Customer Reviews

Romeo and Juliet (Cyber Classics)

5 star:		(93)
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3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

Of course this is an immortal story that has been read for centuries and at least one beautiful motion picture has been based on it. But, I guess I'm a "dunce" because I never could understand much of the dialogue. "What he say?" was my reaction to much of it. But, I discovered these Folger Shakespeare Library editions that have the dialogue as written by Shakespeare in Elizabethan English on the right side of the page and the "translations" and explanations on the left. Wow! That format makes it very easy to enjoy this book without going to a dictionary every 90 seconds or so! And, for teachers, I think they'll be overjoyed when they see the positive results they could get in class! If you have any opinions about this edition please email boland7214@aol.

For the cost of ..., you can own a copy of the world's greatestlove story: Romeo & Juliet. Made possible to own ... by the DoverThrift Edition line of books, this edition of Romeo & Juliet iscomplete and unabridged. Use this copy for your performance of theplay, for an English class when you have to buy (or want to buy) abook to have of your own to highlight and annotate as you wish, orsimply to read at your own leisure. The only downside of this editionis that there are no notes of any kind, so you have to throroughlyknow the play itself. Outside of that one setback, the book isdefinitely worth purchasing if you need it or want it, but don't wantto spend lots of money on a copy.

At least that's what I feel should have been a worthy epitaph for these two ill-fated lovers. I read this classic work of fiction because I've never read anything by Shakespeare before. Being a romantic, I found it appealed to me as one unfathomable story of doomed love, and may I say the ending could not have been any other, even if it hadn't been a fictitious story. I agree with Ms. Paster, who in this edition gives a final, parallel account of the story in comparison to modern times; when she says that Romeo and Juliet's only way out to consumate their love was through death, because they had trespassed socially acceptable conventions of the era, and not just due to a family feud. This is true especially of Juliet, who, because she was a woman, had the least advantages and the most pressures to be married to someone previously chosen and approved by her father. She defies the world - literally - and runs to the arms of her Romeo to be married in secret. I cannot imagine the terrible strain and fear a woman would have gone through in the 1500's should she choose to follow her heart in such a way. I find Juliet, in this sense, a true pioneer of women's rights. She definitely risks it all, defying even her own father (the man who would "owned" her until she got married). The passage where he confronts her about her arranged marriage to Count Paris has to be one of the cruelest speeches in classic literature. She certainly would have to make use of a humongous supply of nerve to defy convention.

Romeo, on his behalf, is truly besotted with Juliet. He admires her beauty more than her courage and, like most men when in love, shows himself a pathetic spectacle. However, he loves her and cannot live without her. He only has eyes and, what's really important, heart for her. That is why, when he receives news of her death, he decides to go to her tomb and kill himself there. The ill-fated destiny plays these lovers a bad hand when Romeo does not get a letter in time explaining his beloved's circumstances for her death.

I enjoyed Shakespeare's language the most during the first half of the book. When Romeo climbs to Juliet's window and stays with her for a few hours in the night (the only time the young lovers have for each other throughout the play). He expresses his love with unforgettable lines. He wishes he would be someone else, so that he could love her freely: "Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized." (2.2.54)

This edition by the Folger Library has new comments and offers historical background on the life of William Shakespeare as well his times and his theatre. Dimensions of The Globe and explanations on how the plays were acted are shown in detail; together with illustrations of engravings of the period. It all helps to give a good understanding of the play. If, like me, you are new to Shakespeare, you will find the left pages in the book an invaluable resource since they are like a mini-dictionary clarifying words, idiomatic expressions of the era and even full verses. Above all, fear not; and dare to dive into this torrent of love.

Romeo and Juliet is a wonderful read. I loved reading every minute of it. The summaries and the explanatory notes help you understand everything about it. This is a great book and I would recommend you read this as an introduction to Shakespeare. I did and I am now going to start A Midsummer Night's Dream. Read this book! You'll love every minute of it!

This is Shakespeare as it should be... no extraneous notes, no unnecessary stage directions, nothing but the text. If you are looking for anything that explains character, language, theme, etc. don't look here, as Shakespeare never wrote any of that. This is purely the text as-is.

As a theatre professor, I would rather have my students work with a text like this rather than one littered with useless commentary and biased notations. If you don't understand a term or reference, use the Oxford English Dictionary rather than the limp and limited notes available in many editions.

I bought this for the Kindle and there is none of the modern text translation referred to by the other reviews. I am very disappointed because that is the only reason I purchased this book. They should not use printed version reviews for Kindle books.

The Folger edition of Romeo and Juliet is very easy to read. The many notes and illustrations make it enjoyable.

The most tragic of all tragedies, this beautiful play takes place in Verona and revolves around Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, two young lovers who are doomed because of the feud between their families.

The play opens with a lovely sonnet which is unusual since sonnets were meant to be from a lover to his beloved and, at this point, Romeo and Juliet have yet to meet. The sonnet, however, is a highly structured form of prose, signifying order. This contrasts with the immediate disorder of the play's first scene during which quarreling servants provoke a fight between the Montagues and the Capulets.

