Shakespeare Cats

by Susan Herbert

Book Overview

Painting in her familiar and highly popular style, this imaginative artist presents an irresistible array of well-known characters in the great Shakespearean plays, from the tragic Romeo and Juliet to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0821222813
• ISBN13: 9780821222812
• Release Date: June 1996
• Publisher: Bulfinch Press
• Length: 62 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.8" x 9.4"
• Age Range: 13 years and up

Customer Reviews

Cute, Colorful, and Educational

When I first picked up SHAKESPEARE CATS by the British artist Susan Herbert, I was struck by the cute and colorful illustrations showing cats, my favorite animals, as Shakespearean characters. I bought the book, and as I went through it page by page I found it educational, too. Herbert has accompanied each one of her drawings -- works of art in themselves -- with a short synopsis and the relevant quotation from the play. The trouble with cats, however, is that it is not always possible to do much more than suggest emotions in their faces, which are fairly "blank." This poses a problem with the more extreme emotions in Shakespeare: Herbert's Othello (a black cat) does not look enraged nor her Macbeth (a red-orange tabby) particularly horrified. Additionally, Herbert depicts mostly tabby (striped) cats, which will probably disappoint readers who like other kinds of cats. But if these are drawbacks, they are minor ones; Herbert is a gifted artist. Her scene-composition and her bright color-choices make each illustration a feast for the eyes. There are some subtly clever facial expressions, too, like Malvolio's (TWELFTH NIGHT) self-satisfied grin or Jacques (AS YOU LIKE IT) cynical smirk. And art enthusiasts will see Herbert's drawings of Romeo leaving Juliet's balcony or the sleeping princes from RICHARD III as homages to celebrated paintings by the nineteenth century artists Dicksee and Northcote; her crazed Ophelia (with tongue hanging out) might stand beside the famous depictions of that heroine by Waterhouse or Millais! I am happy to have discovered SHAKESPEARE CATS and Herbert and will seek out more of her books.

Rather lovely

Susan Herbert is, first and foremost, a truly gifted artist. Her style, talent, color choices, all show a mastery of skill. Aside from that, though, she's also an imaginative woman who tryle appreciates the feline, as evidenced by her series of wonderful illustrated cat books.This book, "Shakespeare Cats", functions firstly as simply an enjoyable coffee-table book for frequent perusal. On another level, though, Herbert has cleverly illustrated 32 of Shakespeare's works, and with detail. The setting of each piece, the costumes, the detail of scene-setting -- all of this shows that in addition to being a cat-lover and an artist, Herbert is also not too shabby as a Shakespearean scholar as well.

"Shall I compare thee to a kitty cat?"

Shakespeare people also tend to be cat people: why is that? In this case, Susan Herbert has created a beautiful book for cat fans and Bard fans alike. I have all of Herbert's books, and "Shakespeare Cats" is definitely my favorite. It depicts famous moments from many of Shakespeare's plays with intricate detail, and the cats look like they're in the most natural settings in the world! It's hard to pick out my favorite illustrations, but the "Midsummer Night's Dream" picture stands out, as does the humorous painting from "The Taming of the Shrew." All of the paintings are wonderful, and this is an adorable book that you will treasure forever.

Beautiful and Adorable Book!

I love this book, it's so adorable and beautiful, Susan Herbert is a great artist, I admire her a lot. You see wonderful pictures of cats playing roles of some of Shakespeare plays. It's a great book for kids and also for adult too.:) If you love cats your going to love this book.

Shakespeare Cats

This is the most adorable book I have ever seen! The pictures of the cats in the different Shakespearean plays are so well drawn and the colors are wonderful. I use this book when teaching students about Shakespeare because it seems to help when they can see verses in pictures and the fact that it is cats playing the parts makes it even more enjoyable!