Total Page : 282
Publisher : Turtleback
Publication Date : 1985 02 01
>> Shakespeare s Best
Romeo and Juliet is the ultimate romance play ever written Shakespeare is the master playwright of all ages Whenever you feel your life is a tragedy sit down and read this masterpiece you will immediately feel better about your own life
>> Strong feelings both positive and negative
I am very conflicted in my feelings about this play there are very powerful reasons to rate it highly and also very powerful reasons to rate it poorly There are really NO reasons for rating it mediocre and yet that s what I wind up doing only because that is the balance between the great and the terrible
On the down side BECAUSE this story has the reputation it has as THE prototypical love story I truly despise it because it is responsible for an incredible amount of grief in the world over the last 400 years or so Who can count how many young lovers have come to grief because they unquestioningly accept the idiotic presumtion that this story is predicated upon that two people who literally don t know a thing about one another not even their names can make eye contact across a room and fall in love Not simply feel attraction or interest but truly fall in love Love so powerful that they will die rather than live without one another Yet this story has so permeated the culture that it is almost universally accepted that this is what love is like and even people who have never read this play or seen it performed have been influenced by this idiocy to the point of trying to live their lives as though this were truly what love is like As the main promulgator of such misinformation about the nature of love this book is guilty of causing more pain in the world than many war criminals
And yet blast it all it s BEAUTIFULLY written The language is fluid and musical even by Shakespeare s standards Even though it is a tragedy it is told with a trace of wry humor as Shakespeare manages in only his very best work I can understand why it has the reputation it has the plot once one accepts the ludicrous premise it is built upon follows plausibly If one ignores the damage that the play has done to the world s concept of what constitutes love and rates it merely on its literary merits it is clearly a 5 star effort even when compared only to other Shakespearean plays
Unfortunately that s what makes it so dangerous
>> Shakespeare as it should be
This is Shakespeare as it should be no extraneous notes no unnecessary stage directions nothing but the text If you are looking for anything that explains character language theme etc don t look here as Shakespeare never wrote any of that This is purely the text as is
As a theatre professor I would rather have my students work with a text like this rather than one littered with useless commentary and biased notations If you don t understand a term or reference use the Oxford English Dictionary rather than the limp and limited notes available in many editions
Click Above Or Below To See More Detail >>> Romeo And Juliet Turtleback School Library Binding Edition Shakespeare Made Easy
