Shakespeare’s Sonnets Among His Private Friends
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 getting together with friends to read his new sonnet cycle. Shakespeare’s Sonnets increase the reader’s interest by adding a love triangle to the usual tale of thwarted love and 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 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 as he helps you figure out their story. See what it might have been like to read Shakespeare’s Sonnets “among his private friends.”
This book is complete with glosses of difficult words and phrases and a thorough explanation of each poem. 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).
There’s also a metrical analysis of the poems available free at www.amonghisprivatefriends.com.
Author info
Carl D. Atkins has studied Shakespeare for decades. In addition to the variorum of The Sonnets he edited in 2007 (only the fourth variorum edition since The Sonnets were printed in 1609), he has published two articles on The Sonnets and one on Measure for Measure, all in the respected journal, Studies in Philology.
Available NOW in hardcover ($20.99), paperback ($13.95) and ebook ($8.99).