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William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace

By Ian Doescher
William Shakespeare s The Phantom of Menace O Threepio Threepio wherefore art thou Threepio Join us good gentles for a merry reimagining of Star Wars Episode I as only Shakespeare could have written it The entire saga starts here with a t

  • Title: William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace
  • Author: Ian Doescher
  • ISBN: 9781594748066
  • Page: 334
  • Format: Hardcover

    • O Threepio, Threepio, wherefore art thou, Threepio Join us, good gentles, for a merry reimagining of Star Wars Episode I as only Shakespeare could have written it The entire saga starts here, with a thrilling tale featuring a disguised queen, a young hero, and two fearless knights facing a hidden, vengeful enemy Tis a true Shakespearean drama, filled with sword fights,O Threepio, Threepio, wherefore art thou, Threepio Join us, good gentles, for a merry reimagining of Star Wars Episode I as only Shakespeare could have written it The entire saga starts here, with a thrilling tale featuring a disguised queen, a young hero, and two fearless knights facing a hidden, vengeful enemy Tis a true Shakespearean drama, filled with sword fights, soliloquies, and doomed romance all in glorious iambic pentameter and coupled with twenty gorgeous Elizabethan illustrations Hold onto your mini chlorians The play s the thing, wherein you ll catch the rise of Anakin

    • William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace Best Read || [Ian Doescher]
      334 Ian Doescher
    William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace

    About Author

    1. Ian Doescher says:
      Ian is the author of the William Shakespeare Star Wars series He s a Portland native, and lives in Portland with his spouse and two children Ian has a B.A in Music from Yale University, a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School, and a Ph.D from Union Theological Seminary.

    Comment 970 on “William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace”

    1. Jessica (priceiswong) says:
      I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review I was very surprised by this book It s no secret that I love Star Wars, but when I first heard of this book I thought the author had changed the story a bunch And was just a little skeptical I put it off, but recently watched the newest Star Wars, the Force Awakens, and decided to pick these up I was super pleased to realize that not that much from the original story was changed I loved how the author changed the dialogue h [...]
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    2. Daniel says:
      Pa nastavlja se u istom stlu, mada imam osecaj da je pisanje jace ili mi se to cini posto je uzeo pricu najgoreg filma i digao je na znacajno veci nivo Plus JAr Jar je postao daleko ozbiljniji igrac tako da idemo dalje.Kada vidim da su ostale jos samo dve knjigenekako me bude zao Valjda ce obraditi i najnoviji film
      Reply

    3. Blamp Head says:
      O, wherefore art thou but so little pleased Because thou read not Phantom of Menace,Alack But this be but the fourth of fourSo far released in this most grand old lot.Behold Mister Binks, he is no one s fool Ere thou too harshly judge his wretched soul,In this iambic pentameter play,Binks plays his cards with perfect aptitude.O, wert thou not but wasting thy short time,Thou wouldst mayhap hath read yet Anakin sA rising out from podraced slaveryTo clench his place in the wise Jedi ranks.And noble [...]
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    4. Debby says:
      4 starsI embarked on this quirky little series when I thought it would only be the original Star Wars series, so I was a bit surprised to hear about William Shakespeare s The Phantom of Menace You would think that after three books, the novelty of the Shakespearification of Star Wars might wear off but no I enjoyed The Phantom of Menace immensely.I ll be upfront with you and say that of all the Star Wars movies, The Phantom Menace is my least favorite This is the case for many fans, I believe, b [...]
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    5. Sesana says:
      Compared to the original movies, the prequels are going to be a bit of a challenge to Shakespeareify Not because the basic plots are bad, but because the dialog is atrocious I m doing my damnedest to come up with a solidly quotable line from the prequels and coming up blank But believe me, I can come up with dozens of cringingly awful ones Doescher, I think, does his best, but this is kind of a weak movie to adapt He helps his cause by applying his own interpretation to JarJar he s only playing [...]
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    6. Matt says:
      Ian Doescher takes on the task of bringing the Star Wars prequels to the Elizabethan stage in William Shakespeare s The Phantom of Menace to fantastic results that will be jarring to any of those who dislike the film Given the first prequel s notorious reputation amongst the Star Wars fandom, Doescher gives the maligned film a magnificent theatrical presentation that would make any hardcore fan happy.The biggest issue Doescher had to deal with was obviously Jar Jar Binks, who instead of being ju [...]
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    7. Abby says:
      These books never fail to tickle me Every time I pick one up, I expect a Shakespearean version of the classic films However, Doescher puts his own twist on the stories I particularly like how he made Jar Jar an intelligent creature, who is simply misunderstood What A likable Jar Jar I know, I m in shock too.
      Reply


