Customer Reviews

The Winter's Tale: Second Series (Arden Shakespeare)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Winter's Tale is a lot of things: heart-breaking, exhilerating, funny, beautiful, romantic, profound, etc. Yeah, it's all here. This is one of the bard's best plays, and I can't believe they don't teach this in schools. Of course, the ones they teach are excellent, but I can see high school kids enjoying this one a lot more than some of those others (Othello, King Lear).

The story is, of course, brilliant. King Leontes goes into a jealous rage at the beginning against his wife Hermione. Leontes is very mistaken in his actions, and the result is tragic. Shakespeare picks the story back up sixteen years later with the children, and the story works to a really, really surprising end of bittersweet redemption.

This is one of Shakespeare's bests. The first half is a penetrating and devestating, but the second half shows a capacity for salvation from the depths of despair. Also, this being Shakespeare, the blank verse is gorgeous and the characters are well drawn, and the ending is a surprise unparalleled in the rest of his plays. The Winter's Tale is a truly profound and entertaining read.

THIS REVIEW APPLIES TO THE KINDLE VERSION ONLY

This is another example of lazy publishers dumping text into a Kindle "book" and foisting it on the public without so much as a 10 second skimming of the text to see if it is worthy of release. It isn't. The text of the play is paginated so poorly that footnotes are now interspersed in the text (footnotes are helpful for reading older plays) and line numbers are now embedded in the text and the indication of who is speaking what lines are often jammed together.

As I said before, a supremely lazy effort that makes the kindle and e-book concept look bad.

For me The Winter's Tale is the most satisfying of Shakespeare's plays. And why? It may not be Hamlet for tragedy, it may not be Twelfth Night for comedy -- indeed, perhaps in the great objective sense this is not nearly his best; but as a coherent work this has them all beat. Here we find all sides of Shakespeare's genius on display: Leontes shares his intense sexual jealousy with Othello, and Florizel and Perdita take their light-hearted romantic comedy interplay (complete with disguises and recogntions) from the best of Shakespeare's comedies, before his sense of the romantic soured into the bitter genius of the problem plays. Add that to the eerily lyrical poetry of Act IV, and you've got a masterpiece. The Winter's Tale is laugh-out-loud funny at times; it's ribald; it's profoundly tragic; and in the end, it's a look at the craft of theater, the craft of literature and ultimately the craft of living. Unjustly ignored, The Winter's Tale is easily as good as its immediate successor, The Tempest -- and that's high praise indeed.

Early compilers of Shakespeare's plays classified this a comedy, but there is much tragedy in it. Later it was called a romance. Through irrational jealousy a king is apparently responsible for the deaths of his entire family -- wife, son and daughter -- by mid-play. Time is a character in the play and at his one appearance summarizes the passage of sixteen years. If you have an overy high regard for realism, you may not much enjoy this play, but that will be true of more of Shakespeare than just this one tale. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I look forward to seeing it. I've ordered the BBC DVD and it's being performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2006. These Cambridge School editions have the play's text on right-hand pages; they have summary, commentary and exercises, and vocabulary on the facing left-hand pages. As I read through the play, I'd read the summary, read the play text paying attention to vocabulary, and then read the commentary and exercises. Some additional, unusual vocabulary was only explained in the commentary. I felt I got a deeper understanding of the play than if I had just read the play proper.mmary, commentary and exercises, and vocabulary on the facing left-hand pages. As I read through the play, I'd read the summary, read the play text paying attention to vocabulary, and then read the commentary and exercises. Some additional, unusual vocabulary was only explained in the commentary. I felt I got a deeper understanding of the play than if I had just read the play proper.

The Winter's Tale contains some of the most technically difficult solutions to telling a story that have ever appeared in a play. If you think you know all about how a play must be constructed, read The Winter's Tale. It will greatly expand your mind.

The play opens near the end of a long visit by Polixenes, the king of Bohemia, to the court of his childhood friend, Leontes, the king of Sicily. Leontes wants his friend to stay one more day. His friend declines. Leontes prevails upon his wife, Hermione, to persuade Polixenes. Hermione does her husband's bidding, having been silent before then. Rather than be pleased that she has succeeded, Leontes goes into a jealous rage in which he doubts her faithfulness. As his jealousy grows, he takes actions to defend his misconceptions of his "abused" honor that in fact abuse all those who have loved him. Unable to control himself, Leontes continues to pursue his folly even when evidence grows that he is wrong. To his great regret, these impulsive acts cost him dearly.

Three particular aspects of the play deserve special mention. The first is the way that Shakespeare ties together actions set 16 years apart in time. Although that sounds like crossing the Grand Canyon in a motorcycle jump, Shakespeare pulls off the jump rather well so that it is not so big a leap. The second is that Shakespeare captures entirely different moods from hilarious good humor to deep depression and remorse closely adjacent to one another. As a result, the audience is able to experience many more emotions than normally are evoked in a single play. Third, the play's final scene is as remarkable a bit of writing as you can imagine. Read it, and marvel!

After you finish reading this play, think about where your own loss of temper has had bad consequences. How can you give yourself time to get under control before acting rashly? How can you learn to be more open to positive interpretations of events, rather than dark and disturbing ones?

Love first, second, and always!

A sad romantic play about human behavior and emotions ...a merciless decision issued by the king Leontes against his wife Hermione and his boyhood friend Polixenes is the shocking beginning of a real tragedy ....immaturity,mistrust and devastating jealousy that completely blinds Leontes of seeing the truth and the consequences of his actions..

