Highly nuanced in its close readings of key moments ... Equally adept in his use of historical sources and his deployment of modern theories of 'performativity', Elam is a stylish guide through the Shakespearean picture gallery.

Times Literary Supplement

[Elam's] book offers a number of interesting readings, an astute account of relevant artistic and literary developments, together with a lively sense of early modern history.

The Review of English Studies

Elam's monograph is lucid and insightful; its scholarship and presentation combine to make it a highly informative and enjoyable read.

The Year's Work in English Studies

Offers sharply focused observations about the workings of picture in each individual play, especially the construction of pictures via characters' imaginations.

Shakespeare Studies

Elam's textured, historically informed, jargon-free readings will persuade his readers of the serious pragmatic and semiotic functions of pictures in Shakespeare's plays.

Sederi

Original, engaging, highly innovative and richly researched, this book makes a valuable contribution to the field as the first interdisciplinary study which provides a concentrated and sustained focus on the use of physical "pictures" in Shakespeare's drama. The readings of the individual plays are breathtakingly deft, a tour de force interweaving of image theory, material culture, performance practice and textual analysis. The depth of the research, the illuminating illustrations and a handy glossary of "Shakespeare's Iconographic Lexicon", make this book a bejewelled cabinet of wonders for the discerning reader, from undergraduate level upwards.

Dr Chris Laoutaris, Lecturer at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon