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"But, for my own part, it was Greek to me."

Now you can appreciate Julius Caesar in plain English. Political intrigue. Ambition. Envy. Conspiracy. Hypocrisy. Betrayal. Assassination. Pride. Suicide. The Ides of March. The tides of war. Julius Caesar makes today's political scene seem boring! If the original text seems Greek (or geek) to you, now you can read and enjoy it in a modern translation that's easy to understand. Special aids make following the action and grasping the meaning a snap:

• A brief synopsis of the plot and action
• A comprehensive character list that describes the characteristics, motivations, and actions of each major player
• A visual character map that shows the relationships of major characters
• A cycle-of-death graphic that pinpoints the sequence of deaths and includes who dies, how they die, and why
• Reflective questions that help you understand the themes of the play

Shakespeare on the Double! Julius Caesar helps you appreciate this play and the sad, oft-quoted question, "Et tu, Brute?" ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent support, some questions remain...
I bought this book yesterday.

1. What I like:

The presence of "normal" English on every facing page means that my brain can take a break if it gets tired of the Elizabethan English on the left-hand page.

It's kind of like those platforms that break up a long stairway. They are meant to give the heart a rest but not by stopping your walking (you can stop on the steps, too, after all).

Both science and experience have shown that continuing to climb stairs, without a horizontal segment to break the stress, causes the cardiac tension to build and build until, in some cases, heart failure occurs. Even a short interval of a couple of seconds of horizontal walking is enough to break that cycle. This is why those platforms are mandated.

The modern English in this book serves the same purpose. For a few moments, your brain can just...relax. Yet, you are still reading and making progress. You don't need to stop (which is dangerous because you might not start again!). The cycle of tension is broken and you can continue, refreshed.

2. What I don't like:

Some things are not explained.

For example, "Pompey's blood..." Most readers will assume this means the blood of his body, since he was, after all, killed in battle by Caesar's forces.

According to Asimov (Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare), this is incorrect. "...blood" actually refers to Pompey's son, who was recently killed in Spain. This Spanish battle was the occasion for the triumph being discussed in this section of the play (Act I, scene i). This book does not explain this at all, and yet explaining these kinds of ambiguous words is the very raison d'etre of this book.

Conclusion:

If you need a little support when reading Shakespeare (and I certainly do), I highly recommend this book. But, take it with a small grain of salt. It is excellent support but it is not perfect.

What it will do is this: it will get you back to reading Shakespeare!

I sure wouldn't want to walk upstairs without those little platforms to break the stress.

Buy it now.
... Read more

Product Description
Julius Caesar was, as this book maintains, quite simply the most famous Roman who ever lived whose influence endures to the present day. This introductory book seeks to explore the many facets of his complex character - his vanity and his vitality, his charisma and his cruelty. It seeks to set his astounding career and accomplishments against the background of late Republican Rome, so enabling the reader to understand not only Caesar himself but also the violent and destructive world in which he grew up. It traces in detail the sources of his phenomenal rise to power and the deep unpopularity which ultimately made him `one of the loneliest men alive'. Garland pays particular attention to the day of Caesar's death which can, like almost no other day of the ancient world, be re-constructed on an almost hour-by-hour basis. Caesar's powerful legacy is also examined, as is his `reception' in European thought and culture from antiquity to the present day in a variety !of media, including epic poetry, drama, fiction and film. The book includes a guide to further reading. ... Read more

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Soothsayers and premonitions. Power-hungry politicians. The Ides of March. Conspiracy, betrayal, and assassination. The battle for control of the Roman Empire. Enjoy the non-stop intrigue of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in this action-packed manga edition.

The text is abridged so it’s fast-paced, but the original Shakespearean wording is used so you’ll recognize famous quotations. A four-page introduction sets the stage. You’ll be amazed to discover that the power plays and schemes of today’s political scene are nothing new. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good but Not Great
I'll keep this short and sweet.This is a great way to experience Shakespeare.It breaks it down into a format that is easy to follow and fun to see.But why did they keep the original dialogue?As a teacher, the biggest problem that I see is people not being able to understand the language.Sure, being able to see the pictures helps but at the same time I don't think the audience for this type of work is is interested in deciphering poetry.Maybe I'm wrong though. ... Read more

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Julius Caesar was a soldier and brilliant statesman, who wrote his commentaries for the general public. Contents: The Gallic Wars, Book 1 through Book 8; The Civil War, Book 1 through Book 3. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Caesar's War Commentaries (Paperback)
It was what I wanted at a price I could afford to pay.

Perhaps not the best edition
I can't vouch for the translation (this was a gift) but I didn't care for the printing quality of this edition.The margins were huge (1.25" except on the spine) which crowded the text and I found the font to be muddy not as "clean" as I'd hoped.It almost looked like a reproduction of a 1910 edition and a challenge for older eyes.I returned this and purchased the El Paso Norte Press edition which had very legible print and a nicer over all feel.

