Shakespeare, said Ben Jonson, was not of an age but for all time. This is a book about him for our time.

. . .In this new book he surveys with common sense, stylish prose, and the insight that comes from a lifetime of study, all the plays and poems, setting them against what is known of their creator's life. . .

Stanley Wells is one of the best-known and most versatile of Shakespeare scholars.

The second part of Shakespeare, Sex, - and Love focuses on the variety of ways in which Shakespeare treats sexuality in his plays and at how he relates sexuality to love.

He brings each vividly to life, making you feel that you’ve met them personally in some Blackfriars tavern’ Simon Callow ‘It was a time and place teeming with excitement, anecdote and incident, and Wells, in this richly enjoyable work ...

Acting on recent discoveries, this volume presents the first full, scholarly edition to be based firmly on the quarto, now recognized as the base text from which all others derive.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly.

This is a major achievement of twentieth-century scholarship.' Times Literary Supplement ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe.

An indespensable companion to The Norton Shakespeare, Based on the Oxford Edition, this is the most comprehensive reference work on Shakespearean textual problems ever compiled in a single volume.

This concise, crystalline book conjures illuminating insights to reveal Shakespeare as he was. Wells brings the writer and dramatist alive, in all his fascinating humanity, for readers of today.