Library

In 1623, the actors John Heming and Henry Condell compiled and published all of Shakespeare's plays they could find in the world-famous First Folio, creating one of the most dynamic and poetic treasures in English literature. Over the centuries, although these plays of Shakespeare have been published, interpreted, criticized, adapted, and performed countless times, their charm has not diminished. Whenever people need to think about issues such as conscience and morality, love and death, politics and war, their eyes will invariably turn to Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear-in other words, to Shakespeare, as if he has all the answers. Conrad, professor of literature at Oxford University, provides us with an in-depth interpretation of the popular code of Shakespeare's phenomenon from the perspective of text analysis, revealing to us the huge influence the playwright had on later culture, politics, and morality. He also analyzes in detail how writers, painters, musicians, and filmmakers around the world reinterpret them, thereby revealing the changes in human nature in modern society.