An extremely clear translation
This is the famous book by Julius Caesar that begins:"Gaul est divisi in partes tres".This translation into modern English is very accurate and readable, and Caesar comes across as a strong and determined leader that, if you couldn't quite imagine running into at your local starbucks, at least seems very real. ... Read more

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Shakespearean Genealogies of Power proposes a new view on Shakespeare’s involvement with the legal sphere: as a visible space between the spheres of politics and law and well able to negotiate legal and political, even constitutional concerns, Shakespeare’s theatre opened up a new perspective on normativity. His plays reflect, even create, "history" in a new sense on the premises of the older conceptions of historical and legal exemplarity: examples, cases, and instances are to be reflected rather than treated as straightforwardly didactic or salvific. Thus, what comes to be recognized, reflected and acknowledged has a disowning, alienating effect, whose enduring aftermath rather than its theatrical immediacy counts and remains effective. In Shakespeare, the law gets hold of its normativity as the problematic efficacy of unsolved – or rarely ever completely solved – problems: on the stage of the theatre, the law has to cope with a mortgage of history rather than with its own success story. The exemplary interplay of critical cultural and legal theory in the twentieth-century – between Carl Schmitt and Hans Kelsen, Walter Benjamin and Ernst Kantorowicz, Hans Blumenberg and Giorgio Agamben, Robert Cover and Niklas Luhmann – found in Shakespeare’s plays its speculative instruments.

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Julius Caesar is one of the most famous figures in ancient Rome. He was born into a turbulent era, when different factions were trying to control the government. He survived and began a steady rise in importance. He became a very successful military commander who added more than 200,000 square miles to the territories under Rome’s control. But his triumphs created powerful enemies in Rome. They wanted to strip him of his power.

He defeated those enemies in a civil war that made him even more powerful. He had a famous love relationship with Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt. When it seemed that nothing could hold him back, he was assassinated in the Roman Senate. One of his most notable accomplishments still affects people today. He reformed the calendar and established the length of a year at its present 365 days, with a leap year every four years. The month of July is named after him. ... Read more

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Ambitious, ruthless, shrewd, cruel, and intelligent are a few of the words that have been used to describe this man who changed the course of civilization. Caesar's military conquests and political alliances altered Rome's decaying system of government, producing the greatest of all ancient empires. This richly illustrated graphic novel takes readers on a journey to the ancient world where political intrigue and military might gave birth not only to the rise of Caesar but also to his bloody assassination. ... Read more

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Julius Caesar was born in Rome in the year 100 b.c. to a well-known family that supposedly traced its ancestry to the Greek goddess Venus. Although Caesar grew up to be one of the world's most famous military and political leaders, he was raised in the Subura, a lower-class neighborhood of Rome.

As a young man, Caesar was known for both his bravery in battle and his ability to speak at the Roman Forum. When Caesar left Rome to join the military service in Asia, he was awarded the corona civica -- an oak crown -- the highest honor given to a noncommander. At the Forum, Caesar's oratory skills and his enthusiasm for prosecuting corrupt generals furthered his reputation.

Read about the boy from Rome who transformed the Roman republic into a Mediterranean empire. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Go, go, good countrymen...
Gaius Julius Cæsar is the Caesar we think of when we hear the word "Caesar" -- he conquered Gaul, bedded Cleopatra, and died a pretty dramatic death. And while he only appears in a few scenes of "Julius Caesar," he's the nucleus that William Shakespeare's taut conspiracy play revolves around -- his murder, his legacy, and the bitter jealousy he inspired.

Julius Caesar is returning to Rome in triumph, only to be stopped by a strange old soothsayer who warns him, "Beware the ides of March." Caesar brushes off the warning, but he has no idea that a conspiracy is brewing under his nose. In a nutshell, a group of senators led by the creepy Cassius are plotting against Caesar because of his wild popularity, suspecting that he wants to become KING.

And Cassius' latest target: Brutus, one of Caesar's best buddies. Brutus is slowly swayed over to the conspiracy's side, beginning to believe that Caesar as a great man corrupted by power. Everything comes to a a devastating assassination on... guess when... the ides of March, which will elevate some men to greatness and destroy others.

Though the story is supposedly about Julius Caesar, Caesar himself only has a few scenes -- but his charismatic, dominating presence hangs over the play like a heavy tapestry. What he does, what he plans, what he thinks and who he is are constantly on people's minds, and even after his death he is a powerful presence in the memories of the living.

And Shakespeare cooks up a dialogue-heavy play that is a bit on the slow side, but whose speeches are so powerful and intense that you don't quite notice. There's a lot of those speeches here -- not only Antony's famous speech to the Roman people ("The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones"), but Brutus' impassioned argument with Portia ("You have some sick offence within your mind") and Cassius' oily slanted editorials about Caesar.

Shakespeare's depiction of Brutus is also a beautifully nuanced one -- Antony calls him the "noblest Roman of them all" at the very end, despite the fact that Brutus calmly murdered his friend and leader. He's basically a gullible guy who follows his passions rather than his brain, and bounces into the conspiracy rather than trying to find out the truth about Caesar. You feel sorry for him, and at the same time you want the much smarter Antony to kick him like a soccer ball.

"Julius Caesar" is rather slow-moving, but Shakespeare's powerful writing and nuanced depiction of Brutus more than make up for that. Friends, Romans, countrymen... ... Read more

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Rome's greatest general, Julius Caesar, returns to the city celebrating a glorious victory. But among the cheering crowds a group of conspirators are determined to prevent Caesar becoming king...With Notes on Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre and Liberty and Power in Julius Caesar. ... Read more