Patrick Stewart is set to release an audiobook edition of Shakespeare's sonnets, reprising the daily recordings he posted on social media during the pandemic. Stewart, 85, is a longtime member of the Royal Shakespeare Company who was cast as Oberon and Shylock years before he became Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

Asked by email about his approach to the work, Stewart described his recordings as more than a casual reading. He said he initially thought of his approach as an invitation to the listener, but came to see it as something stronger — a provocation in the spirit of Shakespeare himself. "I do think that Shakespeare wrote many of these sonnets with the same intent — provoking us to be present in a moment, to be present in our humanity," he said.

Reflecting on the sonnets' treatment of love and the passage of time, Stewart drew on his own life. He said that in eight decades he had experienced a good deal of loss but had also accumulated the riches of so much love. "I do think it's possible that Shakespeare might have held less spite toward the passage of time had he been given the chance to live as well and as long as I have," Stewart said.