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Lectures on Shakespeare
"W. H. Auden, poet and critic, will conduct a course on Shakespeare at the New School for Social Research beginning Wednesday. Mr. Auden has announced that in his course . . . he proposes to read all Shakespeare's plays in chronological order." The New York Times reported this item on September 27, 1946, giving notice of a rare opportunity to hear one of the century's great poets comment on one of the greatest poets of all time. Published here for the first time, these lectures now make Auden's thoughts on Shakespeare available widely.
Painstakingly reconstructed by Arthur Kirsch from the notes of students who attended, primarily Alan Ansen, who became Auden's secretary and friend, the lectures afford remarkable insights into Shakespeare's plays as well as the sonnets.
A remarkable lecturer, Auden could inspire his listeners to great feats of recall and dictation. Consequently, the poet's unique voice, often down to the precise details of his phrasing, speaks clearly and eloquently throughout this volume. In these lectures, we hear Auden alluding to authors from Homer, Dante, and St. Augustine to Kierkegaard, Ibsen, and T. S. Eliot, drawing upon the full range of European literature and opera, and referring to the day's newspapers and magazines, movies and cartoons. The result is an extended instance of the "live conversation" that Auden believed criticism to be. Notably a conversation between Auden's capacious thought and the work of Shakespeare, these lectures are also a prelude to many ideas developed in Auden's later prose--a prose in which, one critic has remarked, "all the artists of the past are alive and talking among themselves."
Reflecting the twentieth-century poet's lifelong engagement with the crowning masterpieces of English literature, these lectures add immeasurably to both our understanding of Auden and our appreciation of Shakespeare.
Painstakingly reconstructed by Arthur Kirsch from the notes of students who attended, primarily Alan Ansen, who became Auden's secretary and friend, the lectures afford remarkable insights into Shakespeare's plays as well as the sonnets.
A remarkable lecturer, Auden could inspire his listeners to great feats of recall and dictation. Consequently, the poet's unique voice, often down to the precise details of his phrasing, speaks clearly and eloquently throughout this volume. In these lectures, we hear Auden alluding to authors from Homer, Dante, and St. Augustine to Kierkegaard, Ibsen, and T. S. Eliot, drawing upon the full range of European literature and opera, and referring to the day's newspapers and magazines, movies and cartoons. The result is an extended instance of the "live conversation" that Auden believed criticism to be. Notably a conversation between Auden's capacious thought and the work of Shakespeare, these lectures are also a prelude to many ideas developed in Auden's later prose--a prose in which, one critic has remarked, "all the artists of the past are alive and talking among themselves."
Reflecting the twentieth-century poet's lifelong engagement with the crowning masterpieces of English literature, these lectures add immeasurably to both our understanding of Auden and our appreciation of Shakespeare.
424 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1947
54 people are currently reading
596 people want to read
About the author
W.H. Auden
619 books1,047 followersPoems, published in such collections as
Look, Stranger!
(1936) and
The Shield of Achilles
(1955), established importance of British-American writer and critic Wystan Hugh Auden in 20th-century literature.
In and near Birmingham, he developed in a professional middle-class family. He attended English independent schools and studied at Christ church, Oxford. From 1927, Auden and Christopher Isherwood maintained a lasting but intermittent sexual friendship despite briefer but more intense relations with other men. Auden passed a few months in Berlin in 1928 and 1929.
He then spent five years from 1930 to 1935, teaching in English schools and then traveled to Iceland and China for books about his journeys. People noted stylistic and technical achievement, engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and variety in tone, form and content. He came to wide attention at the age of 23 years in 1930 with his first book, Poems ; The Orators followed in 1932.
Three plays in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood in 1935 to 1938 built his reputation in a left-wing politics.
People best know this Anglo for love such as "Funeral Blues," for political and social themes, such as "September 1, 1939," for culture and psychology, such as The Age of Anxiety , and for religion, such as For the Time Being and "Horae Canonicae." In 1939, partly to escape a liberal reputation, Auden moved to the United States. Auden and Christopher Isherwood maintained a lasting but intermittent sexual friendship to 1939. In 1939, Auden fell in lust with Chester Kallman and regarded their relation as a marriage.
