This engaging book draws on all of Shakespearea s plays to show they can still be used as a guide to life. * Introduces beginning students and general readers to Shakespearea s plays by highlighting the connections between the issues addressed by the plays and those of our own time. * Focuses on the characters, situations and stories in Shakespeare which are still familiar today. * Shows how Shakespearea s plays illustrate some of lifea s most familiar stories -- love and obsession, parents and children, sex and politics, suffering and revenge * Makes Shakespeare's plays accessible to the widest possible audience.