When Shakespeare met Gilbert

Author: Zhang Xichang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-11-01
Features: Shakespeare, the renowned English poet and playwright, possesses profound insights into human nature, enabling him to create vivid and lifelike characters. Whether rich or poor, noble or humble, all come to life in his works. His legacy of thirty-seven plays and one hundred fifty-four sonnets has long been celebrated as classics of English literature, including masterpieces such as "Romeo and Juliet," "Hamlet," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and "King Lear." With unparalleled charm, he wields the power of words to bring characters to life before the audience, and his achievements in literature and drama remain admired to this day. Accompanying the numerous reprints of Shakespeare's plays, many renowned painters have contributed outstanding illustrations of Shakespearean works, which have also become treasures of human cultural heritage. Gilbert stands out among them. This celebrated British etcher has created over eight hundred illustrations for Shakespeare's plays, making him the most prolific artist to illustrate Shakespeare's works in the 19th century. This book collects over eight hundred of his exquisite illustrations, vividly depicting the settings and contexts of the stories, allowing readers to understand Shakespeare's works from the perspective of an illustrator. To help readers appreciate the stories of Shakespeare's plays, this book includes summaries of the plots and appends corresponding excerpts from the plays below each illustration (all based on the translation by Mr. Zhu Shenghao [1912-1944]).