← Back to discovery

Filthy Shakespeare

Pauline Kiernan

2006256 pagesabout 4–6 hours
2006
first published
  • 2007Quercus · 303 pages · ENGISBN 9781847240736
  • 2009Penguin USA, Inc. · ENGISBN 9781101160862
  • 2006Quercus · 256 pages · ENGISBN 9781905204755
  • 2007Gotham · 304 pages · ENGISBN 9781592403271

Celebrating the Bard in all his bawdy glory, an eminent scholar puts the spotlight on the down-and-dirty sexual puns lurking in Shakespeare's work.Everyone knows of his matchless understanding of the human condition, but we have been deprived for centuries of the full extent of one of Shakespeare's most brilliant dramatic devices. Restoring the saucy, often shocking meanings that lie beneath his words, Filthy Shakespeare gives modern readers a tour of the brothels, buggery, trannies, pimps, pricks, and other tawdry references populating his best-known works. The tension between sexual wordplay and politics provides a captivating historical backdrop, while the fascinating facts about life in Will's England make us see his masterworks in their gritty authenticity.Revealing and riotously funny, Filthy Shakespeare is the perfect gift for anyone who wants to rediscover the master of the sexual pun at his most inventive.

How it feels

HumourComic

How it reads

ComplexityLayered
How do you feel?