Shakespeare’s works have been an integral part of India’s education and cultural evolution for over two centuries. A study of his works in the Indian context reveals insightful observations about his genius and his technique. This collection of essays examines the range and vitality of the Indian experience of Shakespeare. Broad in scope and comprehensive, the Indian approach to Shakespeare reveals an all-embracing openness that is crucial to understanding and appreciating Shakespeare.

The essays, a tribute to the genius of the world’s most universal artist, cover Shakespearean plays and characters including paintings on them. Making an indispensable contribution to Shakespearean studies, they take up specific themes like problem of evil in Measure for Measure, the East-West encounter in Antony and Cleopatra, and the spice trade in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. With numerous pictures of Shakespearean plays enacted on the Indian stage, they focus on his works like Macbeth and King Lear as powerful exemplification of important rasas—heroism, human, pathos, terror, wonder and tranquillity. They include comparative studies such as that between Keats and Shakespeare and Kalidasa and Shakespeare. The volume is a witness to how inter-cultural perceptions can yield fruitful interpretations.

The editor of the volume, Vikram Chopra, is an authority o Shakespeare. He has presented several papers in national and international seminars and published works on Indian English literature in general and Shakespeare in particular. He was the founder-secretary of the Shakespeare Society of India from 1987 to 1993.