Product Description

A young man and woman meet by chance and fall instantly in love. But their families are bitter enemies, and in order to be together the two lovers must be prepared to risk everything. Set in a city torn apart by feuds and gang warfare, Romeo and Juliet is a dazzling combination of passion and hatred, bawdy comedy and high tragedy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3923 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
This is undoubtedly the greatest love story ever written, spawning a host of imitators on stage and screen, including Leonard Bernstein's smash musical West Side Story, Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet filmed in 1968, and Baz Luhrmann's postmodern film version Romeo + Juliet. The tragic feud between "Two households, both alike in dignity/In fair Verona", the Montagues and Capulets, which ultimately kills the two young "star-crossed lovers" and their "death-marked love" creates issues which have fascinated subsequent generations. The play deals with issues of intergenerational and familial conflict, as well as the power of language and the compelling relationship between sex and death, all of which makes it an incredibly modern play. It is also an early example of Shakespeare fusing poetry with dramatic action, as he moves from Romeo's lyrical account of Juliet--"she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" to the bustle and action of a 16th-century household (the play contains more scenes of ordinary working people than any of Shakespeare's other works). It also represents an experimental attempt to fuse comedy with tragedy. Up to the third act, the play proceeds along the lines of a classic romantic comedy. The turning point comes with the death of one of Shakespeare's finest early dramatic creations--Romeo's sexually ambivalent friend Mercutio, whose "plague o' both your houses" begins the play's descent into tragedy, "For never was a story of more woe/Than this of Juliet and her Romeo". --Jerry Brotton

About the Author
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright of the 16th and 17 centuries, now widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the word's pre-eminent dramatist.

Customer Reviews

A "nine year old" enjoying Shakespeare
This edition provides an easy way of introducing youngsters into the world of the classics in a small paperback, we have played the parts! and it's amazing how they enjoy and understand.

The perfect love tradgedy
Quite simply, you need this in your collection. Some of the most quotable (and misquoted) work ever produced. The story is well known to all, but the lyrical qualities only come through when you read this remarkable piece. If you want all the analysis surrounding it, then this is not the version for you (try Arden) but if you want the words - which are enough in themselves - then this is a well priced essential.

Unbeatable...
Everyone, but everyone has heard of this play if not read it. Even the Beckhams, aliterate as they seem, saw fit to give the bard a nod by naming one of their brats after the hero of one of Shakespeare's finest plays.

I recently re-read 'Romeo and Juliet' after completing a degree in English. Full of arrogence and the pretension of literary criticism I was sure that 'Hamlet', 'King Lear' and 'Othello' were the finest plays of Shakespeare. That has all changed again now. I had forgotten how sharp and darkly witty this play was and how easy it was to become so emotionally attached to the characters. This is never more so apparent than at the tragic climax of the play that leaves you with the bitter-sweet feeling that you have just experienced one of the finest worls of fiction coupled with the ironic sacrifice of the two most famous characters in history. How can you not love this play?