    9. Caidyn (BW Book Reviews; he/him/his) says:
      Okay, so I went into this with the plan of doing a serious review You know, examining lines, plot, characters, and all that good stuff An actual review.About halfway through, I realized there was no way that would happen It was too funny and brought up too many memories for me to actually make this a review that you got something out of.I was three when this movie came out May 1999 April was my birthday, so I was literally just three So, I obviously didn t see this in theaters Although, part of [...]
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    10. Brandon St Mark says:
      Originally I bought these as collectors items, and didn t have any intention of reading them I really just don t care for Shakespeare However, I need some books to pad out my reading during Dune Club, and I recently preorders the 7th one in this series, so I figured why not go ahead and read them.Story wise, this followed the movie pretty closely I liked how the author turned Jar Jar into a cunning and interesting character I kinda wish it was canon I personally don t hate the character, but he [...]
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    11. Liz says:
      Short ReviewI ve reviewed Ian Doescher s William Shakespeare s Star Wars original series, which I thoroughly enjoyed overall The Phantom of Menace was good, but it had a lot of missed opportunities For one, whole scenes were deleted the funeral of Qui Gon Jinn , which could have had some lovely asides from Anakin and Obi Wan both I know a lot of people detest Jar Jar Binks, but what Ian Doescher did with his character was to give him some depth I liked this quite a bit The pacing was uneven in t [...]
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    12. David says:
      Was die inneren Monologe R2 D2s in den anderen drei B chern waren, ist hier Jar Jar Binks, der uns allen was vorgemacht hat Die Schlacht kommt zum Gl ck nur kurz vor, das Podracing ist gut umgesetzt und Doescher hat wieder viele kleine Details eingebaut Yoda spricht in Haiku, in allen Mace Windu Dialogen ist angeblich ein Filmtitel eines Films mit Samuel L Jackson versteckt Doescher gehen die Ideen nicht aus und ich bin froh, dass er sich doch noch entschieden hat, die drei neuen Filme zu versha [...]
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    13. Amanda says:
      This was like reading the movie s script, but done up in faux Shakespearean style It gets a bit cheesy using famous lines from Shakespeare s plays like Et tu, Brute , but otherwise does an admirable job of bringing that sort of language to the Star Wars plot Jar Jar Binks is retold as a gifted philosopher posing as a nitwit due to Qui Gon s prejudices R2 D2 also speaks proper English in his asides, as well Yoda speaks in haiku, which is also pretty neat I had fun reading this and remembering the [...]
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    14. Jessamyn Leigh says:
      These mashups of two of my favorite things never disappoint Highlights of this one include using asides to reveal Jar Jar as secretly intelligent but playing dumb to unite the Naboo and the Gungans, and meta references to Liam Neeson and Samuel L Jackson s other movies The already good dialogue Palpatine becomes glorious, the painful Lil Anakin becomes bearable And can we talk about the illustrations I m already a huge fan of The Phantom Menace s production design and it married so well with Eli [...]
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    15. Jordan Lahn says:
      Another wonderful adventure through this strange hybrid universe merging Star Wars with Shakespeare Once again, the cleverness with which Ian Doescher weaves Shakespeare s trademark wit and wordplay into familiar dialogue is incredible, and I frequently laughed out loud at certain turns of phrase I wish I d been able to enjoy this in audio form the way I did the first 3, but it was still a very enjoyable reading experience Already pre ordered the next two
      Reply

    16. Natalie says:
      Hilarious I m not sure what else I can say Ian Doescher does an amazing job taking the stories we all know and love yet putting a new spin on them In this one for example, I loved Jar Jar I really like the way his character was handled and developed I only got one of the Samuel L Jackson references but it was still fun to look for them I don t know how this guy does it He s brilliant Even the podrace worked as part of the play Oh and I will always and forever love Artoo Qui Gon s death scene was [...]
      Reply

    17. Hayley says:
      This book makes my English major s heart so happy There is plenty of literary cleverness, both with nods to Shakespeare and to other elements of pop culture Qui Gon s speech to Darth Maul right before they fight is my personal favorite This book play also offers an interesting take on Jar Jar Binks he is merely playing the fool in order to manipulate the other characters into taking the path he desires I thoroughly enjoyed this and look forward to reading the others in the series
      Reply

