Review of Fintan O'Toole, 'Shakespeare is Hard, But So is Life: A Radical Guide to Shakespearean Tragedy', London and New York: Granta Books, 2002. ISBN 1 86207 528 X $19.95. and Paul Skrebels and Sieta van der Hoeven (eds), 'For All Time? Critical Issues in Teaching Shakespeare', Adelaide: Wakefield Press and AATE, 2002. ISBN 1862545952 144pp. $34.95

This book is a refreshing antidote to the Bradley, Bloom and Brodie's Notes approaches to Shakespeare. O'Toole begins with the contention that traditional school Shakespeare began in the nineteenth century, "on the playing fields of Eton", as part of a national project designed to instil notions of correct behaviour – shades of Matthew Arnold. He moves from there to try to see Shakespeare as a product of his times, as writing in a period of ferment, upheaval and competing world views (the feudal hierarchy v science/capitalism), and then argues that the tragedies reflect this situation.