Filthy Shakespeare

Filthy Shakespeare, by Pauline Kiernan, is a guide to William Shakespeare's most suggestive, innuendo-filled writings. Kiernan has selected extracts from Shakespeare's plays and sonnets, and translated them into modern English.

The book is divided into over seventy short chapters, arranged thematically, each one discussing a different extract from Shakespeare's work. First, the original extract is printed, followed by a modern translation, and finally a mini glossary.

Kiernan's translations are specifically designed to highlight Shakespeare's sexual metaphors, though her graphic language takes away all of the original poetry and ambiguity - she may have been too blunt in her interpretations.

This is by no means the first book about Shakespeare's sexual language - there is an entire industry of stocking-filler titles about the bard's invectives. Kiernan's book is more intelligent than most, though it can't hold a candle to the true pioneer in this field, Eric Partridge. Partridge's book Shakespeare's Bawdy, an A-Z glossary of Shakespeare's puns, is the first and last word on the subject, though Kiernan doesn't even acknowledge it as a source.