Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare (1970) by Isaac Asimov is a two-volume guide to the works of the celebrated English writer William Shakespeare. The numerous maps were drafted by the artist Rafael Palacios. The work gives a short guide to every Shakespeare play, as well as two epic poems. Asimov organizes the plays not in the usual way — as tragedies, comedies, and histories — but regionally, as follows: The last two categories are treated broadly; 'Italian' applies to neighbouring countries, and both "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" are listed with 'The English Plays'. Asimov gives a detailed justification
William Shakespeare events which lead to the torture and blinding of the Earl of Gloucester and the murder of Lear's youngest daughter Cordelia. According to the critic Frank Kermode, "the play-offers neither its good characters nor its audience any relief from its cruelty". In "Macbeth", the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies, uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder the rightful king and usurp the throne until their own guilt destroys them in turn. In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure. His last major tragedies, "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus", contain some