The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1384 Thursday, 25 August 2005
From: Al Magary <
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
>
Date: Wednesday, 24 Aug 2005 17:46:51 -0700
Subject: Today's Shakespop Item
Yesterday's Shakespop item was, er, beyond the fringe, as these things
may always be perceived. Today's item comes about by way of the
publicity attending on Amazon's packaging of all 1,082 Penguin Classics
titles, priced at only $7.989.50--a savings of $5,326.34 plus free
shipping and unpacking. (As of Wed. 5 pm PDT, according to an Amazonian
on NPR, "fewer than 10" people had put in orders.) The statistics are
of course amazing--half a million pages, 700 pounds, etc.--but this list
may be particularly interested in how the Pelican Shakespeare editions
stand among the 100 bestselling titles:
28. Hamlet
41. Romeo & Juliet
47. Macbeth
52. Midsummer Night's Dream
64. Othello
76. King Lear
82. Merchant of Venice
83. The Tempest
84. Much Ado About Nothing
98. Taming of the Shrew
The Bard gets 10% of the list--not too shabby--but first appears at #28.
Other playwrights: Arthur Miller comes in high, at #3 and #5,
Sophocles at #9, Voltaire at #18, and Aeschylus at #27. Shaw, Wilde,
and Euripides are below Shakespeare.
The list of 100, at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/570461/002-0588478-6777658
no doubt demonstrates the commercial power of curriculum selection
criteria--for example, a good many short books. Some of the topsellers
are fairly unusual: Swann's Way at #31, Sun Tzu's Art of War at #39,
rediscovered American writer Kate Chopin at #65, Ernst Junger's WWI
memoir Storm of Steel at #81, The Ramayana at #94, a pair by Nietzsche
at #97.
Cheers,
Al Magary
_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>
DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the
opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the
editor assumes no responsibility for them.
|
