Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Shakespeare's First Folio
Shakespeare's First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book | Emma Smith
8 posts | 1 read | 2 to read
This is a biography of a book: the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays printed in 1623 and known as the First Folio. It begins with the story of its first purchaser in London in December 1623, and goes on to explore the ways people have interacted with this iconic book over the four hundred years of its history. Throughout the stress is on what we can learn from individual copies now spread around the world about their eventful lives. From ink blots to pet paws, from annotations to wineglass rings, First Folios teem with evidence of its place in different contexts with different priorities. This study offers new ways to understand Shakespeare's reception and the history of the book. Unlike previous scholarly investigations of the First Folio, it is not concerned with the discussions of how the book came into being, the provenance of its texts, or the technicalities of its production. Instead, it reanimates, in narrative style, the histories of this book, paying close attention to the details of individual copies now located around the world - their bindings, marginalia, general condition, sales history, and location - to discuss five major themes: owning, reading, decoding, performing, and perfecting. This is a history of the book that consolidated Shakespeare's posthumous reputation: a reception history and a study of interactions between owners, readers, forgers, collectors, actors, scholars, booksellers, and the book through which we understand and recognise Shakespeare.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
alisonrose
Pickpick

If you‘re a Shakesnerd, this is definitely a must-read! Not sure it would be of notable interest if not, but even from a history/literary sociology point of view it‘s really fascinating and super well-researched. I loved all of the stuff about people annotating their First Folios over the decades and centuries. It does get a bit repetitive at times, but not so much that it put me off. And now I really want my own damn First Folio! 4/5 ⭐️

38 likes1 stack add
quote
alisonrose

“O unprecedented act of bibliopegistic barbarity!”

[Me when someone cracks a spine.]

quote
alisonrose

In short, while these early Shakespeareans are probably the only readers for whom the First Folio has been a real reading text, they set in motion the engine of critical reception and readerly reinvention that has continued into the twenty-first century.

wordzie 😎 6y
31 likes1 comment
quote
alisonrose
post image

#catsgonnacat as far back as you look ☺️🐈

quote
alisonrose
post image

Honestly feeling so attacked right now 😜

JMEdwards 😮I might be guilty of this😮 6y
alisonrose @JMEdwards so say we all 😬 6y
36 likes2 comments
quote
alisonrose

“A book changes by the fact that it remains changeless while the world changes.”

[Historian Roger Chartier quoted by the author.]

blurb
alisonrose
post image

Just a slight change of pace from my previous read 😆🎭 #nowreading

38 likes1 stack add
blurb
LeahBergen
post image

When I‘m really geeking out, I wear my First Folio #BookishTee. 😂😂

#ReadingResolutions

TrishB Very cool 👍🏻 6y
JoScho 🖤🖤🖤 6y
LauraBeth ❤️ this! 6y
See All 16 Comments
CarolynM Love it! 6y
Palimpsest Love it! ❤️ 6y
saresmoore Excellent! 6y
CouronneDhiver 🙌🏽🙌🏽 6y
MemoirsForMe 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 6y
readordierachel Love it! 6y
vivastory Nice! I was able to see the first folio a couple of years ago, it was amazing! 6y
britt_brooke 😍 6y
batsy I love it 🖤 6y
RohitSawant Awesome! 6y
Hamlet I have a photo-facsimile copy of the First Folio; it‘s great! 6y
Cathythoughts Oh that‘s a fab shirt 👍🏻🖤 6y
DeborahSmall Love it ❤️ 6y
120 likes16 comments