Tales from Shakespeare

By: Charles Lamb, Mary Lamb

Narrated by: Nadia May

A fabulous way to experience twenty of Shakespeare's thirty-seven plays, this retelling of the stories in prose was originally published just for children. Keeping Shakespeare's own words whenever possible, but making the plots and language easily understandable, this very readable collection has entertained and informed generations of adults as well. It is the ideal primer for anyone interested in becoming familiar with the works of the great bard. The plays summarized in this classic work are: The Tempest; A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Winter's Tale; Much Ado About Nothing; As You Like It; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; The Merchant of Venice; Cymbeline; King Lear; Macbeth; All's Well that Ends Well; The Taming of the Shrew; The Comedy of Errors; Measure for Measure; Twelfth Night; Timon of Athens; Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet; Othello; and Pericles, Prince of Tyre.(P)1993 by Blackstone Audiobooks

Great

We read these for our homeschool program. It is great for the kids to be able to listen to them as well.
Well read and includes all 20 of the stories from the Lamb's book.

Essentially, Synopses of the Plays

With each tale, one listens and learns that this happened, and then that happened, etc. Occasionally, dialogue from the plays are inserted, but not much. I just found it hard to get into this. I forced myself to finish because a knowledge of Shakespeare's plays is a good thing. Ideally, though, one wants to listen for no other reason than enjoyment. That wasn't the case for me.

I found the Stories from Shakespeare series much more entertaining.

Especially good for kids

Just so you can understand, this book re-tells Shakespeare's plays with a few direct quotes in a story format. We read this book for homeschool and I downloaded the audio so we can listen to the stories again. It's a great way to introduce kids to Shakespeare because they can follow the complicated plots more easily and really get a handle on what's going on. They're not too long so they don't get bored though sometimes I have to stop and review who's who and what's going on. My nine year old adhd son likes to act out these stories and remembers them too. He also understands references adults sometimes make to Shakespeare. (They will help adults to understand Shakespeare better too.)