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Star Wars meets Shakespeare in this beautifully-produced and fun book from first-timer Ian Doescher. It's not the sort of thing most people would read through from cover-to-cover, but it is a book every Star Wars fan will probably want on their shelf.

Publication Information

• Full Title:William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope
• Author: Ian Doescher
• Publisher: Quirk Books and Lucas Books
• Publication Date: 2013

• ISBN: 978-1-59474-637-6 (hardcover), 978-1-59474-655-0 (ebook), B00BE24WT8 (Kindle AISN)

Fully Operational

Shakespeare and Star Wars may seem like an odd combination, at first. But as author Ian Doescher points out in his Afterword, it actually makes perfect sense. When writing the script for the original Star Wars movie (which folks as old as me consider to be the first movie, but which younger readers know as Episode IV: A New Hope), George Lucas drew heavily on the ideas of Joseph Campbell and his "hero's journey." And one of the sources Campbell drew on when constructing his simplified outline of the path every hero follows was William Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare's Star Wars is essentially a complete re-write of the movie into a five-act play in iambic pentameter (the poetic verse form Shakespeare used in all of his plays). None of the action is changed except in small details to make it better fit a Shakespearean mold (and the "who shot first" issue of Han Solo and Greedo's meeting is not resolved -- instead, Han says, "...

whether I shot first, I'll ne'er confess").

A Tale Told

Doescher obviously put in a lot of work to make the text flow in iambic pentameter. It couldn't have been easy to make the words faithful to both Shakespeare and Star Wars, but the result is quite good. As a text, it reads more as the Bard of Avon than George Lucas (considering some of the dialogue in the more recent Star Wars episodes, that's not at all a bad thing), but as a story, it's all rebels and imperials shooting it out in space.

As a play, it would probably be difficult to produce -- how would one make X-Wing props, for example? But it would also be completely brilliant to see it pulled off. And what a great thing to attempt for a school play, or even in-class reading aloud to introduce a younger generation to the joys of Shakespearean drama through a much-loved science fiction tale.

Special Effects

Aside from the obvious appeal of a book combining two beloved things (I'd wager there are a lot more fans of both Star Wars and Shakespeare than one might think), this book is simply beautifully-produced and I'm a big sucker for books as objects. The dustjacket is an appealing textured cream paper with an Elizabethan-looking illustration of Darth Vader in shades of deep brown, and there are similar illustrations scattered throughout the book. The text itself is laid out as a play (because, of course, it is one).

Even better, though, is the nice surprise to be found by those who take off the dustjacket to see what's underneath (something I always recommend doing with hardcovers -- usually there's just a plain cloth or paper cover, but once in a while there's something special). The cover of William Shakespeare's Star Wars is made to look like a old leather-bound book, complete with edge-wear and stains.

The Force is Strong With This One

As much as I enjoyed this book, I feel I should point out it's aimed at a pretty specific audience, though it is a rather large one. Star Wars fans will almost certainly want to own it, especially if they're also Shakespeare geeks. Shakespeare and drama aficionados might also get a kick out of it, even if they're not Star Wars fans. And it seems like a good thing for teachers and librarians to have on hand in multiple copies, to make teaching great English literature fun again.

As far as content goes, it's exactly the same as the movie -- some violence (mostly shooting), between well-defined good and evil factions, and no sexual content whatsoever. It's a story about heroism and putting the good of others before one's own desires; thanks to George Lucas' reliance on the hero's journey, it's a universal tale most readers can relate to.



Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.