[alert variation=”alert-info”]Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback
Purchase: Powell’s | Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble[/alert]

If you like Shakespeare and love cats, then Shakespeare Cats is a must have for your coffee table. Highly talented artist Susan Herbert presents thirty-three beautiful full-page paintings (watercolor?) drawn from various Shakespeare plays in this medium sized high-end trade paperback production. The artwork is awesome and the cats are impressive, in full elaborate Shakespearean costumes. On the opposite page is another related sketch of a character from that play in simple black-and-white with a caption of the character’s name. The name of the play is the title of each page; underneath the author identifies the act and the scene, including a short description of the portrayed events. Below that we find a quotation from the play in a brief paragraph, many of which are familiar to those knowledgeable of Shakespeare. This book is so beautiful that you cannot sit down to page through from cover to cover at once but must savor it slowly over days and several times. Apart from what accompanies each drawing, there is no text in this book. The cats have mostly somber facial expressions—no smile on their faces, appropriate of Shakespeare’s plays.

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