An Introduction
Early in 2012, Annabelle gave herself an ultimatum: Shakespeare: Now or Never!
She tried to embark her friends back home in this project, and they did not have the heart to turn her down, but the plan fizzled out to watching a movie based on a Shakespeare play about once a month, whenever a few of them could get together. Some tried to juggle reading Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest and The Taming of the Shrew with their very complicated lives, but it was just too much to ask of them just to humor Annabelle's whim.
Annabelle and I live about 2,800 miles apart. We live close-by only three months a year, but I was eager to jump on the Shakespeare bandwagon with her regardless of the distance. I followed her plan loosely, reading the plays assigned and doing some additional reading, but I was unable to find a way to contribute to any discussion on the subject, and apparently, the discussions did not blossom.
When she came to the States in October, I immediately pushed a Shakespeare plan: Let's read a play a month, with the additional materials and discuss them when we got together on Saturdays. How about a book club for two? Or three or four, if we include Harold Bloom and Marjorie Garber, our Shakespeare gurus, or six, if we add Bill Bryson and Stephen Greenblatt, whose William Shakespeare biographies we have handy, or seven, if we count A.D. Nuttall, or even eight with Jonathan Bate.... See? Our book club was quickly getting populated, although our fellow members were not present in the flesh!
We started with Antony and Cleopatra, and gave ourselves plenty of reading time, basically an act a week. We ended up devouring the play and the chapters in Bloom, Garber and Nuttall. Our discussions were lively and interesting. It was working!
In November we read King Lear. Another resounding success!
December was for Richard III, and the evil kingdom enthralled us! (even though Bloom does not like it that much and dismissed it in a very flimsy chapter).
Now, Annabelle is back home. Again thousands of miles separate us. Our plan is to read the 35 (37?) plays plus the sonnets in time for the 400 anniversary of Shakespeare's death. in April of 2016. Annabelle has confided that she hopes she is still alive by then, and I'll drink to that!
This simple blog is my attempt to memorialize this excellent adventure, which has already been delightful and I am thinking will change us forever. I am grateful to Annabelle for this gift of Shakespeare, which will keep me very busy for the next 40 months.
Maria
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