Just like a real life story ... call it destiny or Shakesperean justice ... everything evolves to bring those apart back together ... but it takes time to learn and change. The wittiness of Autolycus lightens the severity of the play and shows the opposite side of human nature and growth...

I loved the country scenes where the new love of Perdita and Florizel flourishes, they are truly the most romantic and so pure.. beautiful images of blooming emotions reflecting the nature of life and relationships!

I think the surprise ending is the climatic picture of remorseful emotions,transformed personalities and new love ... an amazing twist that gives the play a new definition!

A magical romantic poetry of love, loss and new beginnings!

Very informative edition of this difficult play. The notes helped clarify Leontes' extreme switch in behavior toward his wife Hermione - from love and trust to suspicion and ruthlessness. Would recommend this Arden Shakespeare edition to people encountering 'The Winter's Tale' for the first time(as I was) for edification and clarification.

Linda Sheean

"The Winter's Tale" marks Shakespeare's entrance into a prescient world of High Romantic ideals, where the stagnancy of a courtly world dominated by emotionally afflicted males is subverted by a vernal world of female power. Leontes, King of Sicilia, is one of Shakespeare's most convincingly self-tortured characters, while Hermione is an icon of long-suffering patience, incarnated in the famous statue of the play's conclusion. Her daugher Perdita is the subject of potentially blasphemous adoration, not only for her suitor Florizel but for the entire world; she glows in the suggested light of pagan mystery cult, the Eleusinian mysteries of mothers and daughters in secret collusion with nature and against the withering forces of jealousy and death. In this light, the critical essay included with this edition is sadly tone-deaf to Shakespeare's potent poetic raptures in this play, hearkening instead to a dogmatic, albeit at least clearly presented, rehearsal of Renaissance attitudes about "patriarchy" which deadens Hermione and her faithful advocate Paulina into mere totems for self-exculpating males of the sort whom Shakespear embodies, with withering criticism, in Leontes and the judgmental Polixenes.

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(This review is for the talking book version of this play on compact disc by the "Arkangel Complete Shakespeare" and published by BBC Audiobooks America.)

"Too hot, too hot!

To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods.

I have tremor cordis on me,--my heart dances;

But not for joy,--not joy.--This entertainment

May a free face put on; derive a liberty

From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,

And well become the agent: `t may, I grant:

But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers,

As now they are; and making practis'd smiles,

As in a looking glass; and then to sigh, as `twere

The mort o' the deer; O, that is entertainment

My bosom likes not, nor my brows."

The above is said as an aside by the King of Sicilia as he observes his Queen with his good friend (who he has known since childhood), the King of Bohemia. This is the occurrence that sparks the King of Sicilia's jealousy and forms the basis of this play (written circa 1611) by William Shakespeare (1564 to 1616).

(Note that this play is traditionally classified as a comedy but is more accurately known as a tragicomedy or romance.)

Having this play recorded on this compact disc set is a treat. This play (of five acts or fifteen scenes) is presented as uncut, fully dramatized, and accompanied by original music. This recording aids in comprehension by bringing the play to life using the voices of distinguished actors.

Included with the compact disc are liner notes that include among other things a complete cast list and a synopsis of each scene. What I did was before each scene, I paused the recording, read a particular scene's synopsis, and then listened to that scene. Doing it this way resulted in (for me anyway) complete comprehension of this play, something not easily obtainable when you simply read the play.

With respect to the play itself, it should be remembered that in most cases, the characters are not realistic. Jealousy appears with little motivation; characters perform actions that are symbolic rather than believable in terms of everyday life; common sense seems frequently to be lacking. (In fact, this is why many 17TH and 18TH century critics dismissed this play as absurd and totally lacking in reason.)

However, it seems to me that Shakespeare deliberately made most of these characters symbolic rather than realistic. The themes of the play (evil, repentance, and reconciliation) are of such a universal scope that they must be represented clearly in its characters.

This play is famous for the stage direction that Shakespeare gives in Act 3 Scene 3: "Exit, pursued by a bear."

Finally, for those playing this compact disc on their computer compact disc player, beware that a "cookie" of 0.1 KB size is stored on your computer's hard drive. A "cookie" is just a small piece of text and is NOT a virus. It can do no harm but for those that don't want it, it can be easily erased.

In conclusion, this compact disc set brings this tragicomic or romance play to life aiding in its comprehension and thus enjoyment!!

(2005; 2 hr, 50 min; 3 compact discs, 15 tracks)

<<Stephen Pletko, London, Ontario, Canada>>

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Then read this before you retire from Shakespeare! I read this in AP English after Hamlet, and I have to say that this was a surprise to me. The Winters Tale is refreshing compared to Shakespeare's earlier tragedy works. No one dies in this play except for one person instead of the entire cast.

This is mainly a love story with several different types of love affairs- Leontes and Hermoine, Leontes and Polizenes, Farid and Perdita... There is no single major character as this play is set up in two different time periods and each character mostly acts independently of each other.

As for the characterization in the play, readers can observe the classical Shakespearean characters (similar characteristics to the earlier plays) and newly personality designed characers. This mixed play reveals Shakespeare's transition from his original writings to his attempt to prove his audience that there is good in life.

I recommend this play for readers and interested literature majors because I have found this play to be widely used on college campuses and I can see why. Although we are done and we spent some time but I felt that this play deserves to be discussed in depth since there are many different elements to it. Even short plays can evolve into a course as well as long Russian style novels.