    18. Tony Laplume says:
      Here s an admission to kick things off I m one of those odd fans of Star Wars who grew up with the classic trilogy and liked the prequels anyway Yes, including The Phantom Menace And Jar Jar BinksThis might be the only Shakespeare Star Wars that I read, not because I was not impressed with Phantom of Menace clearly I was, so the stars indicate no war necessary here , but because, I think, this is in fact the ideal adaptation to sample, if sample is all you end up doing.Which is also brilliant Al [...]
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    19. Natália says:
      The Phantom Menace is that movie that I honestly pretend that never happened in our lives, since it doesn t bring much to connect with the other movies In the case of this book it was better, but I still were pretty bored at some parts Thank God that the author always makes it funnier and add things that doesn t sound out of context Jar Jar Binks which is a bit different and cooler in this book is still a very annoying character, and it s terrible to think that he has lines and depth than Darth [...]
      Reply

    20. Tracey says:
      Unless you ve been living in a Wampa s ice cave on the remote planet of Hoth, I d wager you re familiar with the Star Wars universe You also probably know a thing or two about William Shakespeare as it s required reading in most high school English classes In The Phantom of Menace, Ian Doescher retells George Lucas s original story through the iambic pentameter of William Shakespeare, and it s absolutely brilliant.As a slightly obsessed fan of the original Star Wars movie trilogy, I have to conf [...]
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    21. meghann says:
      I have the original trilogy version of these books, but I was a bit slower getting the ones for episodes one through three I guess I just try to deny their existence, or something But I should not have waited so long, as this book was hilarious Freaking Jar Jar is incredibly intelligent and only acts like an idiot to manipulate the Jedi into doing what he wants And R2 D2 continues to have an amazing internal monologue Then I got to this part and laughed long and hard image bbcodeAmazing I bought [...]
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    22. Brandon Forsyth says:
      I ll be honest my first thought was why I had really hoped that the Shakespeare Star Wars series would just do the original films, but I forgot one thing Ian Doescher is a very, very funny man This book crackles with wit and wordplay, and actually made me want to revisit the film no mean feat I loved reading the Taken speech in iambic pentameter, hearing Anakin channel Humphrey Bogart, and all the other sly little fun that these books have consistently delivered Doescher acknowledges in his afte [...]
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    23. Benjamin says:
      Perhaps the best of the lot so far I ve ready 4 6, and now this one, and let me tell you, the Star Wars Shakespearean in me was not disappointed I was most impressed at the portrayal of Jar Jar Binks In the films, Binks is, well, an imbecile In this book, however, Jar Jar takes on the role of fool by choice in order to accomplish his designs It is a brilliant way of portraying him, one which I wish had happened in the movie But alas, Jar Jar is Jar Jar, and we can t undo that.I loved the subtle [...]
      Reply

    24. Amy says:
      Okay, this one was fun I m really enjoying this series This one was remarkable than the others so far in that it was better than the movie it was based on Doescher even manages to make Jar Jar Binks bearable Who would have thought such a thing was even possible I enjoyed the other pop culture references that were tossed in, including song lyrics and references to Liam Niesen s role in Taken.
      Reply

    25. Brian Palmer says:
      Any book that can take this movie, set it to iambic pentameter mostly , make it humorous and appropriately weighty without being dull, and give Jar Jar Binks a sense of gravitas and greater purpose than what we saw in the prequels, is okay in my book Doescher s skill as a writer continues to get my attention, and the very premise of mixing Star Wars with Shakespeare like language and setting continues to intrigue me to no end A fine read
      Reply

    26. Kelly K says:
      Amusing but since this is my least favorite episode of the saga I wasn t too into it There were a few humorous quotes though.
      Reply

    27. Jill says:
      The Phantom of Menace by Ian Doescher is the first book in a series that tells the Star Wars saga inspired by William Shakespeare This book tells the story of the first episode, The Phantom Menace As this is my favorite of all the movies, I was very excited to read this book I enjoyed how some things were slightly altered for dramatic effect, but I m glad it stayed pretty true to the film This series will definitely appeal to any Star Wars fan.
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    28. Ryan Keough says:
      Doescher does it again The Shakespeare s Star Wars series is highly enjoyable for me, as a fan of Star Wars and a student of theatre This episode did not disappoint, with brilliantly creative translations of dialogue and action moments that I am so familiar with, putting a new and inspired twist on the story.
      Reply

    29. Katie says:
      4.5Thoroughly enjoyed this book I definitely enjoyed it than the actual movie I d definitely recommend it to a Shakespeare loving Star Wars fan It s a unique and refreshing take on the Star Wars universe.To read my full review on my blog, click HERE
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    30. Sarah says:
      Summer 2017 So Good I actually liked this book better than the movie and maybe better than the original trilogy s Shakespearean versions The best part Shockingly Jar Jar Binks
      Reply

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