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Macbeth (Folger Shakespeare Library)
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Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Washington Square Press
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Our Price: $5.99
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Average Customer Rating:
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Macbeth (Folger Shakespeare Library) Description
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 822.33
EAN: 9780743477109
ISBN: 0743477103
Label: Washington Square Press
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 272
Publication Date: 2003-07-01
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Studio: Washington Square Press
Dewey Decimal Number: 822.33
EAN: 9780743477109
ISBN: 0743477103
Label: Washington Square Press
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 272
Publication Date: 2003-07-01
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Studio: Washington Square Press
Editorial Review of Macbeth (Folger Shakespeare Library)
• 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 famous lines and phrases
• An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language
• An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
• Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books
Essay by Susan Snyder
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., 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 www.folger.edu.
Customer Reviews of Macbeth (Folger Shakespeare Library)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Playwright vs. Poet: the Playwright wins.
Review: Shakespeare was not very kind to the linchpin of his story. The tragedy of Macbeth the king became a personal tragedy of Macbeth the character of the play. He is sad, doubtful, fearful and altogether pathetic. In words, he is rebellious against his fate, but in the end he is powerless to do anything to alter it. He is not given an opportunity to shine his wit or spirit. He is not endowed with a single pun. Even Banquo is granted a piece of wisdom: "To win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray's in deepest consequence". Even Polonius is allowed to be witty ("Neither a borrower nor a lender be") and gives us "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't". Richard III is a veritable fountain of spirit, eloquence and wit. Macbeth is just evil and pathetic.
Evil and pathetic is Lady Macbeth.
The colorful relief from the lackluster main characters comes in the form of the porter and fantastical infernal creatures (Weird Sisters, Hecate and the apparitions) - the sole possessors of the playful and witty spirit. Maybe Shakespeare could not allow Macbeth to shine because the play was intended to please James I, the patron of Shakespeare's company and the descendent of murdered by Macbeth Banquo. Perhaps Macbeth indeed was a singularly uninspired man. Or the play may have been cut. Whatever the reason, in this macabre play about a tortured soul, Shakespeare uses spirits and the porter as a valve that relieves the pressure of pent up spark.
The many murders and the eerie creatures make for quite a dramatic staging. However, the general lack of spark makes one miss other Shakespearean plays where the main characters, however evil, are not spared the playwright's poetry...
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: I generally like Shakespeare, but...
Review: I generally like Shakespeare. In fact, I can't think of one play that I did not like before I read this one. Macbeth I found to be tacky with very few memorable quotes.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Mac-Good for Mac-Shakespeare
Review: I'll admit, it's hard for me to get into Shakespeare (so go stone me in the streets, you drama geeks). Yet, this play is a killer.....literally. I mean, they need to make this into a movie nowadays-all the battle scenes, all the drama, all the Scottish accents. This play is the epitome of action-packed. You get the real beauty of this play sitting in your AP Literature class, reading it out loud as a class, and getting the class clown to tackle the part of Lady MacBeth. It's Mac-Awesome.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Folger is a good series
Review: It would be ridiculous for someone to come on here and give Bill a bad review. When a person writes a review on a Shakespeare play, Shakespeare is not on trial, the reviewer is. So, I have no comments on the play, just the series. This is the second Shakespeare work I have read out of the Folger Library series. The running commentary and essay at the end of the play are well done and beneficial. If you enjoy reading Shakespeare, but find the archaic language hard to grasp at times, this is a good series for you.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Yale's may be the best edition of Macbeth
Review: Virtually all editions of Macbeth will have at least some annotations. Rummaging through five different editions, I preferred the Yale University Press version, edited by Burton Raffel, as having the most comprehensive and comprehensible notes, as well as an excellent introduction to Shakespeare's play. Raffel not only explains the meanings of obscure words, but also gives brief notes pertaining to relevant history, geography, stage directions, etc, that are rarely addressed as fully by other editors. In addition, Raffel frequently gives the proper way to stress the syllables in a line when reading it aloud, which can be extremely helpful. (However, in most places these stresses need to be very subtle, so that you don't sound like "taDUM taDUM taDUM".) And Yale's page layout is among the clearest that I've seen.
