All's Well That Ends Well (Penguin Shakespeare)

by Barbara Everett (Editor), Barbara Everett (Editor), Janette Dillon (Editor), William Shakespeare (Author), William Shakespeare (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $5.75

  A poor physician's daughter cures the King of France, and in return is promised the hand of any nobleman she wishes. But the man she chooses, the proud young Count of Rosillion, refuses to consummate the forced marriage and flees to Florence. Depicting the triumph of trickery over youthful arrogance, All's Well that Ends Well is among Shakespeare's darkest romantic comedies, yet it remains a powerful tribute to the strength of love.

• Used

  Paperback
  1998

  $3.35

  Usually classifed as a 'problem comedy', All's Well that Ends Well invites a fresh assessment. Its psychologically disturbing presentation of an agressive, designing woman and a reluctant husband wooed by trickery won it little favour in earlier centuries, and both directors and critics have frequently tried to avoid or simplify its uncomfortable elements. More recently, several distinguished productions have revealed it as an exceptionally penetrating study of both personal and social issues. In her introduction Susan Snyder makes the play's clashing ideologies of class and gender newly accessible. She explains how the very discords of style can be seen as a source of theatrical power and complexity, and offers a fully reconsidered, helpfully annotated text for both readers and actors.

• New

  Paperback
  2004

  $14.41

  For this updated edition of All's Well, Alexander Leggatt has written a wholly new Introduction to one of Shakespeare's most puzzling, ambiguous and demanding plays. Leggatt's interest in performance informs his introduction and his account of the instability of the main characters. He offers a full, illustrated and thoughtful account of the play's critical and theatrical fortunes to the end of the twentieth century, and of our experience as an audience of seeing and hearing it performed. An updated reading list completes the edition.