Publisher Description
A classic performance of one of the Bard's classics.
Raised to the heights of power in recognition of his bravery against the Volscian army, Caius Marcius Coriolanus, finds himself betrayed by Brutus and Sicinius. Exiled from Rome and seeking vengeance, Coriolanus allies himself with the Aufidius, a general in the Volscian army. But, as Coriolanus discovers with tragic consequences, treachery begets treachery.
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“The most fiercely and ingeniously planned and expressed of all [Shakespeare’s] tragedies.”
—
Frank Kermode, esteemed literary critic
About William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564–1616), English poet and dramatist of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean period, is the most widely known author in all of English literature and often considered the greatest. He was an active member of a theater company for at least twenty years, during which time he wrote many great plays. Plays were not prized as literature at the time and Shakespeare was not widely read until the middle of the eighteenth century, when a great upsurge of interest in his works began that continues today.
About the Narrators
Richard
Burton (1925–1984), born in Wales, was a renowned, award-winning actor of stage
and screen. He was one of the great British actors of the post-WWII period and
at one time the highest-paid actor in Hollywood. He won a BAFTA, two Golden
Globe Awards, and two Tony Awards for Best Actor. He was nominated seven times
for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role, but without
ever winning. His awards include a 1975 Grammy Award for Best Children’s
Recording, for The Little Prince. He
also narrated Jeff Wayne’s musical version of The War of the Worlds, his performance becoming a necessary part of
the concept album. Widely admired for his command and understanding of English
poetry, he insisted that his way out of an impoverished Welsh childhood was due
not to acting but to books; he read one a day and was an avid fan of
Shakespeare. Although he is widely known for his Tony Award-winning role playing
King Arthur in the original production of Lerner and Loewe’s Broadway musical Camelot, he also won a reputation as the
best Hamlet of his generation.
Jessica
Tandy (1909–1994)
was a British-born stage and film actress who spent most of her
sixty-seven-year career in the United States. She acted in more than 100 stage
productions and had more than sixty film and TV roles. She had many roles on
Broadway, from 1930 through 1986, and her stage presence continued to grow while
enacting a succession of Shakespeare’s premiere ladies, until her stellar
performance as Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’ masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire. She won a total
of seven Tony and Drama Desk Awards. Her film career began in 1932, and she had
a role in Alfred Hitchcock’s famous The
Birds. She is now well known for her late-career film roles in Fried Green Tomatoes and Driving Miss Daisy, for which she won an
Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She was awarded a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.