A Comprehensive Guide to Shakespeare's Sonnets

This book provides readers with the tools to unravel the complexities of one of the most difficult sonnet sequences, introducing them to the literary tradition, themes, stylistic features and cultural contexts of the genre and the collection, and offering close readings of more than 100 sonnets. This combined approach enables readers not only to disentangle the complex relationships of the poems' characters but also to appreciate their philosophical, sensual, topical and subversive qualities. Of the book's two sections, the first, 'Contexts and Forms', includes chapters on the sonnet tradition, early publication history, the structural features of the sequence and the Shakespearean sonnet, as well as the main characteristics of the dramatis personae. The second section, 'Themes', consists of 5 chapters and explores the theme clusters that can be identified throughout the sequence (preservation, writing, desire, deception, imagination). Additional features of the book include a step-by-step approach to a Shakespeare sonnet, a model interpretation of a sonnet, as well as charts and tables identifying and summarizing the sequence's mini-narratives, groups, addressees and themes. For easy reference, the sonnets discussed in the book are cross-referenced and listed in the index, which also includes key terms and names of works and people. Suggestions for further reading are provided at the end of each chapter, and the annotated bibliography includes brief descriptions of the most useful works for further study.

Roland Weidle is Professor of English Literature at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. He was Vice-President of the Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft from 2011 to 2023. His publications include two monographs on Shakespeare and the textbook Early Modern English Literature: An Introduction (2013) (German).

List of Illustrations List of Tables Preface Introduction I CONTEXT AND FORMS 1. Sonnet Tradition 2. The Text Date The 1609 Quarto Early Editions of the Sonnets The Sonnets as Biography? 3. The Sequence, Dramatis Personae and Form The Sequence Dramatis Personae The Shakespearean Sonnet II THEMES 4. Preservation Procreation The Limits of Procreation 5. Writing Imitatio vs. Inventio Uses of Poetry The Rival Poet and the Marketplace Petrarchism 6. Desire Irrational and Contagious Desire Desire for the Youth Desire for the Mistress Triangular Desire 7. Deception Deceptive Desire Deception: Speaker and Youth Deception: Speaker and Mistress Poetry as Deception 8. Imagination The Imagined Youth The Imagined Mistress 9. By Way of a Conclusion Appendix 1. Pairs, Sequences, Groups and Theme Clusters 2. Conjectured Dates of Composition for the Sonnets 3. Addressees of the Sonnets 4. A step-by-step Approach to Sonnet 75 5. Model Interpretation of Sonnet 106 References and Commentary on Key Works Index