still, I did enjoy pieces of this. There were a lot of moments that I actually found quite funny, and the art was done in a way that conveyed the story very well. It was all in black and white, nothing exceptionally flashy, but clear and compelling enough.
I docked this because of the issue with the language and the compulsion to speed through the story rather than immerse myself in it, but also partly because of the story itself. Maybe because I've heard so much about this play in popular culture, but it felt fairly predictable. I expected most things to happen the way that they did, and the only real "surprise" to me was how the end came about. In my opinion, it was a bit of a lackluster ending.
Things I did enjoy though: Lady Macbeth, who I would easily name the most interesting and complex character in the entire play. The moments of humor. The themes of morality, madness, and predestination. Also, the art, which is the one thing I wouldn't get in any other format.
Glad I finally read this play! Or at least, some complete version of it so I can have context whenever I see it referenced.
I think it helped to read the graphic novel because it made keeping all the characters separate pretty easy, since they were all drawn differently. With Shakespeare's typical large cast of characters, that was definitely an upside to this format.
However, I do think that I would have enjoyed the complete play a bit more. Many of the lines were apparently trimmed in this edition, so the dialogue didn't read as especially "Shakespearean". It felt more modern, which is great for helping people understand the story who are struggling with it, but less great for someone (like me) who was hoping for a more authentic experience.
As such, some of the more iconic scenes and lines ended up slipping right past me. The wording was different for quite a few of them, and the graphic novel format made it difficult to sit with those lines and scenes rather than zoom through the subsequent pages.
Still, I did enjoy pieces of this. There were a lot of moments that I actually found quite funny, and the art was done in a way that conveyed the story very well. It was all in black and white, nothing exceptionally flashy, but clear and compelling enough.
I docked this because of the issue with the language and the compulsion to speed through the story rather than immerse myself in it, but also partly because of the story itself. Maybe because I've heard so much about this play in popular culture, but it felt fairly predictable. I expected most things to happen the way that they did, and the only real "surprise" to me was how the end came about. In my opinion, it was a bit of a lackluster ending.
Things I did enjoy though: Lady Macbeth, who I would easily name the most interesting and complex character in the entire play. The moments of humor. The themes of morality, madness, and predestination. Also, the art, which is the one thing I wouldn't get in any other format.
August 29, 2019
I've always wanted to read Shakespeare but either hadn't found the time or had the guts to parse the 400-year old Shakespearean English. So picked this book to get a taste of Shakespeare and it did not fail me.
The story is about a loyal Scottish General named Macbeth, about how his mind is poisoned with prophecies and about the unchecked ambition that leads him to commit crimes he would regret throughout the story. I loved the graphic novel format, especially the introduction of characters given the large number of them.
The story is about a loyal Scottish General named Macbeth, about how his mind is poisoned with prophecies and about the unchecked ambition that leads him to commit crimes he would regret throughout the story. I loved the graphic novel format, especially the introduction of characters given the large number of them.
June 8, 2011
A great adaptation to do with my ESL class, although it is not as well done as the No Fear Hamlet - a few more chunks of text and the illustrations are not as vibrant. Still really enjoyed teaching it though.
May 7, 2024
This was a 4.5 stars for me. I enjoyed it without overly enjoying it.
May 30, 2019
This graphic novel adaptation of William Shakespeare's classic play The Tragedy of Macbeth is textually adapted by SparkNotes and visually adapted by Ken Hoshine. (Hoshine is responsible for the illustrations, but the graphic novel does not feature any coloring.) I am quite honestly not all that fond of Hoshine's illustrations; they are rather minimal and not very detailed, and many of the characters are not very expressive, really only alternating between a handful of different facial expressions. I also think that the graphic novel would probably have benefited from featuring colors, as colors would likely provide (or at the very least seem to provide) some more detail to Hoshine's minimalist approach. Macbeth is a story that I believe everyone should read or at the very least be familiar with, as it is, in my opinion, one of the greatest fallen hero (or hero-turned-villain) stories ever to be told, having influenced so much of our popular media such as Game of Thrones (with which there are so many parallels including but most definitely not limited to the similarities between Lady Macbeth and Cersei Lannister) and Star Wars (since there are countless similarities between Macbeth and Anakin Skywalker). I therefore believe that a graphic novel such as this one is great, especially for people who are unaccustomed to Shakespeare's language but still want to immerse themselves in his stories. (The language in this graphic novel is "translated" by SparkNotes for contemporary readers who are unfamiliar with Shakespeare's language, making it much easier to read.) It is undoubtedly a positive that readers have an opportunity such as this one to engage in the story (which is exactly the same - nothing is changed, added, or omitted) with an easier time reading it. At the same time, however, I (as someone who majored in English Literature for both my B.S. degree and my M.A. degree) also think that it is important to also read the original text (as I did when I originally read and enjoyed the play), especially if you first encounter the story in a format such as this one and find that you enjoy it. The original language is so poetic and beautiful (especially Macbeth's tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow soliloquy), and while, yes, the original text is definitely a bit difficult to read especially for beginners, I have found from my own experience that the more Shakespeare that you read, the easier that he becomes to read. There are also editions of many (if not all - although I don't want to say that for sure because I don't actually know for sure) of his plays available that offer side-by-side comparisons of the original text and a modern "translation" so that reading these editions can really help you "learn the language" if you will. As a huge fan of Macbeth, I enjoyed this alternate experience of it but do wish that I had a bit more appreciation for the visual art.
