Shakespeare's Sonnets, Retold

Classic Love Poems with a Modern Twist

By: William Shakespeare, James Anthony, Stephen Fry - introduction

Narrated by: Paapa Essiedu, James Anthony, Stephen Fry

An enlightening and entertaining collection of the most esteemed love poems in the English canon, retold in contemporary language everyone can understand

James Anthony has long enjoyed poetry with a strict adherence to beat, rhythm, and rhyming patterns, which he likens to the very best pop songs. This drew him to the rewarding 14-line structure of Shakespeare’s sonnets, yet he often found their abstract language frustratingly unintelligible. One day, out of curiosity, he rewrote Sonnet 18—Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day—line-by-line, in the strict five-beat iambic pentameter and rhyming patterns of the original, but in a contemporary language a modern reader could easily understand. The meaning and sentiment—difficult to spot, initially—came to life, revealing new intricacies in the workings of Shakespeare's heart.

And so, James embarked on a full-time, year-long project to rewrite all 154 of the Bard's eternal verses creating SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS, RETOLD. This collection of masterful reinterpretations brilliantly demystifies and breathes new life into Shakespeare's work, demonstrating the continued resonance of a playwright whose popularity remains over 400 years after his death. Now, the passion, heartbreak, deception, reconciliation, and mortality of Shakespeare’s originals can be understood by all, without the need to cross reference to an enjoyment-sapping study-guide. Coming with a foreword by Stephen Fry, this is a stunning collection of beautiful love poems made new.


Read by Paapa Essiedu, James Anthony, and Stephen Fry

Critic reviews

“A dazzling success…. Aside from the pleasure any reader can derive from this achievement, schools and colleges will stamp and cheer with unrestrained gratitude and delight.” —Stephen Fry

I liked it. It makes the sonnet accessible.

I liked having the sonnets read first in old English then in new. Sometimes I liked one more than the other. But having the new interpretation right after helped me understand the original.

Super Dry

I love shakespear, I love the narrators. I thought this would be interesting, fun, but nope. So dry it's incredibly hard to get through. I love the translations, I think that is helpful and unique, but something is missing to make this as interesting as it could be. Perhaps background music? I'm not sure.