Shakespeare, always a master at foreshadowing, makes liberal use of it in Romeo and Juliet with the Nurse being one of the first characters to actually foreshadow future events in the play.

Comparisons between light and dark also abound. Upon first seeing her, Romeo compares Juliet to "a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear." It is central to the play that important love scenes take place in the dark, away from the disorder that marks the day. Romeo loves Juliet at night, but he kills during the confusion of the day.

This interaction and conflict of night and day is raised to new levels in the second act when Benvolio states, in reference to Romeo's passion, "Blind is his love, and best befits the dark." And when Romeo encounters Juliet with the now famous words, "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?/It is the east, and Juliet is the sun./Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon." Romeo then invokes the darkness as a form of protection from harm, saying, "I have night's cloak to hide me from their eyes." This conflict of night versus day will not end until the disorder of the day finally overcomes the passion of the night and destroys the lives of the lovers.

Another special piece of foreshadowing occurs near the end of the first act when Juliet states, "If he be married/My grave is like to be my wedding bed." This will be related over and over during the play, from both Juliet's Nurse and even from her mother, Lady Capulet, who, in the third act comments about Juliet's refusal to marry Paris with the words, "I would the fool were married to her grave."

There is also a strong conflict between the uses of silver and gold throughout the action of the play. Silver is often invoked as a symbol of love and beauty. Gold, on the other hand, is often used ironically and as a sign of both greed and desire. Rosaline is described as being immune to showers of gold, and when Romeo is banished, he comments that banishment is a "golden axe" akin to death. Finally, the erection of the statues of gold at the end of the play serves as a sign of the fact that neither Montague nor Capulet has really learned anything from their loss.

One of the most beautiful of all of Shakespeare's soliliquies takes place during the third act when Juliet beckons for nightfall, once again representing the contrast of the nights of love to the disorder of the day. "Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night,/Give me my Romeo, and when he shall die/Take him and cut him out in little stars,/And he will make the face of heaven so fine/That all the world will be in love with night/And pay no worship to the garish sun."

Much in the way the characters in Richard III dream about their fates in the final act of that play, Romeo, too, has a dream that warns him of his fate, when he awakens and says, "I dreamt my lady came and found me dead." Shakespeare often used dreams to foreshadow, but this particular dream also serves to heighten the dramatic element of the tragedy by irrevocably sealing the characters' fate.

When Romeo goes to the Apothecary to purchase poison, the description of the Apothecary makes it seem as if he were buying that poison from Death himself: "Meagre were his looks,/Sharp misery had worn him to the bones." Romeo pays him in gold, saying, "There is thy gold--worse poisons to men's souls." For Romeo, gold really is a form of poison, since it will help to kill him.

Sexual and biblical references also abound. There is a strong erotic element in the final death scene as Romeo drinks from a chalice (whose shape is often compared to that of a woman). Juliet says, "O happy dagger,/This is thy sheath! There rust, and let me die." The dagger, of course, is Romeo's and the sexual overtones are starkly clear. It is Juliet's love for Romeo which ultimately brings about her death.

There is a strange biblical reference from Benvolio in the very first scene of the play. He remarks, as he attempts to stop the fighting that is going on, "Put up your swords, You know not what you do." These words echo the words of Christ as he attempted to stop the fighting of His apostles with the Romans during his arrest and may foreshadow Juliet's demise, namely her three-day "death" followed by a resurrection which still ultimately ends in death.

And finally, Friar Laurence, at the end of the play seems to be attempting to play God in convincing Juliet to drink a potion which will make those around her believe she is, indeed, dead until he, himself, comes to resurrect her. In his attempt to play God, however, Friar Laurence is condemned to fail by the simple arrogance of his acts, a tie-in with the death of Christ that could not have possibly escaped the early Christians watching performances of the play.

In one of Shakespeare's most famous and beloved plays, true love is thwarted at the cruel hands of fate.

The Capulets and the Montagues have been rivals for years. However, this doesn't stop Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague from falling in love with one another. And so the timeless and beautiful story of Romeo and Juliet begins.

Both the play and the romance of the two main characters take off almost unrealistically quickly; the play is set only over the course of a few days. But what a few days it is. Shakespeare expertly captures the naive and innocent viewpoints of the two teenagers and his language is always metaphorical and flawless.

I found this version of the play extremely helpful, as it was the first Shakespeare play I had read and I wasn't yet accustomed to the unique language of the era. On one side of the page is the actual text of the play and on the opposite side is a list of words and phrases that modern-day citizens may not be accustomed to. This greatly increased my comprehension level of the book, and is a definite asset to anyone who isn't yet "Shakespeare-savvy". Happy reading!

I have seen all movie versions about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and still love the book everytime I revisit the story. Every word captivates the reader into truly feeling the passion and tragedy of these two lovers. Even a character such as Tybalt Capulet won me over as far as description goes. Shakespearian writing is very much complex and confusing but it has a touch romance and anger which adds to the emotion of the story. Read this classic tragedy!