'We are such stuff asdreams are made on...' While the language of William Shakespeare's plays can makethem challenging for some readers, their plots are filled with fantastical,almost fairytale-like plot devices --misunderstandingsinvolving identical twins, magical forests, ghosts and witches, and foolishkings -- that make them irresistible to almostany reader. This gorgeous new edition of Charles and Mary Lamb's belovedbook collects their versions of twenty Shakespeare comedies and tragedies. Farfrom being mere plot summaries, Tales transforms Shakespeare's elegant andpoetic dialogue into thrilling and dramatic stories of love, betrayal andmagic. Beautifully illustrated with classic artwork by ArthurRackham, W. Paget, and Robert Anning Bell, Talesfrom Shakespeare provides a unique way to experience these enduring plays.

Tales from Shakespeare is an English children's book written by the siblings Charles and Mary Lamb in 1807, intended "for the use of young persons" while retaining as much Shakespearean language as possible. Mary Lamb was responsible for retelling the comedies and Charles the tragedies. They omitted the more complex historical tales, including all Roman plays, and modified those they chose to retell in a manner sensitive to the needs of young children, but without resorting to actual censoring. However, subplots and sexual references were removed. They wrote the preface together. Tales from Shakespeare has been republished many times and has never been out of print. Charles and Mary Lamb appeared to have anticipated the enormous growth in the popularity of Shakespeare in the nineteenth century, when the book was one of the best-selling titles.

Tales from Shakespeare is an English children's book written by Charles Lamb and his sister Mary Lamb in 1807. The book is designed to make the stories of Shakespeare's plays familiar to the young.[1] However, as noted in the authors' Preface, "[Shakespeare's] words are used whenever it seemed possible to bring them in; and in whatever has been added to give them the regular form of a connected story, diligent care has been taken to select such words as might least interrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which he wrote: therefore, words introduced into our language since his time have been as far as possible avoided." Mary Lamb was responsible for the comedies, while Charles wrote the tragedies; they wrote the preface between them. The book contains the following tales: 1.The Tempest (Mary Lamb) 2.A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mary Lamb) 3.The Winter's Tale (Mary Lamb) 4.Much Ado About Nothing (Mary Lamb) 5.As You Like It (Mary Lamb) 6.Two Gentlemen of Verona (Mary Lamb) 7.The Merchant of Venice (Mary Lamb) 8.Cymbeline (Mary Lamb) 9.King Lear (Charles Lamb) 10.Macbeth (Charles Lamb) 11.All's Well That Ends Well (Mary Lamb) 12.The Taming of the Shrew (Mary Lamb) 13.The Comedy of Errors (Mary Lamb) 14.Measure for Measure (Mary Lamb) 15.Twelfth Night (Mary Lamb) 16.Timon of Athens (Charles Lamb) 17.Romeo and Juliet (Charles Lamb) 18.Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Charles Lamb) 19.Othello (Charles Lamb) 20.Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Mary Lamb)