Reading & Training: Much Ado About Nothing + audio CD (Reading Shakespeare: Step Four)

Shakespeare, William; Butler, James

ISBN 10: 8853001542 ISBN 13: 9788853001542

Publisher: Cideb, 2012

Synopsis

Includes the unabridged text of Shakespeare's classic play plus a complete study guide that helps readers gain a thorough understanding of the work's content and context. The comprehensive guide includes scene-by-scene summaries, explanations and discussions of the plot, question-and-answer sections, author biography, analytical paper topics, list of characters, bibliography, and more.

About this title

Review:

Like Love's Labour's Lost, Much Ado about Nothing shows Shakespeare moving into a more complex and darker terrain through his exploration of an apparently harmless comical romance. The play revolves around the adventures of the two gallants Claudio and Benedick at the court of Sicily. Claudio falls in love with the governor's daughter Hero, and is eager for his more misanthropic friend Benedick to also find love. Benedick is introduced to the fiery, independent Beatrice, and sparks soon fly as they banter with each other in a more wittier version of Kate and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew. Beatrice has some wonderful ripostes to marriage asking why should a woman marry "a clod of wayward marl", whilst Benedick grumbles that "She speaks poniards and every word stabs". Meanwhile, the jealous Don John convinces Claudio that Hero has in fact been unfaithful to him. When Claudio rejects Hero on their wedding day, she faints and is taken for dead. In the hectic final scenes the play moves towards reconciliation between Claudio and Hero, and the tentative admission of the love between Benedick and Beatrice. Famously filmed by Kenneth Branagh in the Tuscan countryside with a cast that included Keanu Reeves, Much Ado about Nothing remains one of Shakespeare's most successful comedies. --Jerry Brotton.

Review:

"Claire McEachern's revised edition of Much Ado About Nothing updates the original introductory material with incisive discussions of gender dynamics, formal and structural characteristics, and stage history." - Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

About this edition

• Publisher: Cideb
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 8853001542
• ISBN 13: 9788853001542
• Binding: Pocket Book
• Number of pages: 128