A Critical and Historical Analysis of Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and Thomas Bowdler'��s The Family Shakespeare

This thesis will discuss Charles and Mary Lamb'��s 1807 Tales from Shakespeare and Thomas Bowdler'��s 1818 The Family Shakespeare in a critical and historical context. Running through this thesis is the argument that these texts are cornerstones of children'��s Shakespeare, though their reputations and contributions to the genre are buried beneath generations of misconceptions and sensationalism. This thesis provides a new perspective on Tales from Shakespeare and The Family Shakespeare that exposes the prejudices and misinformation surrounding them, offering an assessment of their respective adaptation methods and editorial influence over Shakespeare from the nineteenth century to the present.

The first chapter introduces the thesis and identifies the scope of its research. It discusses the misconceptions surrounding the Lambs'�� and Bowdler'��s texts and examines the practice of reading Shakespeare in the home. The second chapter establishes the historical context of Tales from Shakespeare and The Family Shakespeare by examining the origins of both children's literature and Shakespeare adaptations. It highlights influential educational philosophies, editorial trends, and critical debates in both of these fields. The third chapter discusses and contrasts the distinctive adaptation methods used by Charles and Mary Lamb respectively in Tales from Shakespeare. The fourth chapter discusses the adaptation methods used by Thomas Bowdler in The Family Shakespeare and distinguishes them from the accepted term bowdlerization. The fifth chapter establishes the legacy of the Lambs'�� and Bowdler'��s texts by discussing their influences over subsequent Shakespeare adaptations for children during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The sixth chapter presents the concluding arguments and final observations of the thesis.