Recent Reads - Much Ado About Nothing

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Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare - This Shakespeare comedy follows the romances of two very different couples and the machinations of their friends that help and hurt their causes.

In Act I we meet all the main characters and are introduced to the conflicts. Sharp-tongued Beatrice and her cousin Hero are the two ladies, and Benedick and Claudio are the young men they are paired with. Beatrice and Benedick seem to have a past, indicated by her sarcastic jabs at him and his vehement declaration that he will remain a bachelor. Hero and Claudio, however, fall in love at first sight with barely a word spoken. We also meet Hero's father Leonato and Don Pedro, the prince. Benedick and Claudio are officers serving under Don Pedro in the war.

Later we meet Don John, Don Pedro's brother, and the villain of the piece. Don John is jealous of Claudio's rising fortunes and feels that his own position has been usurped by the younger man. Determined to remove his rival, Don John enters into a scheme with a couple of servants to trick Claudio into believing that Hero is unfaithful to him. Claudio falls for the deception, and accuses the innocent Hero during their wedding. Hero faints and Claudio storms out. More trickery is involved as Claudio is led to believe that Hero has died.

Meanwhile, there is an effort of matchmaking between Beatrice and Benedick, and despite their failed past romance, they do rekindle their affections, and after trading barbs and then witnessing the tragedy between Hero and Claudio, they declare their love for each other.

In the end, all comes right for Hero and Claudio as well. The scandal dies down a bit, Claudio grieves his lost love, and he finds out that it was a trick! Then Claudio agrees to an arranged marriage with a "niece" of Leonato's, and at the masked wedding, it turns out his bride is none other than Hero, who of course had not died after all.

I read this play and studied it along with students in my high school literature co-op class. We discovered how the play made use of the classical unities of place, time, and action. We also learned about the story value of love, and discussed the twists and turns that the love stories of the two couples took through conflicts and changes. 

Our discussion and study was guided by the textbook Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis from Writing with Sharon Watson.

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Recent Reads {King Alfred's English}

King Alfred's English (A History of the Language We Speak and Why We Should Be Glad We Do) by Laurie J White - I can't say enough about how entertaining AND educational this book is!  It was reviewed by the Schoolhouse Review Crew in the summer, and although I wasn't chosen to receive it for the review, I bought it right away.  (Please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew post King Alfred's English and visit links to the detailed reviews posted by Crew members.)  I was going to read it immediately, but always had other things going on, and I wanted to read the whole thing at one time.  So although I skimmed through it, I didn't read it cover to cover until this past week. 

Author Laurie J White has been an English and History teacher and homeschooled her own children.  Her love of the history of the English language began when she took a course in college.  She wrote this book as a fun and engaging guide to history, linguistics, and English literature, and the history of the English Bible; and it's geared to students in grades 7 through 12 or interested adults.  The book itself is a tour through the history of Britain and how each wave of invasion, immigration, alliance, invention, and religious movement affected the development of the English language.  It makes for fast-paced and entertaining reading, written in a conversational and often humorous style.  She includes stories of several English authors whose writings greatly influenced the development of our English language, and explains why and how the English Bible had a huge impact on the language.  There are also sections about linguistics and word histories, showing how words have morphed and changed over time, and how grammar has shifted and simplified.  

Free supplemental materials for students are available at the author's website, The Shorter Word, and by using them, this book can become the basis of a half-credit history course for high schoolers, or a combined 1/4 credit history and 1/4 credit English course.

I enjoyed the book from beginning to end, and I know it's one I will re-read.  I have been looking at the supplemental materials just for my own interest, and I am pretty sure this will find a place in our homeschool curriculum in years to come.

Recent Reads {Lady Macbeth}

Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King - I genuinely enjoyed this historical novel featuring Lady Macbeth telling her own story. My previous knowledge about Macbeth and his queen was limited to what little I remember from Shakespeare's play, so this novel based on historical evidence (what little there is) of these eleventh-century Scottish monarchs was an eye-opener. King has taken the bits of pieces known about Macbeth, his queen (Gruoch, or Gruadh, shortened in the novel to a nickname - Rue) and her previous marriage, and the other kings of the time, and woven them together with historical information about battles and conflicts and daily life in Scotland at that time. She imagines Gruadh as a strong warrior-princess of Scotland, a leader with her own claim to the High Kingship and her own sorrows and joys and challenges. The story captured my interest early on, and kept me engaged throughout, so that I felt just a bit disappointed that I'd reached the end of the book! I also really appreciated that she told her story in a dignified manner - without stooping to bodice-ripping or anything unnecessary like that. Good book, and I may check into other titles by this author!

Recent Reads {The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare}

The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare by Arliss Ryan - Up front I should say that if all the comments I make about the Recent Reads seem to be favorable, it's because all the books are my choice, and generally if I don't care for it at all during the first chapter or two, I won't finish it. In other words, I wind up only commenting here on the books that I enjoyed! This book was on display at the library quite some time ago and the description intrigued me. Unfortunately, I didn't always find that it lived up to my expectations, and I considered dropping it a few times so it's a little different from other books I've discussed here. However, I did finish it, and although it won't earn a top rating from me, it wasn't a complete disappointment or waste of time.

Considering his importance in Literature, surprisingly little is known about William Shakespeare, and far less is known about his family - particularly his wife Anne. In this novel, Ryan writes from Anne's point of view, as a memoir of sorts of her life with William. So the premise is very intriguing, especially as the memoir reveals that Anne wrote or co-wrote approximately half of the plays attributed to her husband. Over the years, many theories have been advanced by people who are unwilling to accept that all the sonnets and plays came from Shakespeare's own hand as to who the true author may have been and why they would not have taken credit for them. Personally, I hadn't heard of any theories suggesting that Anne had any part in the writing, but I guess that's been proposed. I doubt it's very likely, but it's plausible. My very unlearned opinion is that Shakespeare was, in fact, the author. At any rate, the Anne Shakespeare of this work of fiction doesn't paint her husband in a very flattering light, and since she claims authorship of most of the best (and my personal favorite) Shakespearean plays, that may have affected my attitude toward the book. In the end, I rather felt that if I was reading the personal memoirs of the person that wrote Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, that the memoirs should make for beautiful, expressive, and attention-grabbing reading, even if interspersed with the mundane of life. But in my opinion, this book was spotty - moments of interest but certainly didn't keep me turning pages, and I was never emotionally invested in it at all.