A clear introduction to Shakespeare's plays, this volume examines them in detail and shows how Shakespeare dramatized moral and intellectual issues in such a way that his audience became dazzlingly aware of an imaginative dimension to daily life. Germaine Greer argues that as long as Shakespeare's work remains central to English cultural life, it will retain the values which make it unique in the world.

Germaine Greer is Special Lecturer and Unofficial Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the best-selling author of The Female Eunuch and Sex and Destiny.