Is Shakespeare fading into obscurity in the modern age?
SOME BOOKSELLERS CLAIM DEMAND FOR HIS CLASSIC PLAYS AND POEMS HAS DECLINED
Shakespeare, perhaps the greatest English writer ever, could be fading into obscurity for most people, booksellers and book lovers said at the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) on Wednesday.
“Shakespeare who?” replied a woman at SIBF when asked if she reads William Shakespeare, the legendary 17th century English playwright whose works have been translated into every major living language.
Others had heard of him, but hardly anyone picked up a copy of one of his plays or poems. Some booksellers at SIBF don’t even stock his works.
“We don’t have Shakespeare books anymore because there is really no demand for them,” said Sarfaraz Nawaz, sales supervisor at Jashanmal bookstall at SIBF, which ends tomorrow.
So why are readers apparently turning the page on Shakespeare? “Most readers today feel Shakespeare is ‘too old’ in his use of classical English. His vocabulary, his flow — the way he builds up sentence structure — is too hard for many people to appreciate,” said Bouchikh Hussam, sales manager at the Bookpoint & Hachette UK bookstall.
Hussam, who is visiting from Algeria, added: “We get very few people buying Shakespeare. It’s usually the mum telling the child ‘you must read this’ or the student who buys it because the teacher asked for it. That’s because if you want to read English at its best, you have to read Shakespeare.”
At the DC Books stand, salesman Sangeeth Sajilal echoed those views. “Many people have this perception that Shakespeare is too difficult to understand. We’ve only had one customer so far for Shakespeare since SIBF started [on October 31]. With Shakespeare, for most people, you need a teacher for every sentence,” Sajilal said.
Perhaps that is why it is usually taught in schools and colleges.
“I read Shakespeare in school because we had to. I don’t read his works for my own pleasure because of his oldstyle English,” said Anas Arkan, a 21-year-old Iraqi resident of Sharjah visiting SIBF.
Egyptian Nayer Magdy, 19, said: “I find Shakespeare boring. I like to read non-fiction and Shakespeare is too artsy for me.”
But Shakespeare being Shakespeare, there will always be fans.
“I’ve read most of his plays – it’s easy. I like Shakespeare because his description of characters is very detailed. If there are words I don’t understand, I just Google,” said Akshaj Sureshkumar, 12. The grade seven student from India, who lives in Dubai, added that he enjoys the “old English” style of Shakespeare.
“Shakespeare still sells. We have only three titles left, the rest are gone now,” said Aileen Natura, a sales rep at Borders bookstall. “Even at our shop outside SIBF, people still buy Shakespeare. It’s young adults and sometimes their parents who buy his works.”
At SIBF, individual plays of Shakespeare are priced at Dh10 to Dh15. Compilations of his works sell for around Dh60 to Dh80.