A Comprehensive Guide to Shakespeare’s Sonnets

"This comprehensive guide provides readers with the necessary tools to unravel the complexities of one of the most difficult sonnet sequences. It combines close readings of more than 100 sonnets with a study of the literary tradition, stylistic features and cultural contexts of the genre and the sequence, to enable readers not only to disentangle the complex relationships of the poems' characters but also to appreciate their intricate philosophical, sensual and also subversive qualities. It includes a guide to preparing a Shakespeare sonnet for interpretation, besides charts and tables identifying and summarizing the sequence's mini-narratives, groups, addressees and themes"--