Review by Choice Review
Shakespeare has been quoted and misquoted since 1592 when Robert Greene inserted into an attack on him a parody of a line from Henry VI, Part II. The spring 1998 issue of Books in Print lists more than a dozen books of Shakespeare quotations issued over several decades by various compilers and publishers (including the Folger Shakespeare Library), but in no sense is any of these collections "complete." Passages from any of them can be taken out of context and used for purposes at variance with their meaning when spoken by a character in a given dramatic situation, or attributed as Shakespeare's own contention. For example, Charles DeLoache's The Quotable Shakespeare (CH, Dec'88) is an excellent topical dictionary that lacks any contextual interpretation of the quotations. Foakes identifies characters for each citation and "provides annotations designed to help the reader to understand the dramatic context and meaning of the passages." Selection is based on pithy expression, forceful style, current aptness, descriptive beauty, or the like. The modernized texts of the quotations are arranged alphabetically by topic; some are printed under two different topics with keywords fully indexed. Other indexes include those for characters, plays, and poems. Topics are listed at the beginning of the book. Recommended for all libraries. P. Kujoory; formerly, University of the District of Columbia
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
This highly selective compilation of approximately 3,700 quotations is by a UCLA professor emeritus of English (and contributor to The Shakespeare Quarterly) and his late wife. It uses the modern-spelling text of Riverside Shakespeare (Houghton, 1974), whereas the standard work, Stevenson's Home Book of Shakespeare Quotations (Scribner, 1937; repr. Macmillan, 1987), with some 90,000 quotations, is based upon the revised Globe edition (1911). Like Stevenson, Foakes is arranged alphabetically by topic with numerous see also and a few see references; but unlike Stevenson, its considerably fewer topics are not subdivided. Among topics in Foakes but not Stevenson are anti-Semitism, exorcism, homelessness, last words, misogyny, and politics. The strength of Foakes lies in its annotations to most quotations, providing explanations of changes in meaning or style since Shakespeare's day. Stevenson's annotations, on the other hand, are frequently devoted to the number of times a word or phrase was used by Shakespeare; much less frequently do they explain meanings. Whereas Stevenson concludes with a very full index and concordance, the title under review has four indexes: character, play, poem, and keyword. The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations from Shakespeare complements Stevenson's Home Book of Shakespeare Quotations by its approach to annotations--an emphasis on explaining changes in meaning since Shakespeare's time--and the inclusion of character, play, and poem indexes, and a solid keyword index. It is recommended for high-school, public, and academic libraries that do not own Stevenson but want to provide more coverage of Shakespeare than is afforded by general quotation dictionaries. It may also be considered a useful supplemental title for libraries owning Stevenson. (Reviewed October 1, 1998)
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Reginald Foakes, a noted Shakespearean critic, and Mary Foakes, once a librarian at the Shakespeare Center at Stratford-upon-Avon, combine their talents to produce a well-organized, well-indexed, and instructive resource. Arranged topically, it presents quotations on 600 subjects ranging from absence to youth. Each quotation includes the title of the play, character speaking, act, scene, line number (keyed to the Riverside Shakespeare), and notes that place the quotation in context. Students and casual users will love the contextual information, and reference librarians will welcome a resource that provides the answer when patrons ask, "Who said this?" Because notable collections such as the Folger Book of Shakespeare Quotations and the Longman Guide to Shakespeare Quotations are out of print, this work and Hugh Rawson's A Dictionary of Quotations from Shakespeare (Meridian, 1996) are the two best sources available for Shakespeare quotations. Smaller libraries already owning the less expensive Rawson text will not need to add this title, but it is highly recommended for all academic and large public libraries regardless of their current holdings.Neal Wyatt, Chesterfield Cty. P.L., Richmond, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-The editors' intention in this necessarily limited collection of quotations is to put the excerpts into the context of the original lines in the plays or sonnets from which they have been taken. The book is organized by topics ("Age," "Duplicity," "Fish"), followed by passages of about five or six lines. After each selection, the citation, the character, and usually the context of the lines are given. If a reference is obscure, the explanation is more elaborate. Indexes provide access by play and poem, by character, and by keyword. While the explanations of context are useful, this is a secondary reference tool. Some of the best known quotations are hard to find. "Double, double, toil and trouble..." is found in the keyword index only under "Double," which most people routinely mix up with "bubble"; it is listed in the topic index under "Occult" rather than the more ordinary "magic" or "spells." The topics are cross-referenced, but the use of both "Avarice" and "Greed" to split up a total of three quotes seems awkward and unnecessary. This is unlikely to be the first choice of novice scholars.-Sally Margolis, Barton Public Library, VT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
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