This book opens up "Twelfth Night" as a play to see and hear, provides useful contextual and source material, and considers the critical and theatrical reception over four centuries. A detailed performance commentary brings to life the many moods of Shakespeare's subtle but robust humor. Students are encouraged to imagine the theatrical challenges of Shakespeare's Illyria afresh for themselves, as well as the thought, creative responses and wonder it has provoked.

X-kit Literature Guides explains the history, environment and the story of the text in broad terms. It discusses every major character and theme in the text in detail using pictures and diagrams to explain concepts. X-kit Literature Guides provides plenty of practise questions and answers and tips on how to tackle your literature exam.

This edition of Hamlet offers a uniquely interactive approach to one of Shakespeare's most performed plays.

William Shakespeare did not intend that his plays be read as texts only - they were meant to be acted, seen and heard. This exciting edition of Hamlet offers a wealth of supporting material to encourage understanding and appreciation of this remarkable play as well as meet all the requirements of the CAPS and preparation for the Grade 12 examination.

The features of this edition include:

• A detailed introduction to prepare learners for studying the key literature features and characteristics of the play
• A short biography of Shakespeare
• Background information about the context of the play
• A summary of each Act
• A complete and authoritative text of the play
• An attractive double-page spread layout, which includes notes and activities that: Assist with pre-reading and during reading; Explain difficult language; Provide useful background information; Explore characters, themes, words and images; and stimulate thoughts on how to stage the play
• Pre-reading questions before each Act
• Questions and activities at the end of each Act to consolidate understanding and for revision
• Exam preparation, including sample contextual and essay questions, and guidance for answering both types of questions as well as suggested answers
• A list of references
• A detailed glossary of terms for literature study and drama.

This edition is fully illustrated with drawings and story-boards for each Act as well as photographs to support and extend the understanding and enjoyment of Hamlet.

The X-Kit Achieve! Literature series offers a unique series of visually attractive, high-quality exam preparation tools. The series has been written by top South African educationalists. The books cover all the knowledge and skills tested in the final English Home Language and First Additional Language literature exams for the FET phase. Plot, theme, character, style, symbolism and imagery are all discussed in detail, and thoroughly taught and tested. Study and exam preparation techniques are covered and exam questions provided. Answers are also provided for all the questions to allow learners to monitor their own understanding. This study guide aims to provide you with sufficient support for doing really well in your Grade 12 English examination. This study guide will provide: All the background information needed for a full understanding of Cry, the Beloved Country.; Summaries, including a precis of the whole play, plus details of acts and scenes.; Important quotes for use in exams.; An analysis of the play that will help you understand the plot and develop insight and appreciation.; Pointers about the characters for quick and easy revision.; A summary of the key themes.; Comprehensive exam preparation assistance, including test-yourself questions, sample contextual questions and full answers; and A glossary explaining literature terminology. About the author, Alan Paton: Born in Pietermaritzburg in 1903, Alan Paton attended Pietermaritzburg College and then studied science at the University of Natal. He graduated in 1922 and obtained his teaching certificate in 1923. In 1925, he went to teach at a school in Ixopo attended by black children. In 1928, he took a post at Pietermaritzburg College, a prestigious, whites-only boys' school, where he taught for seven years. He started writing poetry and novels, but was critical of his novel-writing efforts and destroyed these early stories. In 1935, he became principal of Diepkloof Reformatory. Here, he instituted a number of reforms and the reformatory succeeded in rehabilitating juvenile criminals into society. He felt that with greater freedom in the way the reformatory was run, the boys would be better adapted to life outside the reformatory when released. At the start of the Second World War, Paton wanted to join the army, but was asked to stay on at the reformatory instead. After the war, while travelling to study prisons and reform schools elsewhere in the world, Paton had the idea for his novel Cry, the Beloved Country, which he wrote most of while travelling abroad. Paton was convinced that young urban black people drifted into crime because of a lack of opportunities to make a living and as a result of broken families and tribes around the country. This lack of stability of home and culture left the young without an anchor, and the unfair laws of the time inhibited them from finding an honest way to make a living. In creating his characters for Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton drew on three major schools of thought at that time: There was a desire by white people to keep the black people in their place.; There was an opposite desire among black activists to demand equality more and more violently; and There was the attitude of "brotherly love" as embodied by the Christian churches predominant at that time. As a devout Christian, Paton seemed to conclude in his novel that having an attitude of brotherly love offers the only hope for the future, but this idea was fiercely opposed. Although Paton wrote this novel in 1946, the themes and issues he explores are still interesting and relevant now. This eBook is in ePDF format, which enables you to: View the entire book offline on desktop or tablet.; Search for and highlight text; and Add and edit personal notes directly in your eBook.