From 1941, Auden taught in universities. This relationship ended in 1941, when Chester Kallman refused to accept the faithful relation that Auden demanded, but the two maintained their friendship.
Auden taught in universities through 1945. His work, including the long For the Time Being and The Sea and the Mirror , in the 1940s focused on religious themes. He attained citizenship in 1946.
The title of his long The Age of Anxiety , a popular phrase, described the modern era; it won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. From 1947, he wintered in New York and summered in Ischia. From 1947, Auden and Chester Kallman lived in the same house or apartment in a non-sexual relation and often collaborated on opera libretti, such as The Rake's Progress for music of Igor Stravinsky until death of Auden.
Occasional visiting professorships followed in the 1950s. From 1956, he served as professor at Oxford. He wintered in New York and summered in Ischia through 1957. From 1958, he wintered usually in New York and summered in Kirchstetten, Austria.
He served as professor at Oxford to 1961; his popular lectures with students and faculty served as the basis of his prose The Dyer's Hand in 1962.
Auden, a prolific prose essayist, reviewed political, psychological and religious subjects, and worked at various times on documentary films, plays, and other forms of performance. Throughout his controversial and influential career, views on his work ranged from sharply dismissive, treating him as a lesser follower of William Butler Yeats and T.S. Eliot, to strongly affirmative, as claim of Joseph Brodsky of his "greatest mind of the twentieth century."
He wintered in Oxford in 1972/1973 and summered in Kirchstetten, Austria, until the end of his life.
After his death, films, broadcasts, and popular media enabled people to know and ton note much more widely "Funeral Blues," "Musée des Beaux Arts," "Refugee Blues," "The Unknown Citizen," and "September 1, 1939," t
In and near Birmingham, he developed in a professional middle-class family. He attended English independent schools and studied at Christ church, Oxford. From 1927, Auden and Christopher Isherwood maintained a lasting but intermittent sexual friendship despite briefer but more intense relations with other men. Auden passed a few months in Berlin in 1928 and 1929.
He then spent five years from 1930 to 1935, teaching in English schools and then traveled to Iceland and China for books about his journeys. People noted stylistic and technical achievement, engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and variety in tone, form and content. He came to wide attention at the age of 23 years in 1930 with his first book, Poems ; The Orators followed in 1932.
Three plays in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood in 1935 to 1938 built his reputation in a left-wing politics.
People best know this Anglo for love such as "Funeral Blues," for political and social themes, such as "September 1, 1939," for culture and psychology, such as The Age of Anxiety , and for religion, such as For the Time Being and "Horae Canonicae." In 1939, partly to escape a liberal reputation, Auden moved to the United States. Auden and Christopher Isherwood maintained a lasting but intermittent sexual friendship to 1939. In 1939, Auden fell in lust with Chester Kallman and regarded their relation as a marriage.
From 1941, Auden taught in universities. This relationship ended in 1941, when Chester Kallman refused to accept the faithful relation that Auden demanded, but the two maintained their friendship.
Auden taught in universities through 1945. His work, including the long For the Time Being and The Sea and the Mirror , in the 1940s focused on religious themes. He attained citizenship in 1946.
The title of his long The Age of Anxiety , a popular phrase, described the modern era; it won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. From 1947, he wintered in New York and summered in Ischia. From 1947, Auden and Chester Kallman lived in the same house or apartment in a non-sexual relation and often collaborated on opera libretti, such as The Rake's Progress for music of Igor Stravinsky until death of Auden.
Occasional visiting professorships followed in the 1950s. From 1956, he served as professor at Oxford. He wintered in New York and summered in Ischia through 1957. From 1958, he wintered usually in New York and summered in Kirchstetten, Austria.
He served as professor at Oxford to 1961; his popular lectures with students and faculty served as the basis of his prose The Dyer's Hand in 1962.
Auden, a prolific prose essayist, reviewed political, psychological and religious subjects, and worked at various times on documentary films, plays, and other forms of performance. Throughout his controversial and influential career, views on his work ranged from sharply dismissive, treating him as a lesser follower of William Butler Yeats and T.S. Eliot, to strongly affirmative, as claim of Joseph Brodsky of his "greatest mind of the twentieth century."
He wintered in Oxford in 1972/1973 and summered in Kirchstetten, Austria, until the end of his life.
