ShakespeareÆs Sonnets Retold

An enlightening and entertaining collection of the most esteemed love poems in the English canon retold in contemporary language everyone can understand.James Anthony has long enjoyed poetry with a strict adherence to beat rhythm and rhyming patterns which he likens to the very best pop songs. This drew him to the rewarding 14-line structure of Shakespeare’s sonnets yet he often found their abstract language frustratingly unintelligible. One day out of curiosity he rewrote Sonnet 18 - Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day - line-by-line in the strict five-beat iambic pentameter and rhyming patterns of the original but in a contemporary language a modern reader could easily understand. The meaning and sentiment - difficult to spot initially - came to life revealing new intricacies in the workings of Shakespeare's heart.And so James embarked on a full-time year-long project to rewrite all 154 of the Bard's eternal verses creating Shakespeare's Sonnets Retold. This collection of masterful reinterpretations brilliantly demystifies and breathes new life into Shakespeare's work demonstrating the continued resonance of a playwright whose popularity remains over 400 years after his death. Now the passion heartbreak deception reconciliation and mortality of Shakespeare’s originals can be understood by all without the need to cross-reference to an enjoyment-sapping study guide. Coming with a foreword by Stephen Fry this is a stunning collection of beautiful love poems made new.Read by Paapa Essiedu James Anthony and Stephen Fry.