First published in 1807, Tales from Shakespeare derives from Charles and Mary Lamb's great love of, and familiarity with, Shakespearean drama. This collection of plays was written to introduce young readers to Shakespeare and to encourage them to read his works in their original form. The authors selected twenty of the famous bard's thirty-seven plays and employed a prose style that is true to the tone and language of the Elizabethan era, occasionally interweaving a verse or two in the text to give a taste of the real thing.

Shakespeare's skill at distilling time-honoured...