Women Beware Women (Revels Student Editions) - Softcover

J.R. Mulryne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719043506 ISBN 13: 9780719043505

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2007

Synopsis

Women Beware Women is among the most powerful and adroitly plotted of Jacobean tragedies. Written by Thomas Middleton, a later contemporary of Shakespeare, the play deals with topics of enduring fascination such as sexual and financial greed, the sexual exploitation of women by a manipulative older woman, murderous revenge and the sexual predatoriness of a man in a position of power. The storyline is based on the most public of Medici scandals in late sixteenth-century Florence, with the Grand Duke Francesco seducing and then marrying a beautiful Venetian runaway, after arranging the murder of her Florentine lower-class husband. The tragedy ends with a spectacular masque involving misdirected poison, flaming gold, poisoned arrows, poisoned smoke, physical mishaps and numerous deaths. This edition is designed for the classroom and for the reader interested in the best in Renaissance drama. -- .

About this title

Review:

Thomas Middleton's Jacobean drama spreads like a web around the the black- widow figure of Livia... it is clear that Livia's deviousness is a profoundly cynical response to the hipocrisy of a society in which women are powerless and men do as they please.' Sarah Hemming, Financial Times, 29.04.10 'Thomas Middleton's 17th- century study of self- survival and the destruction of innocence' Clare Allfree, Metro (London), 29.04.10 'A sardonic masterwork that admits one to the world of fuliginous cruelty.' Michael Billington, Guardian, 29.04.10 'Dark, decadent and immensely stylish, Women Beware Women makes you laugh even as you shiver.' Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 29.04.10 'A fiercely felt, finely wrought, seldom-seen play by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries.' Susannah Clapp, Obcerver, 02.05.10

Synopsis:

This edition of a classic drama is comprised of a modernized text, supplemented by a wide-ranging introduction. The play deals with a permissive society which falls in ruins when the weakened bonds that hold it together finally give way.

About this edition

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0719043506
• ISBN 13: 9780719043505
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176