After his death, films, broadcasts, and popular media enabled people to know and ton note much more widely "Funeral Blues," "Musée des Beaux Arts," "Refugee Blues," "The Unknown Citizen," and "September 1, 1939," t
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 11, 2017
E' difficile leggere le lezioni di Auden e non pensare a George, il professore universitario di 'Un uomo solo' di Isherwood. Stesso humour asciutto, stessa erudizione noncurante, stesso imprinting da brit lievemente deplacé nel nuovo mondo. Sarebbe stato bello assistere e contestare la sua lettura antiromantica di Romeo e Giulietta, applaudire l'analisi di Giulio Cesare o restare a bocca aperta per l'interpretazione di Shylock nel Mercante di Venezia (nel '46 ci voleva un certo fegato a dichiarare - a New York! - che l'usuraio non è discriminato in quanto ebreo o eretico, ma solo perché pecca di stile, unico personaggio serio non sintonizzato sull'estetismo fatuo della società che lo circonda). Auden non si fa schiacciare dalla grandezza del Bardo, è sincero, ha il coraggio di dire che alcune opere gli fanno francamente schifo, altre sono piene di difetti, una è così noiosa che non c'è nulla da dire, dunque farà ascoltare un'opera lirica ad essa ispirata per l'intera durata della lezione. Ma nel contempo riesce a trasmettere tutta la passione che prova per un autore che è riuscito a raccontare fin nelle più recondite pieghe l'intera gamma delle emozioni umane. Shakespeare è sempre stato uno dei miei scrittori, attraverso le sue parole ho finalmente capito perché: 'C'è chi passa gran parte della sua esistenza a elaborare un capolavoro: è il caso di Dante o Proust. Scrittori come questi si distinguono per l'impegno con cui si dedicano alla loro impresa, rischiando di morire prima che produca frutti. E c'è chi non cessa di ricercare nuove soluzioni. Non appena ha imparato a fare una cosa, questo artista eclettico si ferma e cerca di farne un'altra: è il caso di Shakespeare... In che modo creano le loro opere questi due tipi di artisti, e cosa è essenziale per loro? Al primo tipo interessa scoprire come sarà il suo capolavoro, al secondo come affrontare un nuovo problema - senza preoccuparsi dell'eventuale successo o insuccesso. Shakespeare è sempre pronto a rischiare un fallimento.' Grazie, professor Auden.
March 29, 2025
Auden is a careful reader of Shakespeare who drastically undervalues some of the more philosophically interesting plays.
He seems compelled by the passion, verse, and psychology of a story (notably excepting Hamlet), while he ignores the broader considerations of justice, sovereignty, and class that Shakespeare so frequently visits.
This was nonetheless a solid resource to see a great mind engaging with a great mind.
He seems compelled by the passion, verse, and psychology of a story (notably excepting Hamlet), while he ignores the broader considerations of justice, sovereignty, and class that Shakespeare so frequently visits.
This was nonetheless a solid resource to see a great mind engaging with a great mind.
January 23, 2021
I don't think I got everything out of it that I could; it will bear re-reading for sure. He's somewhat given to making Pronouncements, which can be irksome yet still interesting to read even when one doubts or disagrees. At some point, I may even try my hand at his final exam and other exercises (provided in the appendices).
November 30, 2019
Meraviglioso commento al teatro e ai sonetti di Shakespeare. Ritengo sia propedeutica una lettura delle opere shakespeariane.
February 23, 2012
Far too pompous and long winded. Some accuse Auden of making things too common and accessible. Not only do I not agree that that is possible, I certainly do not agree he did it. Not in this book of lectures, anyway.
Shakespeare critical essays vary widely. They can go from simple reflections on what the author does and doesn't like about a given play, to meticulous, footnote infested, self-aggrandizing dissections of each and every single last aspect of every word of every play, complete with pages upon pages of references to other works, both related and far from related to Shakespeare.
These lectures are not in the latter category. Not quite, anyway. But they linger on that side of the continuum for certain.
It's all subjective. It's all someone's opinion. But when I want to hear what somebody thinks of a Shakespeare play, I really want to hear more about the play, and about Shakespeare, than about anything else. References to other works as guide posts are fine, but half an essay on King Lear should not be taken up by rehashing of Frued, Aeschylus, Marx, or whoever else it may be. Make your point about the plays themselves, as opposed to finding ways of pinpointing their universal truths in the writing of others.
