| Romeo and Juliet (Penguin Shakespeare) | 
 enlarge | Author: William Shakespeare
Creators: Stanley W. Wells, T. J. B. Spencer, Adrian Poole
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £0.01
You Save: £7.98 (100%)
New (41) Used (9) from £0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 81237
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0141012269
Dewey Decimal Number: 822
EAN: 9780141012261
ASIN: 0141012269
Publication Date: April 7, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: ex display copy, lightly shopsoiled cover box ch2
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| Customer Reviews:
Best new version (National Theatre Recommended) June 1, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
"Passion, hatred, comedy & high tragedy" it says on the back. Star crossed lovers, balconies and funny costumes really got the cobwebs blown out of it when Baz Luhrman took on the project in film version - to unfortunate critical failure, and now the books are trying to shake themselves up to reflect modern readers requirements and expectations similarly by "Bringing Shakespeare to life for a new generation".
This series of 32 books was part of a relaunch by Penguin in 2005, covering most of the well known and lesser known plays by Mr Will. With this publisher you get "accessible & authorative version" & the most up to date critical interpretations according to Penguin, who are renound for this kind of work so you can rely upon it. They're not that expensive either considering what you're getting (a lot in addition and the name) and they stand out as probably the best all round option.
Outside they have newly designed modern covers, appealing maybe to students (13-20ish) a bit more so which is a good thing as they're hard to engage at the best of times - perhaps not surprisingly if they have nothing geared to interest them specifically. Convey the context of love and family disaproval and it's timeless. It'd be used in either English, Drama or Film (Media) etc. Internally they're clear and split into acts as you'd expect so suitable for general adult readership - even more so for theatre goers? or perhaps for those put off many years earlier themselves.
The technical bit: The three editors have a string of academic/literary/Shakespear qualifications between them. Inside there's the play, a general introduction to Will's life and Elizabethan theatre, and a chronology of Shakespear's works (with sub discussion of the dates issue). There's a 42 page introduction to Romeo & Juliet following that, a section titled "Play in performance" and several pages of suggested further reading before the characters list and play begins. This would really help with coursework or understanding generally. At the back there's 120 odd pages of further notes/essay for Drama interpretation & presentation/commentary. It's a normal sized paperback and the writing isn't unusually small to cram it in. This series is used and recommended by The National Theatre and you can see why really.
Others available in the series are for example: Othello, Macbeth, and ones with accompanying recent films: The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado, Hamlet, Twelfth Night & Midsummer Night's Dream.
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