Henry V illustrated

By: Shakespeare, William

Henry V is Shakespeare's most famous "war play"; it includes the storied English victory over the French at Agincourt. Some of it glorifies war, especially the choruses and Henry's speeches urging his troops into battle. But we also hear bishops conniving for war to postpone a bill that would tax the church, and soldiers expecting to reap profits from the conflict. Even in the speeches of Henry and his nobles, there are many chilling references to the human cost of war.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08HGZW9MZ
• ISBN13: 9798683482480
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Henry V, a play by William Shakespeare.

AKA “King Henry V” on many book titles of the play. Some books are annotated; others have footnotes with translations from Shakespeare’s time to now. 30 years ago, I read the play and then let it slip from my repertoire. So now it is new again. I started with “A Brief Guide to William Shakespeare without the Boring bits” commentary by Peter Aykroyd, and then worked my way through three film versions. Now, finally, I am reading the play to see what I missed. The BBC is more complete and closer in verbiage to the original play versions. In Lawrence Olivia’s movie version, they were forced to cut out much of the play because of time constraints, and because of the time of the production, Henry V could not look like a tyrant, and they had to justify the war so it would coincide with the WWII war effort. However, Kenneth Branagh, making his directing debut, pulled out all the stops with his version of the film. He may have missed a few lines here and there, but he replaced them with visuals and innuendos. This story is based on prior works, but can stand alone very well, as what history of Henry is needed is mentioned in the play. Henry V was a sort of playboy (probably by cunning design) as a youth, and when becoming king, has decided to acquire France, which is his heritage. In the process, he must prove his ability to understand and lead people. One of his first tests is to detect treachery and remove it. The films leave out a lot of the information that makes this story complete and interesting. I must say the Kindle version helps you move along with text-to-speak; without it, you will find yourself constantly looking at the dictionary the first time through. The second time through it runs much smoother, but people look at you funning when you use terms like puissant. Two-thirds of the words came up in the online Kindle dictionary; the rest had to rely on other online dictionaries. In any event, as usual, I found many daily quotes had come from this play: We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother If you do not come away with any other wisdom, remember, if you are traveling through France, keep an eye on your luggage.