William Shakespeare

The legendary Pelican Shakespeare series features authoritative and meticulously researched texts paired with scholarship by renowned Shakespeareans. Each book includes an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeares time, an introduction to the individual play, and a detailed note on the text used. Updated by general editors Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller, these easy-to-read editions incorporate over thirty years of Shakespeare scholarship...

A team of six eminent scholars who have, along with the general editors themselves, prepared new introductions and notes to all of Shakespeare's plays and poems. Redesigned in an easy-to-read format that preserves the favorite features of the original--and including an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare, and introduction to the individual play, and a note on the text used--the new Pelican Shakespeare will be an excellent resource for students,...

"Human nature and the law often collide in Measure for Measure. As the play begins, the duke of Vienna announces he is going away and puts his deputy Angelo in charge of the state. Angelo immediately enforces a law prohibiting sex outside of marriage, sentencing Claudio to death for sleeping with Juliet, Claudio's now-pregnant fiancée. Claudio's sister Isabella, a novice nun, appeals to Angelo to save her brother. But the supposedly pure Angelo...

The Pelican Shakespeare series features authoritative and meticulously researched texts paired with scholarship by renowned Shakespeareans. Each book includes an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare’s time, an introduction to the individual play, and a detailed note on the text used. Updated by general editors Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller, these easy-to-read editions incorporate over thirty years of Shakespeare scholarship undertaken...

One of Shakespeare's early comedies and most ornately intellectual plays, "Love's Labour's Lost" is a mental adventure in hilarity and wit. First published in 1598, the play is filled with lexical puns, literary allusions, and shifting poetic forms, a rich example of the Bard's linguistic mastery. The play opens with King Phillip of Naverre announcing that the men of his court will devote the coming years to ascetic studies and to reduce distractions,...

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, discusses the author and the theater of his time, and provides quizzes and other study activities.

"Named for the twelfth night after Christmas, the end of the Christmas season, Twelfth Night plays with love and power. The Countess Olivia, a woman with her own household, attracts Duke Orsino. Two other would-be suitors are her pretentious steward, Malvolio, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Onto this scene arrive the twins Viola and Sebastian; previously caught in a shipwreck, each thinks the other has drowned. Viola disguises herself as a male page and...

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud. In this death-filled setting, the movement from love at first sight to the lovers’ final union in death seems almost inevitable. And yet, this play set in an extraordinary world has become the quintessential story of young love. In part because...

"This updated edition includes: newly revised commentary notes ; scene-by-scene plot summaries ; a key to the play's famous lines and phrases ; an introduction to reading Shakespeare's language ; an essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play ; fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books ; an up-to-date annotated guide to further reading ; essay by Susan Snyder."--Back cover

The acclaimed Pelican Shakespeare series, now in a dazzling new series design. The Pelican Shakespeare series features authoritative and meticulously researched texts paired with scholarship by renowned Shakespeareans. Each book includes an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare's time, an introduction to the individual play, and a detailed note on the text used. Updated by general editors Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller, these easy-to-read...