How should we read Shakespeare plays? In this clear and succinct book, author David Bevington, who has extensive experience of teaching Shakespeare to students, encourages readers to approach his works aggressively, interactively, and questioningly. Bevington suggests that readers think of themselves as armchair directors, deciding what the actors should wear, what social class they represent, why they are there and, most importantly, what they are after.

Bevington's introduction incorporates fresh and incisive readings of a handful of popular Shakespeare plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV, Part 1, Hamlet, King Lear, and The Tempest. Using these plays as examples, he demonstrates how Shakespeare worked his way forward by genres, focusing at first on romantic comedies and English History plays, and taking on the daunting assignment of writing tragedies only when he felt he was ready.