The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets
Helen Vendler'sThe Art of Shakespeare's Sonnetsis an incredible  work of analysis, criticism--and obsession. In giving these complex poems a close  reading, Vendler attempts to enter the mind and esthetics of her subject, resulting in an  amazing and comprehensive commentary on the sonnets. But this is not a book for  Shakespeare neophytes. Vendler assumes a degree of familiarity with Shakespeare's sonnets,  and she writes in the language of literary criticism: "...the couplet--placed not  as resolution but as coda--can then stand in any number of relations ... to the  preceding argument."). However, for those readers who have a basic knowledge of  Renaissance poetics, and Shakespeare's sonnets in particular,The Art of  Shakespeare's Sonnetsis a gold mine of fascinating interpretation. What's  more, though Vendler draws on the work of many commentators who went before her, in  the end it is Shakespeare's own meaning, and not the interpretation of modern  critics, that she reads for. A nice bonus is the CD inside the back cover of the book, which  contains the author's reading of 65 sonnets.