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From Shakespeare - With Love (The Best of Sonnets)

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From Shakespeare - With Love (The Best of Sonnets)

By: William Shakespeare
Narrated by: David Tennant, Juliet Stevenson, Anton Lesser, Maxine Peake, Stella Gonet, Bertie Carvel, Alex Jennings
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About this listen

Shakespeare's Sonnets, one of the most remarkable collections of poetry, was first published in 1609, 400 years ago by Mr Thomas Thorpe. Naxos AudioBooks marks the occasion with a selection of 80 of the finest, read by leading actors. The selection includes famous ones such as 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day' as well as lesser well-known sonnets though of equally fine stature.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2009 Naxos Audiobooks (P)2009 Naxos Audiobooks European Poetry World Literature Shakespeare

Editor reviews

This collection of the best of Shakespeare's love sonnets celebrates the 400th anniversary of their first appearance in print. They're perfect for audio. Director Timson lets the poems speak for themselves through the voices and interpretations of a group of diverse and talented actors. Listeners are treated to some lesser-known sonnets as well as some of the most famous, including David Tennant's narration of Sonnet 18: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"; Juliet Stevenson's version of Sonnet 116: "Let me not to the marriage of true minds . . ."; and David Timson's rendering of Sonnet 29: "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes. . . ." Each gem illustrates Shakespeare's take on the multifaceted nature of love, from obsession and possession to longing and delight.
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This is a wonderful collection, to which I have listened many, many times. David Tennant is brilliant as are most of the others. The only possible exception is a lady whose voice rises and falls inexplicably with every word - though as names are not properly supplied with audible downloads, I have no idea who she is. My main problem is with the Audible version. They leap in as soon as David Tennant has finished reading the final sonnet with a deep, jaunty, Corporate America, voice, 'Audible hopes you have enjoyed this programme'. It's horrible! David's last words should be left lingering in silence and they have completely ruined it.

Wonderful - but Audible spoiled it

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A good selection of Shakespeare's sonnets, read with a refreshing variety of accents and performing styles. Highly reccommended.

First-rate actors read his Sonnets beautifully

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I found some of the readers a little idiosyncratic and a little too dramatic, for me at least.
The sonnets themselves - the wit I found to be a bit stark and a bit too much of a period piece - to my surprise. More like Two Gentlemen of Verona than The Tempest.

Mixed

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