Shakespeare and the Drama

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Shakespeare and the Drama by Leo Tolstoy

Written in 1906, translated the following year for the February 1907 edition of Review of Reviews for Australasia

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I remember the astonishment I felt when I first read Shakespeare. I expected to receive a powerful, aesthetic pleasure; but having read, one after the other, works regarded as his best - "King Lear", "Romeo and Juliet", "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" - not only did I feel no delight, but I felt an irresistable repulsion and tedium.

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