Shakespeare's Last Plays

Edited by Stephen W. Smith and Travis Curtright.

What were Shakespeare's final thoughts on history, tragedy, and comedy? Shakespeare's Last Plays focuses much needed scholarly attention on Shakespeare's "Late Romances." The work—a collection of newly commissioned essays by leading scholars of classical political philosophy and literature—offers careful textual analysis of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, All is True, and The Two Noble Kinsmen.  The essays reveal how Shakespeare's thought in these final works compliments, challenges, fulfills, or transforms previously held conceptions of the playwright and his political-philosophical views.

"This collection will be really helpful to those who have grappled in captivated puzzlement with Shakespeare's late plays. The Catholic sensibility; the philospher's heroism of his stand-in, Prospero; the reconciliation of tragic and comic outcomes; the restorative power of art; the deformation of the plays in postmodern theory—these themes are just a sample of the scope and variety of these essays."—Eva Brann, St. John's College

"This volume contains essays by some of the world's leading students of Shakespearean politics on his last 'problem' plays. It is a must read for anyone who wishes to partake of Shakespeare's political wisdom—or simply to understand the plays themselves!"—Catherine H. Zuckert, Notre Dame University