X-kit Literature Guides explains the history, environment and the story of the text in broad terms. It discusses every major character and theme in the text in detail using pictures and diagrams to explain concepts. X-kit Literature Guides provides plenty of practise questions and answers and tips on how to tackle your literature exam.

The X-Kit Achieve! Literature series offers a unique series of visually attractive, high-quality exam preparation tools. The series has been written by top South African educationalists. The books cover all the knowledge and skills tested in the final English Home Language and First Additional Language literature exams for the FET phase. Plot, theme, character, style, symbolism and imagery are all discussed in detail, and thoroughly taught and tested. Study and exam preparation techniques are covered and exam questions provided. Answers are also provided for all the questions to allow learners to monitor their own understanding. This study guide aims to provide you with sufficient support for doing really well in your Grade 12 English examination. This study guide will provide: All the background information needed for a full understanding of Cry, the Beloved Country.; Summaries, including a precis of the whole play, plus details of acts and scenes.; Important quotes for use in exams.; An analysis of the play that will help you understand the plot and develop insight and appreciation.; Pointers about the characters for quick and easy revision.; A summary of the key themes.; Comprehensive exam preparation assistance, including test-yourself questions, sample contextual questions and full answers; and A glossary explaining literature terminology. About the author, Alan Paton: Born in Pietermaritzburg in 1903, Alan Paton attended Pietermaritzburg College and then studied science at the University of Natal. He graduated in 1922 and obtained his teaching certificate in 1923. In 1925, he went to teach at a school in Ixopo attended by black children. In 1928, he took a post at Pietermaritzburg College, a prestigious, whites-only boys' school, where he taught for seven years. He started writing poetry and novels, but was critical of his novel-writing efforts and destroyed these early stories. In 1935, he became principal of Diepkloof Reformatory. Here, he instituted a number of reforms and the reformatory succeeded in rehabilitating juvenile criminals into society. He felt that with greater freedom in the way the reformatory was run, the boys would be better adapted to life outside the reformatory when released. At the start of the Second World War, Paton wanted to join the army, but was asked to stay on at the reformatory instead. After the war, while travelling to study prisons and reform schools elsewhere in the world, Paton had the idea for his novel Cry, the Beloved Country, which he wrote most of while travelling abroad. Paton was convinced that young urban black people drifted into crime because of a lack of opportunities to make a living and as a result of broken families and tribes around the country. This lack of stability of home and culture left the young without an anchor, and the unfair laws of the time inhibited them from finding an honest way to make a living. In creating his characters for Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton drew on three major schools of thought at that time: There was a desire by white people to keep the black people in their place.; There was an opposite desire among black activists to demand equality more and more violently; and There was the attitude of "brotherly love" as embodied by the Christian churches predominant at that time. As a devout Christian, Paton seemed to conclude in his novel that having an attitude of brotherly love offers the only hope for the future, but this idea was fiercely opposed. Although Paton wrote this novel in 1946, the themes and issues he explores are still interesting and relevant now. This eBook is in ePDF format, which enables you to: View the entire book offline on desktop or tablet.; Search for and highlight text; and Add and edit personal notes directly in your eBook.

X-kit Achieve! Literature Study Guides make nationally prescribed novels and dramas accessible to learners to help them prepare for exams. They provide insight into the author and context of the writing, analysis of critical themes, plots and characters and plenty of exercises for exam preparation.

