Shakespeare's The Jedi Doth Return

Product Description

Experience the Star Wars saga reimagined as an Elizabethan drama penned by William Shakespeare himself, complete with authentic meter and verse, and theatrical monologues and dialogue by everyone from C3PO to Admiral Ackbar.

Prithee, attend the tale so far: Han Solo entombed in carbonite, the princess taken captive, the Rebel Alliance besieged, and Jabba the Hutt engorged. Alack! Now Luke Skywalker and his Rebel band must seek fresh allies in their quest to thwart construction of a new Imperial Death Star. But whom can they trust to fight by their side in the great battle to come? Cry “Ewok” and let slip the dogs of war!

Authentic meter, stage directions, reimagined movie scenes and dialogue, and hidden Easter eggs throughout will entertain and impress fans of Star Wars and Shakespeare alike. Every scene and character from the film appears in the play, along with twenty woodcut-style illustrations that depict an Elizabethan version of the Star Wars galaxy. Frozen heroes! Furry creatures! Family secrets revealed! And a lightsaber duel to decide the fate of the Empire. In troth, William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return has it all!

Top Reviews

Made me cry. In a good way.
by Karen S D Robinson (5 out of 5 stars)
July 9, 2014

I pre-ordered this about a year ago, because I loved the first volume so much, and was ordering the second one. This is more of the same magic. As usual, the physical book itself is a bibliophile's dream, with the boards printed to look like worn leather, with the yummy woodcut on the dustcover, and the rich and often hilarious woodcuts inside. And all for a surprisingly low price.

The concept is funny, but the writing itself is often very moving. I actually cried at Darth Vader's death scene, something I've never done in all my viewings of the movie. And the grief of the rancor's keeper is pretty touching too.

A couple of things irritated me, but not enough to lower my rating. One was the Ewoks' speech, which sounded like Jar-Jar to me. It was cleverly done, but just grated on me. The other was Han singing and dancing when he found out Leia loved him. The song just didn't do it for me, and I'm having a hard time picturing Han doing any of that anyway. Shouting his joy, maybe, but not singing and dancing. (On the other hand, I loved the rancor singing. Personal preference, I guess.) But those are minor matters.

I'm hoping very much that the author will tackle the prequels. He commented in his afterward that the long story arc is about Vader's fall and redemption, so it sounds like he might have an interest. He might even be able to redeem Episode I for me if he does it.
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Ingenious method to help bring out the timelessness of the Star Wars epic.
by Timothy Levi Smith (4 out of 5 stars)
July 7, 2014

I have not read this book all through as yet, but I do enjoy the premise of this series as I am both literate and a huge fan of the Star Wars universe. This particular tome is based on "The Return of the Jedi" movie and I was intrigued as to how it would depict the thoughts and feelings of the characters, especially of Darth Vader when he turned from the Dark side to save his son and kill the Emperor. In the movie it only shows Vader looking from the Emperor to his son for a few seconds before making his decision. in this book it uses almost a whole page (144) to elucidate his thought process. Thus I can only see this book augment one's endearment to the original film and not detract from it in any way, but I suspect one would have to be a fan of Star Wars (and perhaps Shakespeare) to enjoy reading it.
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Best Parody!
by Kindle Customer (5 out of 5 stars)
October 18, 2014

William Shakespeare's Return of the Jedi (William Shakespeare's Star Wars, Book 3) by Ian Doescher 5 stars★ and a faovirite♥ and Best read of 2014♥

This was a great ending to Doescher's parody to the Star Wars trilogy. Especially the ending. I loved the ending with R2-D2 giving a speech to match Puck in A Midsummer's Night Dream. I read the first two books in this parody from the library ebooks. I couldn't wait till they had they third book available (they still don't), so I bought it for my kindle. I wasn't disappointed.

The Jedi Returns is my favorite in Lucas's Star Wars trilogy (well, his movies. I've yet to read the books). It's been a long time since I've seen the movies, but Doescher really did a great job with character description in this book. It seemed almost every character had a long prose speech, even some random Imperial Guards.

My favorite part was the way the characters all described the Ewoks...

Act 3. Luke:
"A simple tribe are these, yet wise as well-

With neither guns nor lightsabers they snar'd

A pilot skill'd, a Wookiee brave and strong,

A Jedi Knight, and two most earnest droids."

I'll definitely be recommending this to my Star Wars fan friends, or just fans of a good comedy and parody.
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Stongly Recommend
by Christopher Whitman (5 out of 5 stars)
July 8, 2014

The third of the trilogy of the Shakespearean Star Wars books and its contents are just as amazing as the first two books. Currently enjoying my read through of this book at the moment and so very glad that I discovered this set. It's a great read and an amusing time for anyone familiar with the original Star Wars trilogy. I've shown these books to a few die-hard Star Wars fans and they are eagerly awaiting my finishing of the books so they can read over them themselves.

Overall: Would recommend this book (and the other two in the series) to anyone who appreciates Star Wars and has an open enough mind to see the story from another amusing medium.
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LOVE every word Ian Doescher writes
by JoeB (5 out of 5 stars)
May 23, 2018

LOVE every word Ian Doescher writes! My 9th grade daughter recently proclaimed to her English class that she "loves iambic pentameter" because of Mr. Doescher's William Shakespear's Star Wars books. Can't recommend these highly enough!
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This one, methinks, doth shine gloriously
by Elizabeth Jacobs (5 out of 5 stars)
December 5, 2016

This is a great combination of a Shakespearean style and a Star Wars story. As a huge fan of both Star Wars and Shakespeare, this is a dream come true for me. While I think that The Empire Striketh back is the best of the originally trilogy in balancing both of these two elements, Ian Doescher is flexing more of the Shakespearean writing muscles in this one, such as further explorations of prose and other literary devices. A great read to both educate and brighten one's day.
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like the other two volumes for Star Wars and Empire
by R. Steffens (4 out of 5 stars)
July 3, 2014

The work itself, like the other two volumes for Star Wars and Empire, is up to the previous versions and is also an inspired adaptation of Return of the Jedi. Unfortunately, like the previous verison, the Kindle version of the book has the same formatting problems as the Kindle version of The Empire Striketh Back - character names are mashed against the first lines of text for each character's speech in most of the book. This is a simple formatting issue that needs to be addressed by the publisher.
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This whole series is a great for anyone who likes Shakespeare/StarWars or just reading in general
by Mrakansonline (5 out of 5 stars)
July 14, 2019

Great series and helps reinforce Shakespearean readings on storytelling they already know. It's a perfect blend
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Like the rest of the series
by Danny (3 out of 5 stars)
April 20, 2015

Like the rest of the series, it's an interesting idea and pretty humorous. However, the novelty wears off fast and you're left with just Star Wars.

While "just Star Wars" is still awesome, this is still something you'd be better off grabbing from a library.
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If you love Shakespeare and Star Wars-or even just Star Wars
by Chantal (5 out of 5 stars)
December 30, 2016

If you love Shakespeare and Star Wars-or even just Star Wars, then buy these books! You'll read them and see them as if you were really at the Globe Theatre!

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