If you've read Shakespeare before, you know that his plays can be tricky to follow because of their plentiful plots and countless characters. Just to help you keep track of who's who, who's in love with whom, and who's killed whom, you find snappy summaries and scorecards for every play included in the book. You also find fun tips on understanding Elizabethan English, including those ever-so-racy puns and bawdy humor for which Shakespeare is so famous. And if you've ever found yourself wondering what in the world that Shakespearean character was saying, you can improve your understanding of the language with tips on sentence construction, verbs, and those troublesome thees, thous, and thines. Everything you ever wanted to know about Shakespeare -- and more -- you're guaranteed to find in Shakespeare For Dummies.

Act-by-act summaries of the plays form the bulk of this book, but a biography and introduction to the Elizabethan era (Chapter 2, "Will's World") as well as the essentials to understanding Shakespeare's work receive a fair amount of attention. Part II is devoted entirely to language, with a small glossary of commonly used words and keys to the many puns and jokes in the plays. Particularly helpful is Chapter 6, "How to Read Shakespeare's English." In Part III, the authors introduce structure, themes, and common character types and explore the actual staging of a play. In addition to his dramatic works, the book also discusses Shakespeare's sonnets and various other poems.

You'll find these elements in many introductory works, but few contain as much information and are as easy to read. The authors do all they can to facilitate modern readers - scorecards to track characters and their actions, video suggestions, photos from stage and film productions, and international festivals. After reading this book, you'll be ready to discuss any topic on Shakespeare, from the ten greatest Shakespearean performers to the Dark Lady of the sonnets to whether "Cymbeline" is a comedy, tragedy, or history.

The authors' recommendations about films and editions are too succinct or limited to be of much help. (Only the Arden Complete Edition is recommended, an edition with numerous problems.) And there's the question of just how much justice you can do the Bard with language that, unlike his, is unremittingly "flip." But if you enjoy this style, I'd recommend reading first the section on Shakespeare in *An Incomplete Education* to get a better sense of which readings are truly indispensable and most worthy of a reader's time. And if you want more detailed summaries of plays, try SparkNotes, the website created by Harvard students.

It turns out that my next screenplay involves Shakespeare, and before I started writing, I needed to do some research on the bloke and his works. At the local library, I found "Shakespeare for Dummies." I scanned the book, then nearly choked on swallowing a dollop of pride as I toted the book through the checkout.

It's not easy to be expert at something and at the same time to be able to explain it clearly to beginners (or dummies). These authors definitely do have that talent.

Open the cover, and first thing, there's a listing of all of the dude's plays with a one or two sentence summary -- the lay of the land!

The book goes on to cover the life and times of William; explanations of his brand of English, the theatrical world he worked in, etc. Deeper into the book, there are two- to three-page summaries of each play, with recommendations for videos of each play.

The authors' wholistic approach is very informative, and they take a good-natured approach to a topic that could be oh-so-scholarly.

My screenplay, by the way, is titled Learning Shakespeare. The irony of it all.