Bevington, David, Shakespeare, Blackwell, 2002.

Bevington is a major Shakespeare scholar and editor of his plays. Shakespeare examines major themes that Shakespeare uses throughout his plays, such as love, jealously, hate, and family ties, and how these universal themes allow twenty-first century readers to enjoy and understand these plays written over four hundred years ago.

Bloom, Harold, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Riverhead Trade, 1999.

Bloom, one of the most renowned literary critics of contemporary times, makes the controversial assertion that Shakespeare taught humanity how to be human.

Garber, Marjorie, B., Shakespeare After All, Pantheon, 2004.

Shakespeare After All is a readable and comprehensive critical study of Shakespeare's plays.

Kermode, Frank, The Age of Shakespeare, Modern Library, 2004.

Kermode provides an authoritative account of the history and culture of Elizabethan England in relation to the plays.

Schoenbaum, Samuel S., Shakespeare's Lives, Oxford University Press, 1991.

Shakespeare's Lives is the definitive...