Much Ado About Nothing: The Oxford ShakespeareMuch Ado About Nothing (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Shakespeare, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199536112 ISBN 13: 9780199536115

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Sparkling with the witty dialogue between Beatrice and Benedicts, Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's most enjoyable and theatrically successful comedies.

This edition offers a newly edited text and an exceptionally helpful and critically aware introduction. Paying particular attention to analysis of the play's minor characters, Sheldon P Zitner discusses Shakespeare's transformation of his source material. He rethinks the attitudes to gender relations that underlie the comedy and determine its view of marriage.

About 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.
Allowing for the play's openness to reinterpretation by successive generations of readers and performers, Zitner provides a socially analytic stage history, advancing new views for the actor as much as for the critic.

About this title

Book Description

This is the first edition of Much Ado About Nothing focusing wholly on the play in performance. Shifting trends in the production of this popular drama are analysed in relation to the culture of each period since Shakespeare's time, with particular attention to gender issues. A commentary alongside the text recreates in lively detail interpretations of each passage in a variety of British, American, Canadian and other productions. An essential resource for students, teachers and performers, this is an illuminating book for theatregoers.

From the Publisher

Set in a courtly world of masked revels and dances, this play turns on the archetypal story if a lady falsely accused of unfaithfulness, spurned by her bridegroom, and finally vindicated and reunited with him. Villainy, schemes, and deceit threatens to darken the brilliant humor and sparkling wordplay--but the hilarious counterplot of a warring couple, Beatrice and Benedick, steals the scene as the two are finally tricked into admitting their love for each other in Shakespeare's superb comedy of manners.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0199536112
• ISBN 13: 9780199536115
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Zitner Sheldon P.