Antony and Cleopatra (Folger Shakespeare Library) [Mass Market Paperback]

William Shakespeare (Author), Barbara A. Mowat (Editor), Paul Werstine (Editor)

Book Description

Release date: December 21, 2004 | Series: Folger Shakespeare Library

Each edition includes:

· Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play

· Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

· Scene-by-scene plot summaries

· A key to famous lines and phrases

· An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language

· An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play

· Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books

Essay by Cynthia Marshall

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe.

In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William Shakespeare was born on April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—their older daughter, Susanna, and the twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood.

The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent, not in Stratford, but in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He had a successful career in London as a playwright and actor and was a shareholder in the acting company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He produced most of his plays between 1589 and 1613. Sometime between 1610 and 1613, Shakespeare is thought to have retired from the stage and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (December 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743482859
• ISBN-13: 978-0743482851
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.1 x 6.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,205 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale February 17, 2011

By E. A Solinas HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

In the history of femme fatales, Cleopatra is still the queen -- she wasn't pretty, but she had charm, wit and power.

And she's the center of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra," a play that follows the tragic affair between Cleopatra and her second high-profile Roman lover. The tragedy is undermined by the fact that Cleopatra and Antony aren't very likable people, but the story does have an empire-ending grandeur.

Mark Antony has been neglecting his duties as a Roman soldier ever since he fell in love with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. But eventually Octavian calls him back to Rome, and Antony is even pressured into marrying Octavia's sister -- which unsurprisingly throws a wrench into his relationship with Cleopatra. She's only soothed by the assurances that Octavia is ugly.

In the meantime, tensions between the Romans and the increasingly Egyptophilic Antony are getting worse, until finally they break into full-out war -- despite the prophecy that Antony will lose if he fights Octavian. And the tempestuous love between Cleopatra and Antony takes a terrible turn as Egypt is about to fall...

"Antony and Cleopatra" is sort of a sequel to "Julius Caesar," and it's also half epic romance and half tragedy. On one hand, it's all about the passionate, stormy love affair between Antony and Cleopatra; on the other, it's also about the final crash of an empire that had endured for thousands of years, and its last monarch.

Shakespeare manages to fill the story with a sense of epic grandeur, and his writing really gets across that these conflicts and people are deeply important. Aside from the famous "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale/her infinite variety" speech, there's a lot of powerful writing in here, particularly the climactic scene between Cleopatra and her maidservants.

The biggest drawback of the play is... well, Antony and Cleopatra are pretty nasty people. Antony is no longer the heroic Roman soldier of "Julius Caesar," and Cleopatra throws bratty tantrums and spreads false rumors to keep her boyfriend in love with her. They're a little like A-list celebrities -- they're weirdly fascinating, but you wouldn't want them as friends.

"Antony and Cleopatra" is a grand, engaging epic about how a love affair helped bring down the last remnants of an empire, and its nasty characters don't stop it from being fascinating.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A meditation on the tragic nature of history January 6, 2011

By Rodolfo Lazo de la Vega

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" leaves the domestic sphere of the earlier tragedies and enters into a world of vast Spenglerian vistas as one culture, weighed down by its decadence, declines and another, elevated by its coldness and amorality, replaces it. A meditation on the tragic nature of history, it is a very political play (written just prior to "Coriolanus," Shakespeare's most political play). It takes into account our nobility but realizes that it is easy prey (the scenes with Ventidius, Pompey and Menas, and Antony and the Soothsayer are hauntingly and tragically illustrative). The play contains a very large cast of characters, all of them memorable and very well individualized. Psychologically, it is perhaps the work most emblematic of the author's unparalleled genius for creating characters who give the illusion of being full human beings. The star role belongs to Cleopatra, who should be for the actress what Hamlet is for the actor - the most challenging and rewarding of roles. It rightly vies with the other high tragedies as one of Shakespeare's greatest works.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book December 26, 2012

By Stevie Sanko

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This play is wonderful and this little version of it is great for both literature students and high school students. I highly recommend it!