Intended for all readers, an exciting, innovative approach to Shakespeare's Sonnets."His sugared Sonnets among his private friends." That's how Shakespeare's Sonnets were described in the only contemporary reference to them. This brings up the image of a talented, young poet-with a penchant for irreverent fun-getting together with friends to read his new sonnet cycle. Numerous sonnet cycles were published that typically told the story of thwarted love. The same topics are repeated: a chaste and beautiful lady, a love-sick poet dreaming only of his beloved, sunk into despair by her cruelty (cruel only because she decides to remain chaste). Shakespeare's Sonnets are like this, but with a twist-adding a love triangle that turning convention upside down. Working out all the possibilities of this intriguing story as the sonnets progress is all part of the fun.Atkins invites you to imagine that you are among the friends our poet has allowed to see his new sonnets. You'll read the poems and the discussion of each one, trying to figure out the story. See what it might have been like to read Shakespeare's Sonnets "among his private friends."This book, complete with glosses of difficult words and phrases and a thorough explanation of each poem, is as carefully edited as the acclaimed variorum edition published by Atkins in 2007, Shakespeare's Sonnets: With Three Hundred Years of Commentary. It has the same sensitive readings of verse that made his variorum edition unique. (For those particularly interested in Shakespeare's use of meter, Atkins has made a complete metrical analysis of all 154 poems, which serves as an excellent companion to Shakespeare's Sonnets Among His Private Friends. It is available free at amonghisprivatefriends.com.) Also unique to this edition is a look at how the last 28 sonnets about a "dark lady" may have been influenced by Christopher Marlowe's English translation of Ovid's erotic poems, Amores (Book 1 of which is included in an appendix).294 pages including appendix, bibliography and index

"Leo Daugherty is the best literary detective I Know. His discoveries here will change the ways we think about Shakespeare and his times."---Professor Steven Shaviro, wayne State University --Book Jacket.

This is the first edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets in over sixty years to bring together the commentary of various scholars. Atkins is the first to collate the seventeen scholarly editions of The Sonnets published since Rollins's New Variorum of 1944 so that substantive differences among them can be fully appreciated and compared. He has culled the most important commentary and emendations of Shakespeare's editors from Gildon (1710) to Mowat and Werstine (2004). The discussion of meter and verse is more substantial than can be found in any other edition, a feature that adds particular dimension to this text. Since the last edition, the study of The Sonnets has advanced significantly so that the issues discussed are freshly relevant. Each of the modern editions newly collated in this book has had a different approach. With few exceptions, however, previous commentary is given short shrift in each successive edition so that the reader of any one edition obtains only a small glimpse of the range of thought available on The Sonnets. This edition gives access in one volume to all the commentary, modern and time-honored, with which to interpret and appreciate these glorious poems. Atkins synthesizes this work and brings his own perspective and freshness to the field, adding to the long tradition of quality scholarship in Shakespeare studies. Each sonnet is presented exactly as printed in 1609. The original spelling and punctuation are maintained, the latter being an important guide to meaning and rhythm that is too often destroyed by modernizing editors. Textual notes documenting the emendations recommended by modern editors follow the text. Atkins includes his own conservative recommendations in his notes, the first editor to base decisions about emendations on bibliographic principles, using our knowledge of printing methods in Shakespeare's day to determine the likelihood of particular printing errors. Glosses of difficult words and phrases follow, mostly chosen from among Sh

How can we look afresh at Shakespeare as a writer of sonnets? What new light might they shed on his career, personality, and sexuality? Shakespeare wrote sonnets for at least thirty years, not only for himself, for professional reasons, and for those he loved, but also in his plays, as prologues, as epilogues, and as part of their poetic texture. This ground-breaking book assembles all of Shakespeare's sonnets in their probable order of composition. An inspiring introduction debunks long-established biographical myths about Shakespeare's sonnets and proposes new insights about how and why he wrote them. Explanatory notes and modern English paraphrases of every poem and dramatic extract illuminate the meaning of these sometimes challenging but always deeply rewarding witnesses to Shakespeare's inner life and professional expertise. Beautifully printed and elegantly presented, this volume will be treasured by students, scholars, and every Shakespeare enthusiast.

An original account of the reception and influence of Shakespeare's Sonnets in his own time and in later literary history.