King John /

The first volume in the projected "Shakespeare, the Critical Tradition" series reconstructing criticism in English-language studies (including translations) from 1790-1920, this volume extends Brian Vickers's six-volume anthology of primary texts, Shakespeare: The Critical Heritage (1974-81: CH, Oct'74, Jan'75, Sep'75, Nov'76, Jun'79). Candido's 75 selections beautifully clarify the various critical traditions for this play and recover the work of many major critics and at least three outstanding ones: J. Lytelton Etty, Charlotte Porter, and John Munro. In doing so, the editor demonstrates that although contemporary scholars have better tools, in many ways the Victorian writers defined the continuing critical approaches to Shakespeare. Candido's introduction documents the critical fortunes of King John from the earliest commentary to the most recent. Typography and spelling have been normalized for the ease of modern readers, and excerpts are judiciously selected and abridged, with long quotations omitted and some of the less original material paraphrased. The critical mass of the volume thus considerably exceeds its 415 pages. Exhaustively researched, this study is expensive but invaluable. For upper-division undergraduates through faculty. D. O. Dickerson Judson College