William Shakespeare's Star Wars by Ian Doescher

William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope by Ian Doescher
Title: William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope
Author: Ian Doescher
Publisher: Quirk Books
Publication Date: July 2013
Length: 174
Series: William Shakespeare's Star Wars (#1)
Audio or Book: Book
Reason for Discovery: Review Copy

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


From GoodReads:

Inspired by one of the greatest creative minds in the English language—and William Shakespeare—here is an officially licensed retelling of George Lucas's epic Star Wars in the style of the immortal Bard of Avon. The saga of a wise (Jedi) knight and an evil (Sith) lord, of a beautiful princess held captive and a young hero coming of age, Star Wars abounds with all the valor and villainy of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. ’Tis a tale told by fretful droids, full of faithful Wookiees and fearsome Stormtroopers, signifying...pretty much everything. Reimagined in glorious iambic pentameter—and complete with twenty gorgeous Elizabethan illustrations—William Shakespeare’s Star Wars will astound and edify Rebels and Imperials alike. Zounds! This is the book you’re looking for.

William Shakespeare's Star Wars: The Empire Striketh Back by Ian DoescherTitle: William Shakespeare's Star Wars: The Empire Striketh Back
Author: Ian Doescher
Publisher: Quirk Books
Publication Date: March 2014
Length: 176
Series: William Shakespeare's Star Wars (#1)
Audio or Book: Book
Reason for Discovery: Review Copy

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

From GoodReads:

Hot on the heels of the New York Times best seller William Shakespeare’s Star Wars comes the next two installments of the original trilogy: William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back and William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return. Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter. Illustrated with beautiful black-and-white Elizabethan-style artwork, these two plays offer essential reading for all ages. Something Wookiee this way comes!

Verily, A New Hope and The Empire Striketh Back are retellings of A New Hope (Episode 4) and The Empire Strikes Back (Episode 5) as Shakespearean plays. 

You guys! These are the funnest (is funnest a word? I am making it a word) Star Wars books ever. My friend bought Verily, A New Hope last year and mentioned that it was great fun. After reading it myself, I have to agree with her. I must admit that I was a bit worried about reading these books. When I was in high school, I had to read Julius Caesar and Hamlet and they were both challenges for me. I had a hard time deciphering the Shakespearean English. I was happy to discover that these books were very understandable to me. The books are written in Shakespearean English but not dense Shakespearean English. I wish that I had these books before I read real Shakespearean plays. I wonder, if these books would have helped me prepare for Julius Caesar and Hamlet.

In addition to doing a good job with the understandable Shakespearean English, Doescher uses a ton of Shakespearean techniques like using a chorus, having secondary characters describe off-screen events, and changing the meter depending on the character (e.g., Boba Fett and Yoda). Doescher explains why he chose certain literary devices in the two books' afterwards. He clearly put a lot of thought into these books.

These plays follow the Star Wars movies quite well. It was neat to see how Doescher translated the dialogue from the movies into Shakespearean English. I found myself skipping around to my favorite scenes to see how he translated them into Shakespearean English. Also, Chewbacca and R2-D2 have the best dialogue (lots of growling sounds and droid beeps). Like I have mentioned previously, these books are written as plays, so the books are broken into Acts and Scenes; however, there are no stage directions or anything that bogs down the dialogue. 

So you might be wondering what you should do with these books. Although I enjoyed reading through these books and reading some scenes with my husband, I can't wait to get a group of friends together to do readings. I think it would be great to mix Star Wars movie nights with readings from these books. A lot of the scenes are fairly short, so you can do a bunch of them.

In addition to the text, the physical books are quite cute. The dust jackets have gorgeous colored  drawings (see covers above) and have a great feel and texture. In addition, if you remove the dust jackets, you will find covers that look worn and look like classic Shakespearean texts. My husband commented that he likes the covers better than the dust jackets. Inside the books, there are pencil drawings that are similar in style to the drawings on the covers. They are quite fun.

Overall, I really enjoyed these two books, and I can't wait to read the third book.

I give these two books a 5 out of 5.
Excellent

 

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