This rich collection of critical and secondary material has been selected to assist in the study of Shakespeare's plays. It includes a selection of sources and analogues Shakespeare drew upon in writing nine of his major works as well as a variety of widely divergent critical interpretations of the plays over the last sixty years.
This book formed part of the course reading for the OU course AA306 Shakespeare Text and Performance. For the course it was very helpful, although I don't think I would go so far as to say that many of the critics chosen for inclusion were of the most helpful. I know that there were quite a few on my course who found some of the essays barely readable. That aside it gives an insight into how people can perceive Shakespeare's plays and offers samples of the sources Shakespeare used when writing which prove to be very interesting.