{"product_id":"shakespeares-tragedies-what-makes-them-great-hardcover","title":"Shakespeare's Tragedies: What Makes Them Great - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eRobert N. Watson\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA lively and provocative introduction to Shakespeare's five major tragedies, revealing their profoundly sympathetic and illuminating exploration of human experience.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003ci\u003eShakespeare's Tragedies\u003c\/i\u003e illuminates the majestic beauties and subtle insights of the great playwright's greatest works. Building from a helpful introduction of each tragedy, and progressing to advanced new interpretations, Watson reveals what these famous plays offer us as we confront the heartbreaking aspects of life and the redeeming virtues of our flawed humanity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Watson shows \u003ci\u003eRomeo and Juliet\u003c\/i\u003e providing dreamy romance, but also exploring the fears of sexual violence that Juliet must heroically overcome, in a play that marries comedy to tragedy, as love and death intertwine. Analyzing \u003ci\u003eHamlet\u003c\/i\u003e's centuries-long worldwide fame, Watson shows how it speaks to our Information (and Disinformation) Age, and why the conventional understanding of the most famous six syllables in all of literature--\"To be or not to be\"--is misguided and even dangerous.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Tracing the intertwined roles of race, religion, and sexuality in \u003ci\u003eOthello\u003c\/i\u003e, Watson explores the deep psychological roots of villainy, and shows how the play articulates the tragic costs of believing that love (from a person or a deity) must be bought or deserved, rather than embraced as a miracle. \u003ci\u003eKing Lear\u003c\/i\u003e amplifies those warnings, explodes many complacent certainties, and imposes an ending so multiply shocking that it was hidden for 150 years. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Watson demonstrates how the verbal details of \u003ci\u003eMacbeth\u003c\/i\u003e produce its psychological intensity and its relentlessly haunting aura, while also teaching environmentalist lessons and lamenting the inescapable double-bind of our ambitions, as individuals and as a species. The book concludes with a rousing advocacy for Shakespeare as an enduring force--across races, nations, genders, and generations--for understanding and justice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e The culmination of Robert N. Watson's distinguished career as a scholar and teacher, \u003ci\u003eShakespeare's Tragedies\u003c\/i\u003e explains, in fresh, accessible, and moving ways, why multitudes have treasured this playwright's tragic masterpieces for centuries. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRobert N. Watson is Distinguished Professor of English at UCLA, where he was awarded the university's top teaching prize. For years, hundreds of students filled Harvard's biggest classrooms for each of his Shakespeare lectures. He has been a Fellow for terms at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Head Scholar for the National Endowment for the Humanities' Teaching Shakespeare Institutes, a Shakespeare commentator on NPR and the BBC, and author of prize-winning books on Shakespeare and Renaissance culture.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 392\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.5 x 9.1 x 6.1 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 20, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67577419956473,"sku":"9781503647572","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/NanLUp_SPa9781503647572.webp?v=1793631056","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/shakespeares-tragedies-what-makes-them-great-hardcover","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}