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/lit/ - Literature

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14638146 No.14638146 [Reply] [Original]

Chronological or something else?

>> No.14638149

>>14638146
Try Macbeth or Hamlet first, maybe also some poetry. I figure you should read King Lear towards the rear.

>> No.14638152

Hamlet > everything else

So existential.

>> No.14638157
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14638157

Stop reading Shakespeare

>> No.14638158

>>14638146
Start with the Henriad. Then Anthony & Cleopatra. Then alternate between the main 4 comedies and 4 tragedies. Then the hybrid plays and late romances.

>> No.14638165

>>14638157
Kek

>> No.14638269

chronological is fine if you are patient and committed to doing the whole thing. his best plays come later but you will understand them better having read the earlier stuff

>>14638157
stfu go weave a basket or something

>> No.14638327

>>14638146
Hamlet is the best starting point, it contains all of the strong points you'd find in his other plays(good dialogue, grandiose scale, likeable and complex characters, comedy, romance, drama, general whimsy), so from there you can figure out what exactly you liked about hamlet and find other plays that have similar qualities. Pretty sure someone made a chart for this, but I can't find it

>> No.14638336

>>14638327
But isn't Hamlet like his crowning achievement and won't be understood properly unless one has read his other works?

>> No.14638340

>>14638336
If you're concerned about understanding then the order matters even less because you're going to have to reread anyway. This autism /lit/ has with the order than they need to read something is really weird.

>> No.14638353

>>14638146
>I figure you should read King Lear towards the rear.
BASED.

>> No.14638355

>>14638340
ok

>> No.14638474

>>14638336
Everyone has their own opinion regarding what is the best Shakespeare. I think it is Julius Caesar, for example.
The fact that it's a crowning achievement doesn't mean that it requires a lot of preparation anyway.

>>14638340
This. It's quite paralysing for people's reading habits, they autistically read five books about Greek myth and culture to prepare for Homer, but in the long run fucking nobody reads, say, Aeneid, or, God forbid, ancient lyric poetry.

>> No.14638482

>>14638474
>say, Aeneid, or, God forbid, ancient lyric poetry.
I've read both....

>> No.14638484

>>14638474
I completely agree. I just want to read Plato, do I really need to read several books on Greek myth, poetry, plays, and history.

>> No.14638492

>>14638484
Just read Plato. Don't fall for this needing to read everything that influenced someone. You never get anywhere this way because the web never stops. This is why all the threads about ordering or what prerequisites do i need to read to read x are dumb. You will never be able to read a book this way. It's better to just dip into what you're interested in.

>> No.14638504

>>14638492
Don't get me wrong, I'll read Homer and Heroditus, but it's just ridiculous with these charts that claim you have to read every Greek tragedy before reading Plato. Fuck these charts, they make reading unfun.

>> No.14638510

>>14638504
>reading has to be fun
The matriarch at your childhood school would disagree.

>> No.14638514

>>14638510
But reading CAN be fun and thinking about it this way prevents even that.