It's a Contest!
First, what you're playing for: a brand-new, never-been-read copy of So Long As Men Can Breathe: The Untold Story of Shakespeare's Sonnets by Clinton Heylin. I bought myself a copy when it came out last year, and just a few months back, I inadvertently purchased a second copy. Truly, I do not have room for two copies of this lovely, hardcover book about the history of Shakespeare's sonnets, which is based in large part on the fact that they were bootlegged in the first place - or, as Heylin puts it, "booklegged". (Heylin pretty much made his name writing about bootlegged rock tapes, most notably those of Bob Dylan, but his research skills and knowledge carry over well in this story of how the Bard's private stash of sonnets went public.) I've talked about Heylin's book before in this post on Sonnet 106 and this post on Sonnet 86.
The book takes its title from Sonnet 18, which closes with this lovely couplet:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Second, this week's rules on how to enter:
Drop me a comment to this post - this one, the one you are now reading - quoting your favorite line from my Julius Caesar summary AND/OR leave a comment telling me your favorite part of each individual summaries by leaving a comment on the individual summary posts. That's SIX CHANCES TO ENTER: one per summary, plus this bonus here.
The summary posts are:
Act I - BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH!
Act II - Conspiracy!
Act III - Et tu Bruté?
Act IV - Waiting for the other sandal to fall
Act V - "and then the conspirators die. The End."
If you think that I'm (shamelessly) trying to get more comments, you're kinda right - I spent hours and hours writing my summaries and got very little feedback, and, as you may know, comments sometimes feel like love. So - comment to win this wonderful book, folks! And what could be easier than quoting me back to me? It's almost cut-and-paste simple! In fact, it is cut-and-paste simple!
This here contest closes at noon Eastern time on Tuesday, since I've got a make-up contest to run between now and the end of next week. I sure hope some of you will enter. (Note to Jennifer Hubbard: Your entries are duly noted, and you've scored a BONUS entry for your post ordering encouraging people to read the Caesar posts, so I've got you at six already. You know what to do to get seven entries, right?
