AS YOU LIKE IT: Amazon.ca: William Shakespeare: Books

Product Description

This wisely funny comedy, which contains some of Shakespeare’s loveliest poetry, contrasts a court’s world of envy and rivalry with a forest’s world of compassion and harmony. In the Forest of Arden, the banished young heroine, Rosalind, disguised as a gentleman farmer, encounters an extraordinary assemblage of characters, including a fool, a malcontent traveler, her own banished father, and the banished young man she loves. Romantic happiness triumphs, even as we laugh at the excesses of love, at the ways of court and countryside, indeed, at everything, in this masterpiece of comic writing.

Each Edition Includes:
• Comprehensive explanatory notes
• Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship
• Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English
• Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories
• An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography --This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.

Ingram

Putting readers in touch with current ways of thinking about Shakespeare, this series used text based directly on what the editors consider the best early printed version of the play. This book contains full explanatory notes on pages facing the text of the play and a helpful introduction to Shakespeare's language. At the conclusion is a full essay assessing the play in the light of today's interests and concerns.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
ORLANDO, youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys Read the first page

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Concordance

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
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Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars darn fine, dirt cheap, Mar 27 2002

By

Cry the Name (this temple of silence and stars) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Signet Classics As You Like It (Mass Market Paperback)

Whew...this story has an even faster plot turn about than Austen's Pride and Prejudice. If one is not careful, you--like me, may suffer "plausibility whiplash." That said, As You Like It is a delightful example of Shakespearean comedy. Jaques is one of my favorites from Shakespeare's stable of characters. Things get renewed, folks get married, fortunes are restored. Good Stuff. I must also mention how much I like these Signet Classic Shakespeare texts. They are darn fine (good intros, critical pieces, and source info) and dirt cheap.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Idyllic play - for romantics, Nov 20 2003

By

MrSherlockHolmes - See all my reviews

This review is from: AS YOU LIKE IT (Mass Market Paperback)

This has to be one of Shakespeare's gayest plays (no pun intended). Whatever tragedy may have occurred in the beginning - at the court - is totally forgotten when the action moves to the forest, where Robin-hood like; a banished duke, a melancholy philosopher and a cast of love sick characters act out their lives on the stage.

Much of the play is centered on Rosalind - the female lead in 'drag' - who falls in love with the third son of a nobleman, Orlando, who has been cheated out of his inheritance by his eldest brother. Her father, the duke, has also been cheated by a brother and is now living in the forest with his 'merry men'. Her short stay at court is disrupted when her uncle changes his mind about her and 'graciously' gives her a few days to get out of the kingdom. This event leads to her escape into the forests with her cousin, the daughter of the duke at Court. As the play progresses more and more characters end up in the forest which becomes the stage where all these actors play out their parts - to paraphrase Jacques.

As a reader you sometimes have to suspend rationality in order to swallow some of the larger than life events that occur in this story (The snake - Lion - Lion killer scene for example). It's not meant to be taken too seriously I'd imagine, just a play about love and romance and the lengths one will go to because of love. The only rational person in this play seems to be the Malvolio-like Jacques, whose deer hugging antiques (forerunner of modern day Environmentalism?) and refusal to take part in the revelry make him the butt of the other's jokes. Even the clown seems to have been pierced by Cupid's arrows as he too weds a country 'wench', something unheard of in the other plays where the clowns all seem to be eunuchs.

If you're reeling from any of Shakespeare's tragedies, or want to escape the ordered, (courtly?) existence that is your life and take a dive into an almost fantasy-like world where all is love and laughter, this play may be your ticket.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars don't get it, May 4 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: AS YOU LIKE IT (Mass Market Paperback)

i've watched two different versions of this play and still can't see what the fuss is about. yes, rosalind is a charming character, but the main storyline is limp, and the secondary storyline is far too weak to be a serious contrast of corrupted courtly life versus virtuous idyllic existence. the fool is sometimes funny especially in his courtship of the young lass, and jaques the 'philosopher' has some nice lines, but the whole thing goes nowhere. i need to read this play to see what i'm missing. but based on my two viewings, i don't get it.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars As he liked it
Out of all the great Shakespeare's plays, "As You Like It" is undoubtedly... the fluffiest. This is cotton candy. Read more

Published 9 months ago by E. A Solinas

4.0 out of 5 stars NEVER PICTURE PERFECT
Anyone with a working knowledge of Shakespeare's plays knows that As You Like It is a light, airy comedy. It is clearly not one of Shakespeare's greatest plays. Read more

Published on May 13 2003 by NotATameLion