As You Like It [Kindle Edition]

William Shakespeare (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

About the Author

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. For more information, visit www.folger.edu.

Barbara A. Mowat is Director of Academic Programs at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, Chair of the Folger Institute, and author of The Dramaturgy of Shakespeare's Romances and of essays on Shakespeare's plays and on the editing of the plays.

Paul Werstine is Professor of English at King's College and the Graduate School of the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He is the author of many papers and articles on the printing and editing of Shakespeare's plays and was Associate Editor of the annual Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England from 1980 to 1989.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 116 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Public Domain Books (November 1, 1998)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000JMLOZE
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,057 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
  • #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Arts & Entertainment > Theater
  • #16 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Drama

More About the Author

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing in his community. William probably went to the King's New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy, Hamnet ( who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith, were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers." Shakespeare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later under James I, called the King's Men). In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain's Men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare's plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. In 1611 or 1612 he gave up his lodgings in London and devoted more and more time to retirement in Stratford, though he continued writing such plays as The Tempest and Henry VII until about 1613. He died on April 23 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. No collected edition of his plays was published during his life-time, but in 1623 two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell, put together the great collection now called the First Folio.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good free version of As You Like It, November 17, 2010

By 

N. Hawkins "whereishawkins" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: As You Like It (Kindle Edition)

My appreciation for Shakespearean comedies have increased with age. I liked "As You Like It" - it made for a good comedy and a good introduction for someone to Shakespeare.

The Kindle version is pretty much flawless - it's copied from a good source and doesn't have any glaring transcription errors as some free e-books do.

If you want a good introduction to Shakespeare, or even just want to branch out from his dramatic plays - give it a try. It's a free book - what can go wrong?

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars crazy romantic comedy, February 6, 2011

By 

banshee (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: As You Like It (Kindle Edition)

The plot involves a lot of people disguising themselves as the opposite gender but in the end everyone ends up with the one they really love. In that sense it's like a light romantic comedy but it also includes a lot of the great writing that Shakespeare is known for, including many of his most famous lines, such as the "all the world's a stage" monologue, and I hadn't realized this is the play the phrase "motley fool" came from. If you like Shakespeare, this is a must read, and it's entertaining as just a fun play.
This kindle version is well formatted, though no footnotes or line numbers.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rosalind's extraordinary, March 5, 2011

By 

Tiger Holland (North Alabama) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: As You Like It (The New Folger Library Shakespeare) (Mass Market Paperback)

The play begins with problems between two pairs of brothers. Duke Frederick has usurped his brother, "Duke Senior" and taken over the land, but the more immediate problem lies between Oliver de Boys and his younger brother, Orlando. Oliver's a bad dude of the Bad For No Reason school of villains and he mistreats Orlando because: "my soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he." Oliver tried his hardest to keep Orlando from any sort of achievement or accomplishment, yet Orlando is "gentle, never schooled and yet learned, full of noble device, of all sorts enchantingly beloved". In other words, he's a Mary Sue. Everybody loves Orlando, except the antagonists. But for all that unearned virtue, he's still cool. He even wins me over, and I usually despise the leading men in Shakespeare's comedies *cough*BassanioandClaudio*cough* So those are the brother problems, and now we move on to the girls' problems.

Rosalind is the deposed duke's daughter, and she is best friends with her cousin Celia, the new duke's daughter. The new duke banishes Rosalind, and Celia goes off into exile with her. Both of them put on disguises so they won't be assaulted in the wilderness (apparently, taking Touchstone the clown with them is not sufficient protection). Rosalind disguises herself as a teenage boy called Ganymede, and Celia pretends to be Ganymede's shepherdess sister.

So, Orlando flees into the forest to escape from his brother, Rosalind and Celia flee to the forest from Duke Frederick, and suddenly all of the cool people in the dukedom are out in the forest of Arden. The disguised girls rent a cottage and relax, while Orlando occupies himself by writing really bad poetry and hanging it on the trees. Rosalind find his poetry, which is all about her since they had a love-at-first-sight thing back at court, but instead of revealing her identity she stays hidden and becomes Orlando's buddy while passing herself off as Ganymede.

One of the main things Rosalind does as Ganymede is to insult all women and to tell Orlando why he shouldn't love "his" Rosalind. She really lays it on thick, all the reasons why he shouldn't pursue her. When I first read this play, I thought Rosalind was just bing sadistic, enjoying Orlando's emotional pain while she taunted and baited him and risked nothing. I'm now convinced that's not what is going on. Orlando is acting the part of a stricken lover--sighs, groans, poetry, etc--and Rosalind's trying to figure out if he's legit. And, okay, maybe she's having a little fun watching him squirm. For the audience, part of the trouble with these scenes is that Orlando's flagrant displays of lovesickness and his later tested and true love for Rosalind both look much the same to us. We're comparing one type of old-timey love convention against another, and it's hard to sort out what's supposed to be lasting when we know well get a happy ending in either case.

Silvius and Phebe, a lover and his icy beloved are even more clearly ancient archetypes of love. Rosalind doesn't think much of their behavior, and rails on Silvius for pursuing an idiot. Rosalind's words for Phebe are even harsher: "Sell when you can, you are not for all markets". Burn! Silvius and Phebe are one of the four couples who get married by the end of the play, and you have to wonder how well their union will turn out. Silvius has no self-esteem and Phebe has no mercy. But then again, we are in a play where the evil usurping duke suddenly gets religious and easily gives his land back to it's rightful leaders, so maybe these crazy kids will turn fine, all evidence to the contrary.

I feel sorry for Celia, who gets few lines after she enters Arden, although she deserves better attention after bravely following Rosalind into exile. She's an excellent but underused character who gets to be part of the play's resolution. Orlando's land problems are solved when his brother Oliver falls in love with Celia and decides to take up shepherding. It's Oliver and Celia's insta-love that inspired the famous lines "no sooner met than looked, no sooner looked than loved" and so on. With four major weddings, everyone's happy in Arden except for Jacques, the resident gloom-spreader who is nevertheless a source of entertainment for his companions because they love to hear his weird turns of melancholy. The play ends kind of unusually when Hymen, the god of marriage, comes down to perform the marriage ceremonies. And nobody thinks this is weird. But any play that includes this many "hey nonny nonny"s isn't taking itself too seriously. Rosalind's one of Shakespeare's best heroines, and her play can survive guest appreances by retro figures from Greek drama.