Shakespeare critical essays vary widely. They can go from simple reflections on what the author does and doesn't like about a given play, to meticulous, footnote infested, self-aggrandizing dissections of each and every single last aspect of every word of every play, complete with pages upon pages of references to other works, both related and far from related to Shakespeare.
These lectures are not in the latter category. Not quite, anyway. But they linger on that side of the continuum for certain.
It's all subjective. It's all someone's opinion. But when I want to hear what somebody thinks of a Shakespeare play, I really want to hear more about the play, and about Shakespeare, than about anything else. References to other works as guide posts are fine, but half an essay on King Lear should not be taken up by rehashing of Frued, Aeschylus, Marx, or whoever else it may be. Make your point about the plays themselves, as opposed to finding ways of pinpointing their universal truths in the writing of others.
Want to read
June 7, 2019In some degree I think it's more a set of lectures for understanding Auden rather than Shakespeare.
January 19, 2020
I wish I could be even half as insightful as Auden. Even a quarter.
October 20, 2019
Not an easy read but once the reader adopts the tenor and sweep of the writer, this book provides an invaluable resource you'll consult again and again. He provides commentary and analysis on every Shakespeare play. The concluding lecture (pages 308-319) is classic genius when considered by itself.
W. H. Auden (1907-1973) was an English-American poet who was bred by English education. He subsequently moved to American and became a citizen in 1946. The extraordinary text of this book was provided from extensive notes taken by one Alan Ansen (later the author's friend and secretary) who took the course Auden taught at the New School (NYC) during the 1946-1947 term.
This is a worthy addition to those few books you maintain in your collection about the works of the monumental Bard of Avon.
W. H. Auden (1907-1973) was an English-American poet who was bred by English education. He subsequently moved to American and became a citizen in 1946. The extraordinary text of this book was provided from extensive notes taken by one Alan Ansen (later the author's friend and secretary) who took the course Auden taught at the New School (NYC) during the 1946-1947 term.
This is a worthy addition to those few books you maintain in your collection about the works of the monumental Bard of Avon.
April 4, 2021
Second time through the book...
January 27, 2022
A series of lectures delivered at the new school in New York, this collection has some interesting insights, but truth be told, I found myself lost in the weeds, somewhere between references to Kierkegaard and Eliot, Freud and Tolstoy. I think it’s more for specialists and completists than for the layperson.
October 12, 2019
I can agree with the Introduction that these lectures are a "rich introduction to Auden's thought" and "represent his own immensely spacious and integrated intellectual universe," but was I hoping for more from them as "an important commentary on Shakespeare's work." I don't think I would have enjoyed them more even if I had read each play prior to reading Auden's corresponding lecture. I enjoyed the lectures on Richard III, Julius Caesar, and As You Like It the most. The lecture on Hamlet was a huge disappointment. It did, however, make me think: maybe I'm more of a Hamlet fan than a Shakespeare fan?
November 23, 2008
Should have been titled "Conversations about Shakespeare." Not at all comprehensive, Auden simply talks about whatever he feels like, and it's all very entertaining. He disliked "The Merry Wives of Windsor" so much that he refused to lecture on it to his class.
September 22, 2009
This is more director's lectures, then literature professor's ones. Bold treatments of Shakespeare's plots, characters and themes are of course subjective. But since Auden is so educated and talanted man you read those treatments as if they should be implemented on-stage.
June 12, 2007
Auden the iconoclast - fascinating, bold opinions on Shakespeare. It is quite something to read this celebrated poet's ideas on the most celebrated poet ever.
April 3, 2008
This intriguing book is compiled from class notes from a series of lectures Auden gave. They often veer way off-topic, but they usually offer some worthwhile criticism.
February 14, 2010
Especially for one sharp, dry line: "Lear does not benefit from a stage performance."
November 20, 2012
Master poet- but I find the criticism in the book mediocre. Is it just me?
October 13, 2020
Fantastic insights that all went right over my head. I’ll come back in 20 years when I’ve spent significantly more time with Shakespeare.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews