Product Description

Troilus and Cressida is perhaps Shakespeare's most philosophical play, and its preoccupation with war, sex, and time has seemed peculiarly relevant since the First World War. Fine productions have demonstrated the play's theatrical power, and critics have explored and illuminated its ideas and its exceptionally complex language.

Kenneth Muir, in his introduction, sets the play in its historical context, discusses its odd career in the theatre, examines Shakespeare's handling of his multiple sources, and assesses the contribution of interpretative criticism to a deeper understanding of this sombre examination of a fallen world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76632 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 491 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of Shakespeare's most notoriously difficult and cynical plays, labelled a "Problem Comedy", Troilus and Cressida has perplexed critics and theatre directors, and after Shakespeare's lifetime it was not performed again until 1907. In many ways the play's difficulty is a surprise; the story of Troilus and Cressida was a popular theme, drawn from Homer's Iliad and Chaucer's own Troilus and Criseyde, as was its classical setting, the Greek siege of Troy, led by Agamemnon, Achilles, Ajax, Diomedes and Ulysses.

Within the walls of Troy, Prince Troilus falls madly in love with Cressida, daughter of the deserter Calchas. His love is intense and frenetic--"I am giddy, expectation whirls round me," but turns to bitter disillusion when Cressida defects to the Greek camp and flirts with Diomedes. As the war and conflict over the abduction of Helen whirls around the doomed romance, the play delights in its complex syntax and cynical images of waste, decay, corruption and mutability, summed up in Ulysses' comment that, "Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all / To envious and calumniating time." The play's cynical open-ended quality has frustrated many readers, but gives the play a remarkably modern, contemporary sensibility. --Jerry Brotton

Synopsis
This volume offers a comprehensive edition of Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida". The introduction places the play in its late Elizabethan context, examines and assimilates the wide variety of critical responses the play has elicited, and argues its importance in the context of late 20th-century culture as an experimental and open-ended work.

About the Author
Kenneth Muir is Emeritus Professor and Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Liverpool.

Customer Reviews

previous review is for the arden edition, not this cambridge edition!
All these study companions provide is condensed knowledge and opinion, preventing the student for studying with an open mind. Try reading the play without notes to get your own opinion before reading the 'experts' opinions. There is a wordsworth edition of this play with no notes available muuch cheaper than these study companions!

A light read it is not. Great literature?...Oh yes!
Troilus and Cressida, is not well-known as one of Shakespeare's great plays; it has for the most part largely been ignored by the literary world, due to its length, its philosophical under belly and complex story line. I would not recommend it, if you're searching for a light 'bed-time' read, full of typical Shakespearean humour and lovable rogues. Troilus is the work of a mature and experimenting Shakespeare, and thus it has, for the most part been neglected by critics, yet, because it is so unique it should not be ignored. It is an extremely satisfying read, giving a brilliant insight into the darker side of Shakespeare's fascinating mind.

Troilus and Cressida is undoubtedly one of Shakespeare's most ambiguous, puzzling, and therefore most disconcerting plays. The complex and unsettling nature of the play is deliberate, and throughout, Shakespeare presents to us one universal society that we would rather not see. The subversion of the Trojan War which acts as a canvas of the play, is one such ploy to provoke us into thinking about the corruption and hypocrisy of Shakespeare's 16th century society. The great Greek storyteller Homer, first told the tale of the Trojan War in the Iliad and the Odyssey, depicting the warriors, both Greek and Trojans; Aeneas, Achilles, Hector, Ajax, Menelaus, Diomedes and Ulysses - as great heroes worthy of imitation. Shakespeare appears to depict them as quite human, vulgar, pompous and stupid. Shakespeare does not re-tell the story of this epic war and legendary struggle; his play apparently seems to conjure up a bitter and deflating account of the war. Troilus and Crssisda presents us a society driven by the want of immediate consumption and disloyalty both in terms of love and allegiance. However, it is up to us to decide whether any one character is able to rise above the foolish greed that surrounds them.

This Arden edition provides its' readers with a detailed yet very readable collection of notes, conveniently running along side the play. It also provides an extremely well written, yet not overwhelmingly profound group of introductory essays (perfect for the easygoing student). Troilus and Cressida may not officially be regarded as a 'great work' of Shakespeare, but it is thoroughly engaging despite its intricate plot, in my humble view it is most certainly - 'great' - and I would definitely recommend it to all. ENJOY!