Book Description
A rich "Sources and Contexts" section provides readers with an understanding of Macbeth's origins through the works of Seneca, Raphael Holinshed, and The Slaughter of the Holy Innocents and the Death of Herod. The cultural controversies surrounding the play—free will, predestination, witchcraft, tyrannicide, and equivocation—are debated by various authors. Adaptations of Macbeth are included for comparative reading, among them Welcome Msomi's recent South African retelling, uMabatha.
Four hundred years of critical interpretation of Macbeth are represented in seventeen judiciously-chosen essays, among them assessments by Samuel Johnson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sarah Siddons, A. C. Bradley, Janet Adelman, Derek Jacobi, Stephen Orgel, and Peter Holland.
A Selected Bibliography is also included.
About the series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.
