The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture. Ed. Robert Shaughnessy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. x + 292. Cloth £ 45.00.

• Virginia Mason Vaughan

An anthology’s challenge is to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Often an engaged editor brings the book’s disparate elements together in a coherent conceptual framework. In this respect Cambridge’s latest offering in the Companion to Shakespeare series falls short. After raising theoretical questions in an initial paragraph, the introduction hastily summarizes the essays and leaves the reader to connect the dots. This companion is like a quilt without threads to unite the panels – each part must speak for itself. Fortunately,

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