This teaching edition of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" responds to the needs of instructors using a variety of approaches to Shakespeare, including feminist, historical, and cultural studies approaches. The play is accompanied by four sets of primary documents and illustrations thematically arranged to offer a richly textured understanding of early modern culture and Shakespeare's work within that culture. The texts include facsimiles of period documents, excerpts of conduct literature on marriage and on wife and servant beating, sermons, popular ballads, literary works offering alternative endings to Shakespeare's play, and documents on women's legal status. The primary documents contextualize the play's treatment of assertive women, marital conflict, and domestic disorder and violence. Editorial features designed to help students read the play in light of the historical documents include an intelligent and engaging general introduction, and introduction to each thematic group of documents, thorough headnotes and glosses for the primary documents (presented in modern spelling), and an extensive bibliography.

These 19 characters can be played with a minimum of 9 actors doubling, if preferred. A riotous reworking of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Featuring Ophelia, her maid, St Joan and a couple of locals -- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. (7 male, 12 female).

S H A K E S P E A R E -- PREFACE The text of this edition of Julius Casar is based upon a collation of the seventeenth century Folios, the Globe edition, and that of Delius. As compared with the text of the earlier editions of Hudsons Shakespeare, it is conservative. Exclusive of changes in spelling, punctuation, and stage directions, very few emendations by eighteenth century and nineteenth century editors have been adopted and these, with every variation from the First Folio, are indicated in the textual notes. These notes are printed immediately below the text so that a reader or student may see at a glance the evidence in the case of a disputed reading and have some definite understanding of the reasons for those differences in the text of Shakespeare which frequently surprise and very often annoy. A consideration of the more poetical, or the more dramatically effective, of two variant readings will often lead to rich results in awakening a spirit of discriminating interpretation and in developing true creative criticism. In no sense is this a textual variorum edition. The variants given are only those of importance and high authority. The spelling and the punctuation of the text are modern, except in the case of verb terminations in - ed, which, when the e is silent, are printed with the apostrophe in its place. This is the general usage in the First ... Folio. Modern spelling has to a certain extent been followed in the text variants but the original spelling has been retained wherever its peculiarities have been the basis for important textual criticism and emendation. With the exception of the position of the textual variants, the plan of this edition is similar to that of theold Hudson Shakespeare. It is impossible to specify the various instances of revision and rearrangement in the matter of the Introduction and the interpretative notes, but the endeavour has been to retain all that gave the old edition its unique place and to add the results of what seems vital and permanent in later inquiry and research. While it is important that the principle of suum cuique be attended to so far as is possible in matters of research and scholarship, it is becoming more and more difficult to give every man his own Shakespearian annotation. The amount of material accumulated is so great that the identity-origin of much important comment and suggestion is either wholly lost or so crushed out of shape as to be beyond recognition. Instructive significance perhaps attaches to this in editing the works of one who quietly made so much of materials gathered by others. But the list of authorities given on page lv will indicate the chief source of much that has gone to enrich the value of this edition. Professor W. P. Trent, of Columbia University, has offered valuable suggestions and given important advice and to Mr. M. Grant Daniells patience, accuracy, and judgment this volume owes both its freedom from many a blunder and its possession of a carefully arranged index. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. S 0 c - - - - - - . - - THEMAINSTOR - Y - - - - - NORTHS P LUTARCH - - - - - APPIANS R OMAN WARS - - - - EARLIERP LAYS - - - - - - THE S CENE O F THE ASSASSINATIO - N - - E T T U, B R U T E - - - - - - BRUTUSS PEECH1,1 1, ii - - - - - 11. DATE O F COMPOSITIO - N - - - - - EXTERNALEVIDENCE - - - - - - INTERNALEVIDENCE - - - - - - 111. EARLY EDITIONS - - - - - - - FOLIOS - - - - - - THE QUARTO OF 1691 - - - - - RO ESEDITION - S - - - - - IV. THETITLE - - - - - - - - V. DRAMATICCO NSTRUCTI A O N N D DEVELOPMEN - T - ANALYSI B S Y ACT AND SCENE - - - VI...

This series provide a setwork and study guide in one. Easy to use and clearly structured, the Spot On Literature series provides useful information about the novel and author, including quotations, contextual and historical information. It provides guidance on how to write an essay and answer contextual questions, while mock examination questions and answers aid in Grade 12 Literature exam preparation.