Matt’s 2023 Shakespeare Challenge

[Cynda]

You are making time, Matt!
If you like quotes from the history plays, I recorded some here. Everyone reads differently, so I say the quotes are there, read them if they serve.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Cynda]

Yes Shakespeare was something else. I would want to be inside the standing crowd. I can see myself hooting and hollering, having a great time. Can you?

[Cynda]

Wow Matt, you still moving through. Looks like you will get to the finish line!

[William]

Matt, Richard III is one of my very favorite history plays. Hope that you enjoy it!

[JenniferAustin]

Hey there,

I am a longtime lover of Shakespeare, sonnets included. It's delightful to run across someone giving them a try for the first time!

If you'd like to hear one of the greatest of his sonnets, read really well, here's a recording of Peter O'Toole reciting "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun." Fast forward to 01:30 if you are in a hurry.

https://www.npr.org/2012/07/11/156629...

Anyway, enjoy your Shakespeare adveture! What's up next?

[Sue]

Congratulations on your amazing progress, Matt! This has to be such a rewarding experience. I hope some day I can get to doing this.

[Ian]

Out of curiosity, are you using the editions you link, or is that choice a matter of convenience?

[Ian]

Thanks. I do like the Folger editions, but a complete set gets expensive, at least new. I picked up mine second hand or on sale.

[Wreade1872]

Matt wrote: "2023 Shakespeare Complete works challenge

#27 - Titus Andronicus

Read - 9/15/23 - 9/20/23

4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Titus Andronicus is a gruesome and viole..."

If your planning on watching a version the anthony hopkins film is... interesting ;) .
Sort of a world war two/roman era amalgamation.

[Sue]

This is so exciting, Matt! You are really doing this! You're almost done. I hope to be able to do this some day. I'm sure it's very rewarding even though their are some stinkers.

[Kathleen]

This one sounds great, Matt. I love that you set it as an example, and I'm going to try to read it soon. I bet all of this Shakespeare is having an interesting impact on your life!

[William]

Matt wrote: "2023 Shakespeare Complete works challenge

#34 - Henry VIII

Read - 10/22/23 - 10/22/23

3 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
Keep up the good work Matt! You are doing great!
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Henry VIII’s reign was a fascinating time ..."

[Ian]

Gower was a Middle English poet, who has struggled in the shadow cast by his contemporary Chaucer. He provided the version of “Apollonius of Tyre,” the main source of the play: Pericles is as sort of red herring.

See the Wikipedia article on Apollonius of Tyre for the vast popularity of the story, from late antiquity through the Middle Ages. Gower’s verse account in Confessio Amantis contains the second known English rendering: There is an incomplete Apollonius of Tyre in Old English prose.

This is sometimes used in introductory courses, although not in my own experience. Shakespeare and Gower would have had no knowledge of that version, although some contemporaries of theirs were busy founding the study of Old English, not least by rescuing manuscripts out at risk by the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII.

[Laurie]

Congrats, Matt! This is awesome that you completed this challenge and in less than a calendar year. I started to try a year long attempt at this a few years ago and realized after a couple of months and six plays that I wasn't cut out to accomplish it in a year. I am now reading all the plays over several years. I also read all the sonnets in my attempt which I was happy to knock out.

[Wobbley]

Wow, this is so amazing, Matt! I'm really impressed with your ambition. And even if you'd read nothing else this year, this challenge alone has given you 14 five-star reads! You must feel such a sense of accomplishment.