Romeo and Juliet (Oxford School Shakespeare)

As needed

To be clear, I re-read this book for the language. NOT the story. NOT THE STORY. Lawd.Can we all agree that what happened to R and J is really Friar Laurence's fault?C'mon Laurence. These are kids. You encouraged Juliet to take fake dying potion so that she (a 14 year old girl), could be with her infatuation of what... 3 days? Like, um ... you're supposed to be an older, wiser, akin to God adult and you didn't think that faking her death was like, a red flag? You shouldn't have to fake your death in order to be with someone. FFS.OH, and then Laurence joins in the Capulets and Nurse when they are all crying about Juliet's "death"? FOR SHAME FRIAR LAURENCE.Friar John is no better. Worse than snail mail.That's my story and I'm sticking to it.PS. The whole scene between Peter, "First Musician", and "Second Musician" can go.PPS. I'm so mad.

One of my absolute favorite Shakespeare plays, it’s as good as you expect it to be. A lot of Shakespeare’s earlier works seem a bit shallow at times, but there’s a lot to unpack here. Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s finest characters, and the Nurse is also great. I actually think a lot of the adaptations of the play don’t capture the same energy and tonal shift Shakespeare accomplishes, so I highly recommend reading the text at some point.The Signet editions are great for reading Shakespeare. They’re very readable and compact, with good footnotes and useful supplementary material.

Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare Made Clear) is Shakespeare with a plain contemporary English explanation. This companion book for the play that starts with explanations. There is an explanation of the language, the slang, the story, its history, and its modern adaptations. Following that is a short synopsis of the play. At this point the reader has a firm understanding of the play. The players and the story line are known. With this understanding of the story, the reader is introduced to the play. Each exchange is followed by clear, modern translations. Not only is each exchange put into common language, but slang and terminology of the time is explained; You'll learn the meaning of words like "fettle" rather than passing over them. In addition, there are also notes explaining the actions taking place and referencing the meanings of the conversations. At the conclusion of the play, the reader is given a scene by scene summary, biographies of the major players, discussions of major themes, and a short biography of Shakespeare.We all read Shakespeare in high school and many of us pretended to understand it. This book will do more than help you pass a test; it will give you complete understanding of the play.

I purchased this book so my son could better understand this timeless classic, but I think I benefited from it the most. With a line-by-line translation in simple English, what is lost in the poetry of the language is gained in understanding the characters, the time, and the emotions. I find that watching Shakespeare performed on a stage in much easier to comprehend than reading it, but Romeo and Juliet Made Clear, by Garamond Press brings the story to life in easy to read language. Even though I read the story years ago and have seen it on stage a few times, I had an even clearer understanding of the story after finishing this book. Reading this book brings to life the speech of the period and the manner in which the Bard wrote his classic tale of love.Not only is the translation extremely helpful, the introduction provides insight in to the dramatic structure, the origins of the story, and the historical context. No longer will Shakespeare be a universal annoyance to high school English students everywhere; with this book, anyone can become a Shakespeare scholar.

At some point or another, you will probably have to read Romeo and Juliet for a high school or college class. And if you're like me--as in born in this century--you will have a hard time understanding it. The way that Shakespeare wrote his plays is completely different to how we speak today; even most of the words he used were foreign to me in school. This book is the ultimate guide to understanding absolutely everything about Romeo and Juliet in modern language. Not only does the author summarize the entire story into one short, simple synopsis--but they also translate each scene of each act, line for line in words that this generation of readers can understand. The author also goes through the trouble of providing the history of many unfamiliar phrases, and even of the entire story itself. This is definitely a must-read for either anyone working on Romeo and Juliet in a class or even just someone who would like to understand this brilliant play in ways they never could before.