All's Well That Ends Well (The New Folger Library Shakespeare) - Softcover

Shakespeare, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671722549 ISBN 13: 9780671722548

Publisher: Washington Square Pr, 2001

Synopsis

A edited version of the classic comedy of marital misadventure and upheaval is accompanied by scene-by-scene plot summaries and explanatory notes, tips on reading Shakespeare's language, a biographical summary of Shakespeare's life, annotated reading list

About this title

Review

All's Well That Ends Well has generally been considered one of Shakespeare's most difficult and unpopular plays. Labelled a "Problem Comedy", editors believe that the play was written between 1604 and 1605, and exhibits a darkening of Shakespeare's interest in comedy. The play deals with the complicated relationship between Helena, the daughter of a famous physician, and Bertram, the arrogant son of the Countess of Roussillon. Helena is secretly in love with Bertram, and when she miraculously cures the ailing King, she asks for Bertram's hand in marriage, to which the grateful sovereign happily agrees. Bertram bitterly opposes marriage to Helena, who he regards as a social inferior. After reluctantly agreeing to the marriage, Bertram flees to the wars in Italy with his companion Parolles.

What ensues is Helena's increasingly desperate and complex attempts to retrieve her errant husband, which involves various machinations and a piece of mistaken identity and an infamous "bed-trick" which has never fully convinced audiences or critics. More recently critics have been kinder to the play, seeing its cynical disillusionment with romance as reflecting contemporary social and political anxieties about warfare and commerce, and feminist critics have been keen to celebrate Helena as a particularly complex heroine. The play is also fascinated by language, encapsulated in the character of Parolles (or "words"), and his memorable line for which the play is chiefly remembered: "Simply the thing I am / Shall make me live". --Jerry Brotton

Book Description

Like every other play in the Cambridge School Shakespeare series, All's Well That Ends Well has been specially prepared to help all students in schools and colleges. This version aims to be different from other editions of the play. It invites you to bring the play to life in your classroom through enjoyable activities that will help increase your understanding. You are encourage to make up your own mind about the play, rather than have someone else's interpretation handed down to you. Whatever you do, remember that Shakespeare wrote his plays to be acted, watched and enjoyed.

Edition details

• Publisher: Washington Square Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0671722549
• ISBN 13: 9780671722548
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• Editor: Mowat Barbara A., Werstine Paul