(To find this edition: at Avanced Search, enter ISBN 0300106548; or, enter Macbeth as title, and either Raffel as author or Yale as publisher.)
As a bonus, this edition includes at the back a long essay on the play by Harold Bloom. This is not an uninteresting commentary, but Bloom desperately needs a good editor. His essay is not only at least three times longer than it should be, but is startlingly repetitious. Yale would have been wise to have asked Bloom for a rewrite.
Review Summary: Playwright vs. Poet: the Playwright wins.
Review: Shakespeare was not very kind to the linchpin of his story. The tragedy of Macbeth the king became a personal tragedy of Macbeth the character of the play. He is sad, doubtful, fearful and altogether pathetic. In words, he is rebellious against his fate, but in the end he is powerless to do anything to alter it. He is not given an opportunity to shine his wit or spirit. He is not endowed with a single pun. Even Banquo is granted a piece of wisdom: "To win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray's in deepest consequence". Even Polonius is allowed to be witty ("Neither a borrower nor a lender be") and gives us "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't". Richard III is a veritable fountain of spirit, eloquence and wit. Macbeth is just evil and pathetic.
Evil and pathetic is Lady Macbeth.
The colorful relief from the lackluster main characters comes in the form of the porter and fantastical infernal creatures (Weird Sisters, Hecate and the apparitions) - the sole possessors of the playful and witty spirit. Maybe Shakespeare could not allow Macbeth to shine because the play was intended to please James I, the patron of Shakespeare's company and the descendent of murdered by Macbeth Banquo. Perhaps Macbeth indeed was a singularly uninspired man. Or the play may have been cut. Whatever the reason, in this macabre play about a tortured soul, Shakespeare uses spirits and the porter as a valve that relieves the pressure of pent up spark.
The many murders and the eerie creatures make for quite a dramatic staging. However, the general lack of spark makes one miss other Shakespearean plays where the main characters, however evil, are not spared the playwright's poetry...
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: I generally like Shakespeare, but...
Review: I generally like Shakespeare. In fact, I can't think of one play that I did not like before I read this one. Macbeth I found to be tacky with very few memorable quotes.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Mac-Good for Mac-Shakespeare
Review: I'll admit, it's hard for me to get into Shakespeare (so go stone me in the streets, you drama geeks). Yet, this play is a killer.....literally. I mean, they need to make this into a movie nowadays-all the battle scenes, all the drama, all the Scottish accents. This play is the epitome of action-packed. You get the real beauty of this play sitting in your AP Literature class, reading it out loud as a class, and getting the class clown to tackle the part of Lady MacBeth. It's Mac-Awesome.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Folger is a good series
Review: It would be ridiculous for someone to come on here and give Bill a bad review. When a person writes a review on a Shakespeare play, Shakespeare is not on trial, the reviewer is. So, I have no comments on the play, just the series. This is the second Shakespeare work I have read out of the Folger Library series. The running commentary and essay at the end of the play are well done and beneficial. If you enjoy reading Shakespeare, but find the archaic language hard to grasp at times, this is a good series for you.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Yale's may be the best edition of Macbeth
Review: Virtually all editions of Macbeth will have at least some annotations. Rummaging through five different editions, I preferred the Yale University Press version, edited by Burton Raffel, as having the most comprehensive and comprehensible notes, as well as an excellent introduction to Shakespeare's play. Raffel not only explains the meanings of obscure words, but also gives brief notes pertaining to relevant history, geography, stage directions, etc, that are rarely addressed as fully by other editors. In addition, Raffel frequently gives the proper way to stress the syllables in a line when reading it aloud, which can be extremely helpful. (However, in most places these stresses need to be very subtle, so that you don't sound like "taDUM taDUM taDUM".) And Yale's page layout is among the clearest that I've seen.
(To find this edition: at Avanced Search, enter ISBN 0300106548; or, enter Macbeth as title, and either Raffel as author or Yale as publisher.)
As a bonus, this edition includes at the back a long essay on the play by Harold Bloom. This is not an uninteresting commentary, but Bloom desperately needs a good editor. His essay is not only at least three times longer than it should be, but is startlingly repetitious. Yale would have been wise to have asked Bloom for a rewrite.