Review by Choice Review
McMurtry (Univ. of Richmond) intends this guide "for both long-time Shakespeareans and those . . . coming to Julius Caesar, and perhaps to Shakespeare as well, for the first time." Six chapters consider text, contexts and sources, structure, themes, critical approaches, and performance history. After explaining exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and catastrophe, the book leaps to plot summary in "Dramatic Structure." McMurtry discusses "character" without subtlety and too hypothetically (does the "fate" of Lucius, Brutus's servant, interest anyone?). Occasional sloppiness is no help (Antony does not offer Brutus the crown). The discussion under the heading "Themes" (order versus disorder, time, the cosmos, "man himself," etc.)--rooted in approaches to literature now dated--not surprisingly leads into poor treatment of recent approaches in the chapter on criticism. The odd useful point--reiterated emphasis on ambiguity; occasional flashes about performance (a useful analysis, for example, of Brando's Antony)--are swamped in context. K.E. Maus's eight pages on Julius Caesar in The Norton Shakespeare, ed. by Stephen Greenblatt et al. (CH, Dec'97), are more economical, thought-provoking, and exciting than McMurty's bland book, which is likely to interest neither of its intended audiences. D. Traister; University of Pennsylvania
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
