A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

Dr. Barbara A. Mowat (Editor) and Paul Werstine (Editor)

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare stages the workings of love. Theseus and Hippolyta, about to marry, are figures from mythology. In the woods outside Theseus’s Athens, two young men and two young women sort themselves out into couples—but not before they form first one love triangle, and then another.

Also in the woods, the king and queen of fairyland, Oberon and Titania, battle over custody of an orphan boy; Oberon uses magic to make Titania fall in love with a weaver named Bottom, whose head is temporarily transformed into that of a donkey by a hobgoblin or “puck,” Robin Goodfellow. Finally, Bottom and his companions ineptly stage the tragedy of “Pyramus and Thisbe.”

The authoritative edition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes:

-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play

-Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

-Scene-by-scene plot summaries

-A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases

-An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language

-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play

-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books

-An annotated guide to further reading

Essay by Catherine Belsey

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.

• ISBN10: 0743477545
• ISBN13: 9780743477543
• Publish Date: 16 February 2004 (first published 26 February 1900)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 14 September 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[leahrosereads]

I listened to this on audio and read along. With the full cast and the words in front of me, it really helped bring this story to life. I thoroughly enjoyed it and plan on going this route with William Shakespeare's other work in the future.

[clq]

I've been meaning to catch up on various Shakespeare plays that "everyone" has read, and after finishing a book and having no immediate plans for what to read next, A Midsummer Night's Dream was conveniently waiting for me on my Kindle.
In short, I didn't really like reading it much. I can see how it would probably work much better on stage, but read as a book it didn't really do much for me.
If I ever get the opportunity to see it on stage I probably will, and I'll be prepared to be pleasantly surprised at how well it can work as a play.
That said, I do enjoy poems, and I found the lyrical nature of the dialogue, the rhythm and the rhyme, to be quite fun. But as a story I just didn't really appreciate it as much as I had expected.

I started the novel off with a major headache, as I tried to analyse and understand each sentence carefully, which was a complete mistake. After my headache went away, I decided to give this book another try, using a different approach. I stopped analysing and I started reading. At first understanding the play was difficult, but when I got to the end, I had to admit that Shakespeare was a genius!

Hermia is in love with Lysander, but Hermia's father wants her to marry Demetrius. Helena loves Demetrius, but unfortunately, he loves Hermia. The situation is extremely complex, but at the same time, the couples are melodramatic and this creates a whole load of comedy. This comedic situation, coupled with uneducated workmen putting on a play, the king or queen of the faries arguing over an Indian boy and a love-juice that makes a person fall in love with the first thing they see, creates plenty of problems and one solution.

A Midsummer Night's Dream was written in the 16th century, but it is still relatable to people living in the 20th century. This play is clever, funny and Puck totally stole the show.

[clementine]

Oh, another one I forgot to review. Once again, I am not really into writing a whole lot about this one, but I liked it more than I expected to. I read it in grade 9 (first Shakespeare play, holla) and wasn't all that impressed, and generally I like the tragedies a lot better than the comedies. But the second time around, I did really enjoy it. There's a lot going on, and it's much darker than it seems on the surface. And when you have the Shakespearean context it's that much more enjoyable. I also really enjoyed the fantastical world, because, come on, fairies. Why not?