Product Description

Part of "The New Penguin Shakespeare" series, this text looks at "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with an introduction, a list of further reading, commentary and a short account of the textual problems of the play. The series is used and recommended by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #128513 in Books
• Published on: 1970-02-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Traditionally seen as one of Shakespeare's more romantic and enchanting plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream has more recently been seen as a darker and more sinister play than generations of schoolchildren have ever imagined. The play has usually been seen as a comical tale and confused identities and the fickleness of youthful love, as the young lovers, Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena escape parental control and the "sharp Athenian law" of their elders by eloping into the forest outside the city. Unfortunately they stumble into civil war in fairyland, where King Oberon and Queen Titania fight over possession of a beautiful young Indian "changeling" boy. The appearance of the "rude mechanicals", a group of Athenian workers, including the weaver Nick Bottom, compounds the confusion. Chaos, confusion and "shaping fantasies" reign before the final settlement of the play, but underneath all the hilarity many critics have discerned more ambivalent attitudes towards coercive parental control, bestial sexuality and the destructive power of desire. These approaches in no way detract from the exquisite lyricism of many sections of the play, but make it a more complex and effective comedy than has often been appreciated. --Jerry Brotton

Customer Reviews

"The course of true love never did run smooth"
This is, quite frankly, the best play in the whole word. I cannot describe in words how absolutely amazing this piece is. It involves so many themes and issues, including love, desire, magic and comedy. All of the characters are fantastic, particularly the mischevious 'Puck'; "Lord, what fools these mortals be". 'Midsummer' tells the story of story of two opposing worlds colliding, the human world and the fairy world, with hilarious circumstances. I would recommend this play to anyone, Shakespeare fan or not, and I guarentee you'll love it.

A masterpiece. Possibly the best piece ever witten.