Tales from Shakespeare facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Tales from Shakespeare

Fifth edition title page (1831)
Author	Charles and Mary Lamb
Country	Great Britain
Language	English
Genre	Fiction Children's literature
Publication date	1807 (first printing)

Tales from Shakespeare is an English children's book written by the siblings Charles and Mary Lamb in 1807, intended "for the use of young persons" while retaining as much Shakespearean language as possible. Mary Lamb was responsible for retelling the comedies and Charles the tragedies. They wrote the preface together.

Marina Warner, in her introduction to the 2007 Penguin Classics edition, claims that Mary did not get her name on the title page till the seventh edition in 1838.

Despite its original target audience, "very young" children from the early twenty-first century might find this book a challenging read, and alternatives are available. Nevertheless, the retelling of Lamb siblings remains uniquely faithful to the original and as such can be useful to children when they read or learn the plays as Shakespeare wrote them.

Contents

1909 Illustration for Romeo and Juliet by Arthur Rackham

The book contains the following tales:

1. The Tempest (Mary Lamb)
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mary Lamb)
3. The Winter's Tale (Mary Lamb)
4. Much Ado About Nothing (Mary Lamb)
5. As You Like It (Mary Lamb)
6. Two Gentlemen of Verona (Mary Lamb)
7. The Merchant of Venice (Mary Lamb)
8. Cymbeline (Mary Lamb)
9. King Lear (Charles Lamb)
10. Macbeth (Charles Lamb)
11. All's Well That Ends Well (Mary Lamb)
12. The Taming of the Shrew (Mary Lamb)
13. The Comedy of Errors (Mary Lamb)
14. Measure for Measure (Mary Lamb)
15. Twelfth Night (Mary Lamb)
16. Timon of Athens (Charles Lamb)
17. Romeo and Juliet (Charles Lamb)
18. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Charles Lamb)
19. Othello (Charles Lamb)
20. Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Mary Lamb)

In fiction

The book is given as a gift in Morley's "Parnassus on Wheels".

Graham Greene uses Tales from Shakespeare for a book code in Our Man In Havana.

Tales From Shakespeare is referenced in the 2018 film The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society.