Every time Shakespeare is read or taught one faces a challenge: how to make him comprehensible to the eager student. This is what the present work daringly sets out to do. It provides the reader with biographical, socio-political and the literary background of Shakespeare.
Julius Caesar belongs to the group of the Roman plays. It is both a history play and a tragedy. There are three plays within this group, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus. There are other plays concerned with Roman historical figures, but they do not fall within this group. Titus Andronicus is a Senecan tragedy and Timon of Athens a Problem comedy. Julius Caesar is a play faithful to history, for Shakespeare had followed the Roman historian Plutarch very closely; yet it is not just a history play, as shall be seen in the chapter dealing with the genre of the play. It has been called, in addition to a historical tragedy, a morality play and a revenge tragedy. The complexity of the play can be imagined from these simple indications.
This book in The Atlantic Critical Studies series focuses on the major elements of the play. A scene-wise critical summary of the text is given in order to familiarise the reader with the play. Numerous quotations from the text have also been given. Different elements of drama have been analysed along with the views of renowned critics. Classical theories as well as more recent critical views have been given, which makes the book useful to the teachers as well as students of English literature, especially Shakespeare. Select Bibliography has been provided to stimulate further reading and Index is given for easy location of terms.

Ratri Ray is a retired university Professor and Head of the Deptt. of English, Patna University. She obtained her Ph.D. and D. Litt. degrees in 1981 and 2002 respectively. Her studies of six Shakespearean plays, according to the Rasavāda, had been serialized in the cultural periodical Mother India during the 80s and the 90s. A series of articles on the element of myth in Sri Aurobindo’s poetry, serialized during the late 90s in Srnvantu, has been recently published in book form. At present two of her serialised studies are being published from Kolkata: Sri Aurobindo’s Poetry and the Pastoral Tradition in Rtam and Re-reading Perseus the Deliverer in Rbhu. Besides these, her recently published books, William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and King Lear (The Atlantic Critical Studies) have received overwhelming response from the readers.

• Publisher: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd
• Publisher Imprint:
• Publication Date: June 22, 2011
• Pages: 194
• ISBN13: 9788126916061
• Item Weight: 370 grams
• Original Price: 495.0 INR
• Edition: N/A
• Binding: Hardcover