A brilliant and companionable tour through all thirty-eight plays, Shakespeare After All is the perfect introduction to the bard by one of the country’s foremost authorities on his life and work. Drawing on her hugely popular lecture courses at Yale and Harvard over the past thirty years, Marjorie Garber offers passionate and revealing readings of the plays in chronological sequence, from The Two Gentlemen of Verona to The Two Noble Kinsmen. Supremely readable and engaging, and complete with a comprehensive introduction to Shakespeare’s life and times and an extensive bibliography, this magisterial work is an ever-replenishing fount of insight on the most celebrated writer of all time.

“The indispensable introduction to the indispensable writer. . . . Garber’s is the most exhilarating seminar room you’ll ever enter.” –Newsweek

“The best one-volume critical guide to the plays. . . . Stimulating and informative.” –San Jose Mercury News

“An enraptured ceremony of adoration. . . . Ambitious and thorough. . . . This is a useful book [and] a source of elucidation.” –Newsday

“[Garber’s] introduction is an exemplary account of what is known about Shakespeare and how his work has been read and regarded through the centuries, while the individual essays display scrupulous and subtle close reading.” –The New Yorker