Quirk Books

Something Wookiee this way comes! Fans of the best-selling book "William Shakespeare's Star Wars" by Ian Doescher now have a sequel to look forward to with "William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back."

"Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter," the Quirk Books Web site posted.

The second installment of the "Star Wars" Shakespeare parody books from Quirk Books hits shelves March 18. The third installment, "William Shakespeare's The Jedi Doth Return," debuts on July 1.

The books are Illustrated with black-and-white Elizabethan-style artwork, and are formatted just like one of Shakespeare's famous plays. In fact, teachers wanting to get their students excited about Shakespeare should check out the William Shakespeare's Star Wars Educator Guide. The PDF explains writing and speaking in iambic pentameter, and has a side-by-side comparison of "William Shakespeare's Star Wars" and Shakespeare's real plays "Hamlet," "Romeo and Juliet," "Macbeth," "Julius Caesar," "Henry V," "Richard III," "King Lear," "As You Like It," and the Sonnets. The guide also explains extended metaphors, fables, songs, and the literary devices of anaphora and stichomythia.

While the "Star Wars" original trilogy is the focus of these homages, there's no word from Quirk Books on whether Jar Jar will get the Shakespeare treatment for the "Star Wars" prequels: "The Phantom Menace," "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith." Meesa doth hope not.

(Via USA Today)