7.4 /10 1 Votes
Author Media type Print (hardcover) Playwright Susan Cooper | 3.7/5 Goodreads Country US, UK Originally published October 1999 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cover artist Bill Gregory (depicted) Publisher Margaret K. McElderry, US, Bodley Head, UK Publication date October 1999, November 1999 Characters Gil Warmun, Richard Burbage, Queen Elizabeth I Nominations Carnegie Medal, Guardian Children's Fiction Prize Genres Fiction, Historical novel, Children's literature, Speculative fiction Countries United States of America, United Kingdom Similar Foxfire, Shakespeare in Love, Equivocation, A Midsummer Night's Dr | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
King of Shadows is a children's historical novel by Susan Cooper published in 1999 by Penguin In the United Kingdom, it was a finalist for both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.
Contents
King of shadows book review fbp ep 36
Plot
Nathan Field is recruited by Arby. Arby is a producer itending on reenacting A Midsummer's Night's Dream play in London at the re-built Globe theatre the way they were done 400 years ago. The company of boys is said to be the best, from all over America the boys are chosen to play. He is chosen to be Puck in a Midsummer Night's Dream. However, he suddenly falls ill and is taken to the hospital, feared to have acting nerves. The night before he goes to the hospital, he dreams of being tossed high above the earth and then pulled firmly back. He wakes up in a different room with a boy talking to him in a heavy Elizabethan accent. He has traveled back 400 years in time, to the year 1599, when the Globe Theatre was first built. He meets William Shakespeare and acts with him in the play he had rehearsed for in his own time, and experiences theater as it was originally intended. Before he knows it, he is back in the hospital bed, awake and unsure whether what he experienced was real. Later, Rachel Levin and Gil Warmun, his co-actors from the present time, try to find out who he was 400 years ago.
Synopsis
Nathan Field, a talented young actor, arrives at the newly rebuilt Globe theatre in London to play Puck in A Midsummer's Night's dream. As rehearsals begin, eerie echoes of the past begin to haunt Nat and he falls ill with a mysterious sickness. When he wakes, Nat finds himself in 1599, an actor at the original Globe - and his co-star is none other than the King of Shadows himself: William Shakespeare. Nat's new life is full of excitement, danger, and the passionate friendship that he has longed for since the tragic death of his parents. But why has he been sent to the past - and is he trapped there forever?
Characters
Nathan F, or Nat Field
Arby, Gil Warmun, Rachel Levin, Mr.Fisher, Aunt Jen, Pudding Face, Eric, Ferdie, David Roper, Ray Danza, Joe Wilson, Alan wonger
Richard Burbage, William Shakespeare, Roper, Queen Elizabeth I, Will Kempe, Richard Mulcaster, Harry, Sam and Henry Condell
Characters as characters in the play
Puck, played by Nat.
Oberon, played by Gil.
Bottom, played by David Roper.
Theseus, played by Ray Danza.
Hippolyta, played by Joe Wilson.
Titania, played by Alan wonger
Fairy, played by Eric.
Adaptations
King of Shadows was adapted for the stage in 2005 and first performed by the New York State Theatre Institute (NYSTI) starring P. J. Verhoest as Nat, David Bunce as Shakespeare, John Romeo as Burbage, and Aaron Marquise as Roper.