All's Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare, Signet Classic) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Sylvan Barnet (Introduction) "Enter young Bertram, Count of Rossillion, his mother the Countess, Helena, and Lord Lafew; all in black countess In delivering my son from me, I..." (more)
Key Phrases: essay discussing performance options, steely bones, bawdy quibble, Count Rossillion, Enter Bertram, Enter Helena (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This dark comedy, written in the very early 1600s, is the latest title in the revamped "Pelican Shakespeare" series, which offers definitive texts of the plays with scholarly introductions, essays, and notes. You can't go wrong with this wonderful series. FICTION
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"A quite wonderful idea... So blindingly obvious, I can't understand why nobody had thought of it before. I will certainly use the texts myself" Peter Hall" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Signet Classics; Revised edition (June 1, 1965)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451522613
• ISBN-13: 978-0451522610
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,301,737 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine edition of a play that is unjustly unloved, January 17, 2005

By	Craig Matteson (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: All's Well That Ends Well: Second Series (Arden Shakespeare) (Paperback)

There are artists whose work is so fundamental that they are beyond questioning. It is not that all their work is supreme, but rather that the body of their work is so transcendent and so core to our culture that one must come to grips with it if one wishes to understand what makes us who we are. There is no writer more central to the English language than Shakespeare. So, by definition everything he wrote is worth reading and deserves five stars by my ranking system.

That is not to say that every play has in it what we value most in his greatest works. Certainly, "All's Well That Ends Well" is not one of his greatest works. However, that is like noting that 2004 was not a good year for Tiger Woods and he still placed fourth on the money list and is still ranked number two in the world. Even lesser Shakespeare is ahead of nearly everyone else, especially when one factors in the insight gained by experiencing his entire body of work.

What we are after in reviews like this is less about the play than the edition itself. I am a huge fan of the Arden editions because of the helpful insights their scholarship provides into the plays. We do not have to wade through unnecessary essays on politically correct interpretations of the plays. In this edition, we get an introductory essay that deals with issues of text, date, interpretation, and performance. Since this is one of the least performed of Shakespeare's plays, this is necessarily brief.

What is this play about? The title is a motto of young commoner named Helena. She is the orphan of a doctor and taken in by the Countess of Rossillion. Helena is captivated by the Countess's son, Bertram who has no interest in her. The play is about her unrelenting path to have him as her husband. It is an interesting play with some glorious lines. But if you are only going to read a half dozen of Shakespeare's plays, you need not bother with this one. However, I think you should take time to read all of them.

So, this is a fine and recommended edition of one of Shakespeare's lesser plays, but that is still greater than nearly everything else and so should be read by all.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hunter fails again, January 6, 2009

By	Holofernes "mmkcm4" (Brookline, MA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All's Well That Ends Well: Second Series (Arden Shakespeare) (Paperback)

There are many finer editions than this. G. K. Hunter is one of the least penetrating and dullest commentators around. The older critics, from the nineteenth century, are superior. The moderns' erudition is artificial; they don't live religion or classical culture. Hunter is one of the worst. Avoid.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good edition, February 24, 2006

By	J. Ziegler "Phd student, metalhead, and more" (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: All's Well that Ends Well (The Oxford Shakespeare) (Paperback)

As you would expect from Oxford, this is a very well done edition of the play, with a comprehensive introduction (though I wished for a little more theatre history myself) that covers the major issues in this "problem" comedy (though it is not nearly so much a problem play as, say, Troilus and Cressida, in fact being much closer in many ways to Measure for Measure), several textual appendices, an index, useful textual- and foot-notes (there seem to be a great many phrasings in this play that need explanation--a result of revision?), and two of Shakespeare's direct sources in Erasmus and Painter. There were a few points when I disagreed with the interpreations offered in the footnotes, but overall, the apparatus is excellent.

As for the play itself, the main action concerns the efforts of Helen to recapture her husband Bertram, who is given to her by the King as a reward for curing his fistula. He does not think she, as a physician's daughter, is worthy of his station and flees to the wars in Italy without consumating the marriage. The comic subplot involves the exposure of the cowardice of his companion, Paroles. Helen evnetually fulfills the requirements Bertram sets out in a letter--to obtain his ring and bear a child by him--through a bed trick, and the play ends where it began, with the King (echoes of Lear?) offering Diana, who helped in the trick, her choice of husband.

Overall, a very good edition of a less popular play.