7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Colourful and Helpful Retelling of the Shakespeare Play, July 6, 2003
Be warned, if you're looking for the original text of Shakespeare's play, this is not it - this is a retelling of the play by Bruce Coville in the attempt to introduce younger readers to the realm of Shakespeare.
In attempting that, he succeeds very well in bringing the text to a new format - all the components of the tale are here (though obviously abridged), and are clearly and smoothly told, keeping most of the spirit of the play, as well as the most important of quotes, for instance - "The course of true love never did run smooth," and "What fools these mortals be".
Three plot threads run throughout the story set in ancient Athens under the rule of the Duke Theseus about to be wed to his own Amazon-bride. Foremost is the love-tangle between the virtually indistinguishable Helena, Lysander, Hermia and Demetrius. When Hermia and Demetrius decide to elope, racing away into the woods, Lynsander follows (who has been promised Hermia by her father), and chasing after him is the spurned Helena, desparately (and pathetically) in love with him.
Meanwhile, the King and Queen of Fairies, Oberon and Titania are having what can only be called a domestic over a young changeling boy that Oberon wants to join his service, but who Titania is determined to keep in remembrance of his mother, her devoted friend. To punish his Queen, Oberon sends his servent, the hobgoblin Puck, to fetch a flower capable of making anyone under its spell fall in love with whatever creature they behold.
Finally, the group of players led by Peter Quince and joined by Francis Flute and the famous Nick Bottom journey into the forest to practice their play to perform on the Duke's wedding day, and fall the victims of Puck's prankish nature, when he transforms the head of Bottom into that of an ass. Of course, it is he that Titania first spies when she awakens from her slumber...
It is a complicated and intricate play, full of mayhem and havoc in which everybody falls in love with everybody else, but Coville handles it well and keeps it simple to the point of abridging much of the final act in which Bottom and the players finally get to perform. However, such a scene is somewhat un-neccessary in the "storybook" context of this retelling, and its removal was probably a good idea. The themes of wayward love and its fickleness is still in place, whether it be the mis-matching of the young lovers, the quarrels between husband and wife, or the ridiculousness of the romantic, suicidal couple that the actors play "Pyramus and Thisby" (on which Shakespeare based "Romeo and Juliet").
The illustrations fit the story well. Though some might hope for intricate, highly detailed work that we usually see in fairy-books these days (such as the work of Brian Froud or K. Y. Craft), here the watercolours are in soft pastels, very clearly and simply planned and rendered. To help the reader along, there is an introductory page of the main character's busts, and the four lovers can be easily identified by their colour-coding (just remember - the blonde girl goes with the blonde boy and the dark-haired girl goes with the dark-haired boy). Bottom is hilarious with or without his ass-head, and you can tell just from his expression that he's a complete buffon.
Most of the fairies are as they are usually portrayed - small, winged, barefooted and delicate, but their impish faces and spindly bodies save them from appearing as those silly, cute, adorable little fairies that you might expect in Enid Blyton. To my mind, fairies must have a little of the mysterious and potential for malevolence about them. The potrayal of Oberon and Titania is somewhat odd - Titania appears as a full grown woman (though in a couple of pictures horribly stick-like, almost anorexic) but Oberon seems almost child-like, as if he's a boy in an over-sized sheet. Like the four lovers, many of the characters are portrayed as incredibly young, a theme that runs through into Puck.
It is Puck who is the centrepiece of this retelling, both in the narrative and in the pictures. With tangled hair and a fuzzy loincloth, the cheeky toddler whizzes about the air, sometimes the very picture of innocence, other times with a devilish grin. He can't help but make you smile when you see him.
Altogether, a good start to introduce young readers to the play, with nice clear pictures just this side of an art and/or fairy-lovers collection.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely, but still.., April 28, 2007
Most adults who read this know the basic story of the book: how King Oberon schemes to use magical lust to solve a dispute between himself and his bride Titania and how Puck, the sprite entrusted to carry out the scheme, manages to entangle four mortal lovers into the mix and nearly ruins everything. It is this scheming between Puck and Oberon that presents the main source of humor in the story; when you see two hapless men professing love to the same baffled woman and two women fighting like cats over men, you can't help but grin at the mayhem the now exasperated Oberon has caused.
However, I was never quite able to completely enjoy the humor that occured at the expense of Titania and the mortals. Call me old-fashioned, but I personally can't have a good laugh at the idea of using others like puppets in a play and my main concern here is whether all the humor in this story is appropriate for a child audience. Sure, Coville breaks down the adult dialogue, but that's only part of it; some of the main characters in the story simply don't have very strong morals. King Oberon humiliates his wife, steals something from her, uses a form of mind control on her, manipulates the humans in the story like they're nothing, and never shows any regret or pause! In this version, he doesn't even express pity for Titania's condition like he did in the original tale; he just pulls her like a puppet until he gets what he wants, then grins and tells Puck to undo everything, which I found infuriating and unsatisfying. Is this really a good story for kids? They should know it's not nice to take advantage of people, play tricks on them, and all the other various things characters do to each other here with no consequences.
I'm not a hater of this tale in general. I love the Rupert Everet version of the film, particularly because Oberon and even Puck show a trace of conscience while still retaining their typical mischievousness and Titania's actually treated like a fleshed out character instead of a cut-out made for Oberon's humor. I just wish Coville had treated Oberon and Puck like more than a plague visited on those they inflicted their tricks on. It's not an awful tale by any means, but I suggest reading with your kids.
On to a positive note, though: the illustrations are absolutely lovely and perfectly faerie. In fact, this was the reason I got it. The fairies are gorgeous, the humans classical Roman beauties, and Puck an adorable child who bears a striking resemblance to Oberon. (This is a particularly interesting note, because Puck was actually acknowledged by one source of research as Oberon's son by a mortal woman. Apparently, Coville chose to acknowledge this.) As a lovely visual treat, this book is highly recommended!
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