Troilus And Cressida (Signet Classics) - Softcover

Shakespeare, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451528476 ISBN 13: 9780451528476

Publisher: Signet Classics, 2002

Synopsis

The Signet Classics edition of William Shakespeare's vision of the Trojan War.

This story of doomed love explores the relationship between Troilus, a prince of Troy, and Cressida, the daughter of a Trojan traitor. An unconvential tragedy set against the complex backdrop of war, it is considered one of Shakespeare's most problematic plays.

This revised Signet Classics edition includes unique features such as:

- An overview of Shakespeare's life, world, and theater
- A special introduction to the play by the editor, Daniel Seltzer
- Sources from which Shakespeare derived Troilus and Cressida
- Dramatic criticism from S. L. Bethell, D. A. Traversi, Reuben A. Brower, and others
- A comprehensive stage and screen history of notable actors, directors, and productions
- Text, notes, and commentaries printed in the clearest, most readable text
- And more...

About this title

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

Review:

'A triumphant addition to our times.' - Fiona Shaw, The Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Signet Classics
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0451528476
• ISBN 13: 9780451528476
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 352