A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

Overview

Shakespeare's intertwined love polygons begin to get complicated from the start--Demetrius and Lysander both want Hermia but she only has eyes for Lysander. Bad news is, Hermia's father wants Demetrius for a son-in-law. On the outside is Helena, whose unreturned love burns hot for Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander plan to flee from the city under cover of darkness but are pursued by an enraged Demetrius (who is himself pursued by an enraptured Helena). In the forest, unbeknownst to the mortals, Oberon and Titania (King and Queen of the faeries) are having a spat over a servant boy. The plot twists up when Oberon's head mischief-maker, Puck, runs loose with a flower which causes people to fall in love with the first thing they see upon waking. Throw in a group of labourers preparing a play for the Duke's wedding (one of whom is given a donkey's head and Titania for a lover by Puck) and the complications become fantastically funny.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940000748145
Publisher:	B&R Samizdat Express
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	810,956
File size:	273 KB

About the Author

William Shakespeare is the world's greatest ever playwright. Born in 1564, he split his time between Stratford-upon-Avon and London, where he worked as a playwright, poet and actor. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway. Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two, leaving three children—Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. The rest is silence.

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
by .
Copyright © 2016 William Shakespeare.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

A Midsummer Night's Dream - William Shakespeare - Edited by Wolfgang Clemen William Hazlitt: From The Characters of Shakespeare's Plays
Henry Alonzo Myers: 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream': Tragedy and Comedy
John Russell Brown From Shakespeare and His Comedies
Frank Kermode: 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
Linda Bamber: The Status of the Feminine in Shakespearean Comedy
Sylvan Barnet: 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' on the Stage and Screen

NEWLY ADDED ESSAY:
Camille Wells Slights: From Shakespeare's Comic Commonwealths

Editorial Reviews

"A fine example of judicious editorial writing. Foakes guides the reader securely and fluently through the critical and scholarly disputes that have accumulated around the play. He manages to be informative without being patronizing, and detached with out failing to offer opinions." The Times Higher Education Supplement

From the Publisher