Comedies, Volume 1: Introduction by Tony Tanner

By William Shakespeare

Book Overview

Shakespeare forged his tremendous art in the crucible of his comic imagination, which throughout his life enveloped and contained his tragic one. His early comedies--with their baroque poetic exuberance, intense theatricality, explosive bursts of humor, and superbly concrete realizations of the dialects of love--capture as in a chrysalis all that he was to become. They provide a complete inventory of the mind of our greatest writer in the middle of his golden youth.

This volume contains The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's Labor's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and it's companion piece, Romeo and Juliet, which Tony Tanner describes in his introduction as "a tragedy by less than one minute." The texts, authoritatively edited by Sylvan Barnet, are supplemented with textual notes, bibliographies, a detailed chronology of Shakespeare's life and times, and a substantial introduction in which Tanner discusses each play individually and in the context of Shakespeare's oeuvre.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679443630
• ISBN13: 9780679443636
• Release Date: July 1995
• Publisher: Everyman's Library
• Length: 800 Pages
• Weight: 1.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

fairly good book

This is a fairly good book. I like the way how this book is organized. It feels like an old book, and it is wonderful reading those tiny typed words. However, I give this book only four stars because it is sometimes very hard to follow the next line. I mean, if you read this book for too long then it can give you an eyestrain. Also there's no expository comments to help you. Other than that, this is a great book for those who love William Shakespeare's works.

Some characteristics of Shakespearean comedy

I do not know Shakespeare's comedies very well. Yet I do understand that they are remarkable in their presentation of the passions of youth and love, in their expression of the lighter sides , and the happier ones of human life. I know that they often involve multiple plots, mistaken identities, star- crossed lovers, or lovers who are somehow interfered with by scheming elders. They often have multiple plot strands. I know that they may link high and low society, may have in them much which brings about laughter, and that they usually have a happy ending of some kind in which order is brought out of disorder- often their end is a wedding. I believe I myself have never really gotten the spirit of Shakespearean comedy perhaps because even though I read them when I was chronologically young, I was never truly young in spirit. I nonetheless could appreciate the depth and beauty of the language of the plays. The plays have given generations upon generations of humanity, pleasure and delight. And I believe that most readers will find this is their experience also.

It's Wonderful to have all the comedies in one volume

I love all Shakespeare's work, and it was wonderful to have all the comedies in one volume. It does allow for character development of some of Shakespeare's recurrent characters. My favourite one of these is Falstaff, and he appears in a number of these comedies. The book that I read had all fourteen comedies in it. I have read each one of these at different times, and some more than once, but I sat down and had a Shakespeare comedy fest when I bought this volume. I love all Shakespeare's work, and a collected version of all his works would certainly be on my "desert island book list", and the comedies are my second favourite genre of the three that he used for his plays. I will do individual reviews of three of my favourite comedic plays, but I enjoy them all very much. My three favourites (and believe me, it's hard to pick three) are "The Comedy of Errors", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor". Each one of his many plays have numerous wonderful quotes that are still used and recognized today. I personally feel that a reader can't love great literature if that reader does not love Shakespeare too.

Great binding, good commentaries

We all know about Shakespeare, so a review of his writing is not required. However, I would like to say that the Everyman's Library series are worth getting. Unlike omnibus editions (such as the Riverside Shakespeare), these are actually portable so you don't need a table to hold them up while you are reading. The Everyman's Library series have good hardbindings, are conveniently sized to carry around, and have illuminating and extensive introductions. The typeface used is old, but the letters are large and easily readable (something that is a concern with some other editions).Comedies, Volume 1 contains: The Comedy of Errors; The Taming of the Shrew; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Love's Labor's Lost; Romeo and Juliet; A Midsummer Night's Dream