18 books like Love's Labour's Lost
King Lear
Lear decides to abdicate and split his kingdom between his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. Cordelia refuses to flatter her father like her sisters and is banished. Goneril and Regan betray Lear who goes mad.
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Candida
The Reverend James Mavor Morell, a respectable socialist clergyman, spends his days giving lectures and sermons while his wife, Candida, sees to his comfortable London home. That home is disrupted by the arrival of the poet Eugene Marchbanks, who is in love with Candida and determined to rescue her from what he sees as an unromantic life. Shaw wrote Candida as a reaction to Henrik Ibsen’s social…
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Richard III
"containing his treacherous plots against his brother Clarence, the pittiefull murther of his innocent nephewes, his tyrannicall usurpation, with the whole course of his detested life and most deserved death"
(Subtitle of the 1597 edition.)
Shares: Quartos, Stage history, Bibliography, Drama
Henry V
Written by William Shakespeare around 1599, The Life of Henry the Fifth, more commonly known as Henry V, chronicles the later history of King Henry the Fifth of England and his efforts during Hundred Years’ War to reclaim disputed territories in France. The play starts with Henry’s claims to be the rightful heir to the French throne and, after his invasion of France, culminates with his famous…
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All's Well That Ends Well
"For this updated edition, Alexander Leggatt has written a wholly new introduction to Russell Fraser's edition of 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…
Shares: Concordances, British and irish drama, English drama, Drama
King John
Complexities of power and loyalty in King John, a historical play by William Shakespeare. Set against the backdrop of England’s turbulent politics, this gripping narrative explores the reign of King John, who faces internal betrayal and external threats. As he grapples with his own legitimacy and the loyalty of his nobles, the play delves into themes of authority, identity, and human frailty.
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Henry IV, Part 1
Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, discusses the author and the theater of his time, and provides quizzes and other study activities.
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Pericles
This book includes a general introduction to Shakespeare's life and Elizabethan theatre, a seperate introduction to Pericles, a chronology, suggestions for further reading, an essay discussing performance options on both stage and screen, and a commentary.
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The Merry Wives of Windsor
When Falstaff meets Mistresses Page and Ford, two married women said to control their own financial affairs, he writes identical love letters to each of them, never imagining that they will compare notes. When they do, they vow to trick Falstaff.
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Love's Labour's Lost
King Ferdinand and his three friends, Biron, Longaville, and Dumain, plan to study philosophy for the next three years. During their academic pursuits, they must vow to sleep only three hours a night and not let any woman within a mile of court. These strict rules will prevent any distractions from their work—but their promises are soon put to the test when a princess and her three companions…
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King Richard II
"Richard is King. A monarch ordained by God to lead his people. But he is also a man of very human weakness. A man whose vanity threatens to divide the great houses of England and drag his people into a dynastic civil war that will last 100 years"--Container.
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Macbeth
An Apple Books Classic edition.Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s darkest and most tragic works, a drama so steeped in legend that actors won’t even say its name for fear of bringing bad luck. The Bard’s shortest tragedy is a tale of murder, madness, and ambition full of iconic speeches. It’s been adapted countless times during its 400 years—and now director Joel Coen has created a bold and fierce…
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An Ideal Husband
An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedic stage play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour. The action is set in London, in "the present", and takes place over the course of twenty-four hours. "Sooner or later," Wilde notes, "we shall all have to pay for what we do." But he adds that, "No one should be entirely…
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Henry IV, Part 2
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, Summer festival, June 27th to September 10th, 1932. "The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, containing his death, and the coronation of King Henry the Fifth," by William Shakespeare. The prologue will be spoken by Eugene Wellesley and the epilogue by Hilda Coxhead.
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Two Gentlemen of Verona
"Professor Schlueter approaches this early comedy as a parody of two types of Renaissance educational fiction: the love-quest story and the test-of-friendship story, which by their combination show high-flown human ideals as incompatible with each other and with human nature. A thoroughly researched, illustrated stage history reveals changing conceptions of the play, which nevertheless often fail…
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Titus Andronicus
Dismemberment, rape, cannibalism and murder make 'Titus Andronicus' Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedy. The boundless grief and savage justice of Titus explores the expression of tragic passion, the Senecan tradition, Roman history and government, the body and structures of interpretation.
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King Henry VIII
"This is the first fully annotated and comprehensive modern-spelling edition of King Henry VIII - known in its early performances as All is True - for over ten years. It makes full use of current scholarship on the dating, authorship, printing, and sources of the play, as well as critical interpretations, and includes an up-to-date survey of the play in performance.
It is the first edition to…
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Coriolanus
A proud Roman general conquers the Volscians, leads them against Rome in revenge for his banishment, and is killed by the Volscian general when Coriolanus is persuaded to spare the city.
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