The Winter's Tale (Pelican Shakespeare) FROM THE PUBLISHER
The Winter's Tale is Shakespeare's most perfectly realized tragi-comedy, as notable for its tragic intensity as for its comic grace and, throughout, for the richness and complexity of its poetry. It concludes, moreover, with the most daring and moving reconciliation scene in all Shakespeare's plays. Though the title may suggest an escapist fantasy, recent criticism has seen in the play a profoundly realist psychology and a powerful commentary on the violence implicit in family relationships and deep, long-lasting friendships. Stephen Orgel's edition considers the play in relation to Renaissance conceptions of both dramatic genre and the family, traces the changing critical and theatrical attitudes towards it, and places its psychological and dramatic conflicts within the Jacobean cultural and political context. The commentary pays special attention to the play's linguistic complexity, and the edition also includes a complete reprint of Shakespeare's source, Pandosto, by Robert Greene.
SYNOPSIS
Noted for its use of realism, this is one of Shakespeare's final plays and is often rated as his greatest tragi-comedy.
FROM THE CRITICS
VOYA - Patti Sylvester Spencer
This edition of the play, part of the Oxford School Shakespeare series, presents Shakespeare's unabridged tragicomedy with thorough supplementary notes (parallel to script), vocabulary, and brief scene synopses. Scattered pen/ink sketches illustrate a few scenes. Large pages might make this paperback more reader-friendly than some. A lengthy commentary introducing the play could be useful to students already familiar with it. Following the text of the play, the editor discusses source material, demonstrating Shakespeare's use of borrowed ideas. Several paragraphs of criticism inform students how readers/viewers from Samuel Johnson (1765) to Harold C. Goddard (1951) viewed the play. Supplementary material includes a nineteenth century actress sharing ideas about working on the play with famed actor Macready, and a musical score for songs in the play. Ten pages titled Classwork and Examinations offer a variety of traditional teaching methods for instructors (discussion, character study, essays, etc.) The volume closes with a frank biographical sketch of Shakespeare, which admits to the dearth of facts and the necessary speculation. Illus. Source Notes. Chronology. VOYA Codes: 3Q 2P S (Readable without serious defects, For the YA with a special interest in the subject, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).
AudioFile
[Editor's Note: The following is a combined review with LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST and HENRY VIII.]—Two of these productions in the Arkangel series are good, and the third is truly exceptional. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST concerns ascetic and naive young men who renounce the company of women only to meet their perfect mates soon after. Alex Jennings and Emma Fielding are superior as the lovers Berowne and Rosaline. The satire of courtiers and fops is also handled well, though ongoing wordplay is something of an acquired taste. The only lapse is the intrusive sound effects in outdoor scenes (flies buzzing, birds chirping). The fine production of HENRY VIII, about the king's effort to marry Anne Boleyn, infuses much more life into this stately, pageant-like play than one might expect from the text. Clive Brill, who directs the entire series, orchestrates a lifelike sound design that even includes the murmurs of agreement or dismay of listening characters. These undertones function like reaction shots in a movie. In HENRY VIII, they clarify the various court factions and intrigues. In THE WINTER'S TALE, Shakespeare's late romance about jealousy and time's restorative power, they add subtlety to an emotionally charged production. The voices in this recording are richly infused with personality, especially those of John Gielgud and Alex Jennings, who is a comic triumph as the rogue Autolycus. Gielgud performs the 32-line part of Time the Chorus, and his age-enfeebled voice resonates hauntingly. Clive Brill and his cast show why THE WINTER'S TALE has such an impressive stage history in as fine a recording of Shakespeare as you're likely to encounter. G.H. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine
Home
