Review (PDF) The Oxford Shakespeare: Othello: The Moor Of Venice (The Oxford Shakespeare)
Along with Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, Othello is one of Shakespeare's four great tragedies. What distinguishes Othello is its bold treatment of racial and gender themes. It is also the only tragedy to feature a main character, Iago, who truly seems evil, betraying and deceiving those that trust him purely for spite and with no political goal. This edition, the first to give full attention to these themes, includes an extensive introduction stresses the public dimensions of the tragedy, paying particular attention to its treatment of color and social relations. Designed to meet the needs of theatre professionals, the edition includes an extensive performance history, while on-page commentary and notes explain language, word play, and staging. Collated and edited from all existing printings, this entirely new edition uses modern day spelling to make readings smoother. Appendices are included which explain the dating problems many have found in the play, describe the music that has traditionally accompanied it, and provide a full translation of the Italian novella from which the story derives. Like all editions of the Oxford Shakespeare in the Oxford World Classics series, Othello includes a full index to the introduction and commentary. It is illustrated with production photographs and related art, and features a durable sewn binding for lasting use. The Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative texts from leading scholars in editions designed to interpret andAbout the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; Reissue edition (June 15, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0199535876
ISBN-13: 978-0199535873
Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 1.1 x 5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (338 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #435,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #282 in Books > Literature & Fiction > British & Irish > Shakespeare > Literary Criticism #316 in Books > Literature & Fiction > British & Irish > Literature #683 in Books > Literature & Fiction > British & Irish > Shakespeare > Works
I am here to do my part in diminishing the value of all the one- and three- star reviews posted here, the authors of which are clearly the same person or all from the same class of children too young to read the play. visitors reading these should know two things: the reviewer is a twit, and this play is wonderful.I, for one, am a sucker for romances; if you are, Beatrice and Benedick will make the play worthwhile. Predictability be damned, they were an adorable couple. The main couple, Hero and Claudio, are boring; the other one will make you swoon. Beatrice and Benedick are funny, clever, and stubbornly reluctant to admit they love each other. To wit, they're perfect for one another.I have read two contradictory criticisms regarding the language in the play on : that the language is too simple for Shakespeare's standards, and that the language is too difficult. The latter was from the kid's reviews; for everyone else, the language is not so difficult to decipher that you need to avoid it. The Folger edition, at least, has one page of notes for every page of text, noting both puzzling references to Elizabethan beliefs, such as that sights draw blood from the heart, and language problems caused by the hundreds of years between Shakespeare's time and ours. The editors do all the work for you. You have no excuse. (Oh, and that the language is too simple: Bah. It's Shakespeare. That's impossible. I loved all the double entendres; this play was very witty.)One criticism I somewhat agree with is that the plot is boring. Hero and Claudio, being the main couple, get much time, and I didn't care much about Don John's vengeance, but at least half of my favorite couple was usually present, and by no means do Hero and Claudio's plot monopolize the story.
Claire McEachern's Introduction, notes and commentary on Much Ado About Nothing suffer from the decline in real scholarship over the last few years. Previous introductory materials in Arden edition have always built on the solid scholarship of the past, adding new ideas and research as integrated parts of the growing body of knowledge associated with Shakespeare scholarship. McEachern's abandons most of the valid accepted readings of this play to wander rather aimlessly down the tunnel of self-promoting feminist, postmodern eclecticism. As a college professor, I am dismayed to see Arden turn to such contemporary and popular approaches at the exclusion of real context. The Arden editions have always set the standard, but are now falling prey to the subjective, personalized, even vindictive vents of the academic few. The field of Shakespeare criticism, unfortunately, is in danger of collapsing in on itself, and becoming completely irrelevant to anything other than these marginalized interest. More specifically, McEachern's search for sources for the play becomes a labyrinthine exposé of speculative inference and unrelated texts, ignoring primary sources for a new historicist fascination with the obscure. The tenor of her subjective argument about the play is captured in her overdone attack on Benedick as misogynist and Beatrice's rendering as the shrew. The problem, obviously, is the imbalance here; the feminist objective reduces a complex and humorous interplay to victimizer and victim, both seen from one perspective. Ignoring the historical contexts of the play, she focuses instead on marginal texts that only partially relate to the central themes of the play, to the social context, and to the audience's understanding both of Shakespeare's environs and present-day concerns.
The Oxford Shakespeare: Othello: The Moor of Venice (The Oxford Shakespeare) Merchant of Venice (2010 edition): Oxford School Shakespeare (Oxford School Shakespeare Series) Otelo, El Moro de Venecia/ Othello, The Moore of Venice (Joyas Del Teatro/ Theater Jewels) (Spanish Edition) Spark Notes No Fear Shakespeare Othello (SparkNotes No Fear Shakespeare) Love Spirits: What Happens in Venice: Book One (What Happens in Venice: The Trinity Ghost Story 1) Othello (Folger Shakespeare Library) Othello (The Annotated Shakespeare) Othello (Arden Shakespeare: Third Series) Othello: Revised Edition (The Arden Shakespeare Third Series) Othello (Shakespeare, Signet Classic) The Gathering: A Highlander Romance (The Ghosts of Culloden Moor Book 1) Jamie: A Highlander Romance (The Ghosts of Culloden Moor Book 3) Lachlan: A Highlander Romance (The Ghosts of Culloden Moor Book 2) Romeo and Juliet: Oxford School Shakespeare (Oxford School Shakespeare Series) Hamlet: Oxford School Shakespeare (Oxford School Shakespeare Series) King Lear: Oxford School Shakespeare (Oxford School Shakespeare Series) Antony and Cleopatra: Oxford School Shakespeare (Oxford School Shakespeare Series) Much Ado About Nothing (2010 edition): Oxford School Shakespeare (Oxford School Shakespeare Series) The Winter's Tale: Oxford School Shakespeare (Oxford School Shakespeare Series) The Taming of the Shrew: Oxford School Shakespeare (Oxford School Shakespeare Series)