December 21, 2017
This book is about a play about betrayal and paranoia. The plot of the story stays closely connected to this throughout the entire story with betrayal being a catalysts for everything else that happens in this story. The begging starts off slow leading up to an major event that then turns the book into an guilt story and about paranoia. Throughout the book afterwards this paranoia is the main theme of the story and almost all events occur solely because of this. There is many deaths and an lot of drama that spurs throughout the entire kingdom after one betrayal which leads to more betrayals and seriousness of everyone.
There is two different versions of this book to read it in. There's a more modern version and the the original text, I personally recommend the modern version because it a lot easier to understand. But in all the story was actually pretty interesting it has its slow moments but overall tells a great tale of betrayal and guilty consciousness and how that might affect a person. The book gave me a difficult time and keeping track of who was involved with who,what, and where because of how the different characters were introduced and dismissed through the entire story.
I would not recommend this book to other students looking fo books to read. This book was not awful but it was not the most interesting book to read and there's such a large selection of books I feel like you can find four more interesting than this one. On top of that you have to deal with old english and if not have to search for an modern version online which is unnecessary work rather than just finding an new book that may be more interesting anyways. Also the fact that it is in a play style of storytelling it is hard to get immersed in the book because with this type of storytelling setting doesn't get focused on much compared to the characters themselves.
There is two different versions of this book to read it in. There's a more modern version and the the original text, I personally recommend the modern version because it a lot easier to understand. But in all the story was actually pretty interesting it has its slow moments but overall tells a great tale of betrayal and guilty consciousness and how that might affect a person. The book gave me a difficult time and keeping track of who was involved with who,what, and where because of how the different characters were introduced and dismissed through the entire story.
I would not recommend this book to other students looking fo books to read. This book was not awful but it was not the most interesting book to read and there's such a large selection of books I feel like you can find four more interesting than this one. On top of that you have to deal with old english and if not have to search for an modern version online which is unnecessary work rather than just finding an new book that may be more interesting anyways. Also the fact that it is in a play style of storytelling it is hard to get immersed in the book because with this type of storytelling setting doesn't get focused on much compared to the characters themselves.
May 10, 2017
This was the first time I'd ever read Macbeth. (Of course, I will go read the original soon.) Having read many other Shakespeare plays, I am not surprised by the violence or subject matter. I had a vague idea of what would happen. Macbeth's character, however, was surprising. In this graphic novel, at least, he is an evil, yet cowardly man. This particular combination of murderous and lily-livered was not something I expected. I anticipated a cold, calculating, heartless man. I found one who couldn't keep his head on straight for all the hallucinations and guilt he is experiencing. A fascinating study of human nature, as are all Shakespeare's plays. But alas, not one of my favorites, because I couldn't root for Macbeth at all. My favorite part was when Macduff appears at the end of the battle, Macbeth's bloody, severed head in his hands. (Slightly related sidenote: I would LOVE to see both Coriolanus and Titus Andronicus as graphic novels.) (Final sidenote: The graphic novel quality on this is solid. I almost wish it were in color, but I understand the advantage of using black and white to tell Shakespeare's story.) Back the point: Next on the list is Hamlet. Another insane protagonist, here I come!
April 11, 2016
The 11th grade English class I'm observing read this graphic novel adaptation along with the original. It was easier for students to understand without dumbing it down too much. The illustrations also helped students interpret the meaning. The panel with the drunken porter was particularly amusing, giving a hint at some of Shakespeare's bawdy references. (Check out his wilting spear.) The only complaint I have is that the illustrations made Lady Macbeth appear drunk in the scene leading up to Duncan's murder, suggesting poor judgment rather than cold blooded calculating. I wouldn't use the graphic novel to replace Shakespeare's Macbeth, but I would use it as support or keep it in my classroom library for students to read on their own.
