 Title page of the 1818 complete second edition | |
| Author | William Shakespeare, Thomas Bowdler |
|---|---|
| Genre | Expurgated Shakespeare |
| Published | 1807 (20 plays), 1818 (all 36 plays) |
| Publisher | J. Hatchard (1807); Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown (1818) |
| Publication place | London, England |
The Family Shakespeare (at times titled The Family Shakspeare) is a collection of expurgated Shakespeare plays, edited by Thomas Bowdler and his sister Henrietta ("Harriet"), intended to remove any material deemed too racy, blasphemous, or otherwise sensitive for young or female audiences, with the ultimate goal of creating a family-friendly rendition of Shakespeare's plays.[1] The Family Shakespeare is one of the most often cited examples of literary censorship, despite (or perhaps because of) its original family-friendly intentions.[2] The Bowdler name is also the origin of the term "bowdlerise",[1] meaning to omit parts of a work on moral grounds.[2]
The first edition of The Family Shakespeare was published in 1807 in four duodecimo volumes, covering 20 plays.[3] In 1818 a second edition was published, containing all 36 available plays in 10 volumes.[4]
- ^ a b Huang, Alexa (2 June 2016). "'Censure me in your wisdom': Bowdlerized Shakespeare in the nineteenth century". Index on Censorship. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
- ^ a b Eschner, Kat. "The Bowdlers Wanted to Clean Up Shakespeare, Not Become a Byword for Censorship". SmartNews. Smithsonian.com. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- ^ Bowdler, Harriet; Bowdler, Thomas, eds. (1807). The Family Shakespeare (1st ed.). London: J. Hatchard.
- ^ Bowdler, Thomas, ed. (1818–1820). The Family Shakspeare: in which nothing is added to the original text, but those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read in a family (2nd ed.). London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown.