William Shakespeare's The Jedi Doth Return by Ian DoescherMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The wonderful combination of Elizabethan theater and the Galaxy Far, Far Away returns in William Shakespeare's The Jedi Doth Return by Ian Doescher. Combining his love of the classic trilogy, in particular the concluding installment of the original trilogy, and the Bard, Doescher his crossover adaptation series by bringing forth the triumphant of Episode VI with iambic pentameter, prose, haiku, and quatrains.
Doescher is out front in noting that The Return of the Jedi was his favorite installment of the original trilogy and it can be seen in his excellent translation of film dialogue to late 16th century English with the soliloquies, speeches, and asides that add depth to all the characters Star Wars fans have come to love. The addition of new major and secondary characters to the overall story are given lines to better understand their inner thoughts, in particular Emperor Palpatine the ultimate villain of the film and trilogy. As a result of this approached a better understanding new and previous seen characters is given to the reader than as a film viewer. Like The Empire Striketh Back, Doescher breaks away from iambic pentameter for several characters, but in particular the Ewoks who's language is said in quatrains. The inner feelings of Han and Leia are furthered towards her ultimate coming together while Leia and Luke's sibling acknowledgement is given greater depth than given in the film. Like his previous book Doescher used the Chorus less than he did in his first book, instead having characters detail the action like Shakespeare did in his plays. The key and favorite scenes of the film are given their own Shakespearean spin that brings a smile to the reader's face.
In a 159 pages, Doescher brings the epic saga of the redemption Anakin Skywalker as seen in Episode VI to the Elizabethan stage with amazing results. If you're a Star Wars fan you've got to get your hands on this book.
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Great review. I saw the cover of this book on amazon.com and wondered what was inside. Now I know. I wouldn't have thought about turning a modern film into 16th century dialogue.
ReplyDeleteThank you. What I didn't even mention were the wonderful illustrations of the characters in Elizabethan theatrical garb, not only in this book but also "Verily, A New Hope" and "The Empire Striketh Back". Doescher has also rewritten the prequel trilogy and all three of those will be coming out this year several months apart.
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