April 16, 2018
I have found with graphic novels such as this one, that there are parts of the story that are often left out. In Macbeth, I found that the parts that were left out actually helped make the story more readable. The dialogue is not written in a more modern dialect, which helps the reader understand the story more. At the beginning there is a chart of all of the characters, which I found myself flipping back to often in order to help comprehend the story. This took Shakespeare and made it very accessible and understandable. I would use this in conjunction with the play, if I were teaching it. For important parts, I would have students read the book, and then splice in portions of the graphic novel in order to help them comprehend.
January 26, 2011
This is my first time reading Shakespeare works and I'm glad to begin it with this version of No Fear Shakespeare Graphic Novels: Macbeth. Though it is a translations from the original work of Shakespeare but it still acceptable to me. I'm still getting the words being crafted into a melodic sentences perfectly.
Macbeth: is about one man ambitions that become a bloody lessons to him in the end.
Act 3, Scene 4: These strange self-delusions show that I need hardening, We are still children when it comes to crime
Macbeth: is about one man ambitions that become a bloody lessons to him in the end.
Act 3, Scene 4: These strange self-delusions show that I need hardening, We are still children when it comes to crime
July 28, 2017
I can't get enough of these. They're great. In addition to being graphic novels and fun to read, they're also No Fear Shakespeare, so they're "translated" into mostly modern English, also coming with helpful asterisks to provide information on pop culture references from Shakespeare's time that we may not understand. I've read Macbeth, I'm about 3/4 of the way through Hamlet, and they have Romeo and Juliet also. I would highly, HIGHLY recommend reading this and the others in conjunction with any schoolwork or reading of the plays for any classes that you have. Do yourself a solid!
March 23, 2016
I'm slightly ashamed to admit that this is the first time I have read any version of MacBeth. I'm even more ashamed to admit that this book is published by SparkNotes. Moving past my shame, I have to say that this was an extremely enjoyable way to read Shakespeare. The graphic novel format allowed me to understand right away the intended setting and enabled me to put faces to names and the plot. Of course, the story speaks for itself. I'm excited to dig into more versions.
May 3, 2018
This version helps my 8th grade students a great deal, but they still need support when starting out. The illustrations make it difficult to know who’s who, but there is a handy character chart at the front to refer to for a reference of character appearance. There are also times when the speech bubbles don’t clearly indicate who is speaking. Still, the plot is there and the visuals help students determine character emotion, etc.
May 8, 2012
A good alternative for someone not a fan of classic Shakespeare and much more approachable in graphic novel format. I remember reading Romeo & Juliet in the classic form and wish I had something like this in high school that simplified it in more modern terms. I'll probably take this on a school visit just to show more of what the library has available.
January 31, 2014
I have not yet read the original text, but I did know the play very well and was excited to finally read it in English. This graphic novel gave a very easy to read and to have a base before the real play. Also the graphics made it very simple to imagine the text. I would recommend it for anyone who may struggle with English and Shakespeare or who just really like Macbeth.
February 14, 2009
of course it's macbeth so it's automatically great storywise. some of the art here is pretty great, but some of it is... eh. greatly inferior to some of the other literary translations out there like kafka's "metamorphosis" for example. hence the three stars.
February 10, 2011
Plain english instead of original text, which will make this understandable for newbies. The full play is included, no editing of scenes. Some of the character drawings were indistinct making it a bit hard to follow for someone who does not already know who would be speaking the lines.
November 21, 2014
Great for helping teach year 9 Macbeth as it has the standard text and the modern version side by side. Really helpful for those new to Shakespeare to gain a better understanding. Also good for those who have not read the text for a number of years as a refresher.
April 3, 2017
I enjoyed this version. Although it's generally well drawn, I will echo the comments of other people who mentioned that some characters are hard to tell apart.
This is great if you want an accessible version of Macbeth.
This is great if you want an accessible version of Macbeth.
January 22, 2018
Several characters looked similar, so I found it difficult to keep the plot straight. I have recommended this for students at my school, however they will still need the modern version of the full play as well as summary notes for each act to follow along.
March 6, 2019
Real Dramatic. I'm dumb and couldn't keep up with all the characters. I think the graphic novel is the the best way for me to read it because it was slightly more engaging. but Macbeth's face is hella dramatic all the time.
October 13, 2010
I like the book , but there were some parts that my mind wanderd off. Yes, it is graphic novel but there were some parts that just seemed boring, to much words and not enough action.
July 7, 2012
Great way to understand and enjoy the bard. Macbeth was a jerk, and his wife was worse.
May 18, 2013
No fear was an interesting setup for reading, one page was the original and the facing page the modern day version.
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