Episode 318: How to Read Shakespeare

Today on The Literary Life podcast, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks are here to offer some helpful ideas for reading Shakespeare plays and how to approach the Bard. They start off sharing their own stories of first being exposed to Shakespeare. Next, Thomas and Angelina address the idea that Shakespeare is too high-brow for the ordinary reader. Angelina also gives her hot take on whether you should watch or read a Shakespeare play first. She also tells some stories about reading the Bard with her children and students. Some other helpful topics they cover are the different types of plays and their forms, the cosmology behind the plays, and potential problems with some modern interpretations of Shakespearean drama. Please visit our website to view the full show notes for this episode with links to previous episodes we have done on Shakespeare, as well as the books mentioned as resources in this discussion: . Join us back again here next week when we begin our series covering Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë! You can check out all the latest offerings of mini-classes and webinars, both upcoming and recorded in the past, at HouseofHumaneLetters.com .

You can listen to Episode 318: How to Read Shakespeare online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Episode 318: How to Read Shakespeare is an episode from The Literary Life Podcast by Angelina Stanford.

This episode is 01:24:00 long.

This episode was published on Mar 3, 2026.

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