The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Cambridge School Shakespeare) - Softcover

Shakespeare, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521446031 ISBN 13: 9780521446037

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1994

Synopsis

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

About this title

Review:

One of Shakespeare's earliest comedies, and unjustly neglected in the past, The Two Gentlemen of Verona has deserved its growing critical reputation over recent years. The play dramatises the entangled relations between the two gentlemen of the play's title, Valentine and Proteus. Valentine leaves Verona for Milan to seek his fortune, while Proteus stays to be near his love, Julia. Spurned by Julia, Proteus heads for Milan, where he finds himself a rival of Valentine for the hand of Silvia, the Duke's daughter. Julia then reappears, disguised in boy's clothes as Proteus' page. As in many of Shakespeare's later comedies, the lovers flee to the forest, where confusion and conflict is finally resolved, and the two gentlemen are reunited not only with their "correct" lovers, but also with each other.

The play is particularly interesting for its dramatisation of the intense friendship between Valentine and Proteus, which it often characterises as more intimate and meaningful than relations with women. Proteus complains that Julia "hast metamorphosed me" into something he cannot understand, and the play suggests that social and sexual relations between men are often more satisfying than the dangerous instability involved in wooing women. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

A remarkable edition, one that makes Shakespeare s extraordinary accomplishment more vivid than ever. James Shapiro, professor, Columbia University, bestselling author of A Year in the Life of Shakespeare: 1599
A feast of literary and historical information. The Wall Street Journal"

"A remarkable edition, one that makes Shakespeare's extraordinary accomplishment more vivid than ever."--James Shapiro, professor, Columbia University, bestselling author of A Year in the Life of Shakespeare: 1599
"A feast of literary and historical information."--The Wall Street Journal

-A remarkable edition, one that makes Shakespeare's extraordinary accomplishment more vivid than ever.---James Shapiro, professor, Columbia University, bestselling author of A Year in the Life of Shakespeare: 1599
-A feast of literary and historical information.---The Wall Street Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0521446031
• ISBN 13: 9780521446037
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 164
• Editor: Leach Susan, Gibson Rex