The Sandman #19: A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Sandman (Single Issues)

by Neil Gaiman, Charles Vess (Illustrator)

In this World Fantasy Award-winning standalone story featuring art by Charles Vess, visit a traveling road show of dramatic actors led by William Shakespeare as they unveil a new production called A Midsummer's Night Dream for a very peculiar audience...

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Horror, Dc Comics

27 pages, ebook

Published September 1, 1990

Reviews

[Sidharth Vardhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too impressed by portrayal of Shakespeare

[Arghavan-紫荆 · Rating 2 out of 5]

یه جاهایی نوشته که این ایشو بهترین ایشوی کل مجموعه ست و من واقعا نمی‌فهمم چرا.... یعنی میدونم که داستان رو کلا نفهمیدم ولی فکر نکنم اگر بفهمم هم این بهترین باشه، کلی قسمت‌های خفن تر داشتیم تا اینجا...
حالا برم یه خلاصه‌ای از نمایشنامه شکسپیر رو نگاه کنم و کمی با افراد دانا دربارش صحبت کنم اگر چیزی فهمیدم و نظر جدیدی داشتم اضافه میکنم...

[Eddie B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

[W.G. Saraband · Rating 5 out of 5]

I *love* this one. The characters from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream are shown the play, as part of some plan / promise by Morpheus. It simply changes the approach to the famous play, and Neil Gaiman pulls it off brilliantly.

[Kristel (hungryandhappy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was weird...I don't know what to say...

[Sajjad Moradi · Rating 2 out of 5]

برای درک بهتر این قسمت باید نمایشنامه ی "رؤیای شب نیمه تابستان" شکسپیر رو خوند. همچنین نصف کتاب از متن این نمایشنامه استفاده شده که فهمیدن متن انگلیسی شکسپیر واسه من کمی سخت بود و نیاز به تمرکز داشت :/ نمره ی پایین رو به خاطر فهم ناقص خودم دادم. وگرنه اگه بهتر می فهمیدمش نمره ی بالاتری حقش بود

[Feggarow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please Mr Gaiman, mindfuck this poor head harder. I can take it.

[WallofText · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t really like this one. It was too crowded and not great adaptation-wise in my opinion.

[Brenda Galvão · Rating 5 out of 5]

*4,5

[Storm · Rating 5 out of 5]

"They shall not forget you. That was important to me: that King Auberon and Queen Titania will be remembered by mortals, until this age is gone."

This will not be well received by those who are not able to appreciate literature due to lack of education, for Shakespeare is not easy to read so many will not rate this story highly. They do not realize, in truth, William Shakespeare IS "THE Bard". Hundreds of plays, sonnets and poems he wrote during his short life. Plays that are even still, till today, reproduced in movies over and over again, because he managed to write in such a way that it was complicated, funny, tragic and totally believable by the common man.

The star crossed lovers trope from Romeo and Juliet has been used in over a hundred movies / books, there are themes from The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Hamlet, The Tempest and many many others that are still used. This is truly a writer that has withstood the test of time. His influence on writing is akin to The Beatles influence on music.

Morpheus in this entertaining tale of a play within a play for the characters of the play is farce at its best. Kudos Gaiman, for paying tribute to the greatest writer to have ever lived.

[Chan Chee · Rating 3 out of 5]

To understand this story, you must know the original “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (AMND) by Shakespeare. I’m not sure how many people learned this story in school or remembered it. But it is good to google a refresher of AMND before reading this issue.

As an Asian living in Asia, my education hardly touches on Shakespeare. Thus, it was truly confusing for me in the beginning. It was only after i paused the story and familiarised myself with the original AMND that this story makes a bit more sense to me. Also, the language is tough. There are a lot of Shakespearean English used in this story, as a reference to the original AMND, thus it is not easy to read. I have to reread sentences a few times to understand what the characters are saying. Not one of my favourite Sandman stories, despite its critical acclaim. Anyways, i think this is one of those stories whereby you have to read more than once to truly grasp its content and meaning.

[Yashwanth Lakke Gowda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half the things didn't have to do anything with the storyline and the other half didn't make any sense to me.
But the premise was intriguing.
Maybe I will revisit this once I read some of Shakespeare's real work.

[Mike Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark little Gaiman version of one of Shakespeare’s best. A very fun read for fans of the Bard and Gaiman.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sandman #19, Dream Country, Part III: "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

We join Morpheus in the year 1593, where William "Will" Shakespeare has been hired by the Lord of the Dreaming to craft two plays on the topic of dreams. The first of these is A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Morpheus requests that the play be performed right on the very hill they are meeting on. Fairies make up the audience for the performance, much to the surprise of the human actors. What ensues is a feverish dream of a Shakespearean magnitude, all gorgeously illustrated by Charles Vess. A recolored/remastered version of this issue also exists - which is well worth seeking out too.

[Iranoctis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Für die heutigen LeserInnen braucht es sicherlich ein bisschen Geduld sich in Gaimans Shakespeare-Interpretation einzufinden, aber die Pointe ist es wert. Es gibt gute Gründe dafür, Geschichten zu erzählen, besonders diejenigen, die nicht einer Wahrheit entsprechen. Vess ist dazu eine großartige Wahl um dieses andere Setting in einem ebenso anderen, angemessenen Licht erscheinen zu lassen.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esta es una de las historias más creativas que he leído. Una compañía de teatro prepara un espectáculo para los personajes ficticios que interpretan. Dentro de esa misma historia, se encuentra un mensaje sobre ser padre y cumplir promesas. El diseño de todos los personajes me parece inolvidable, por esto y muchas más le doy esta puntuación.

[Nate Light · Rating 4 out of 5]

Special entry just to say that I had a lot of fun revisiting this issue after reading Shakespeare's play. Gaiman is the writers' writer in THE SANDMAN and I expect to understand and appreciate the brilliance and denseness of his work after reading more classics.

[Freddy Eduardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful story. I specially like what he did with Hamnet, implying he went to the Fai land. My interpretation is that Puck took the place of Hamnet while the real one left with Titania. I like this take in real world events. Just a delight.

[Elizabeth Trupiano · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Shakespeare, so I wanted to really love this but, while entertaining, I couldn’t really get into it. I did love the connection between dreams and this play and everything the themes of these comics.

[Gunnar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spins off into another very interesting arc to be continued later.

I really really enjoy the idea that there are the “great stories” that exist and are inherent to all living things, and history is full of the voices to tell them in their respective ages.

[Donald · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a different take on the classic play, but it did not 'blow up my skirt'. I almost read it twice to see what I was missing, as by all accounts it is consider quite a story. But it fell flat for me. Maybe I just didn't 'get' it?

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

This won an award? I don't get it...

[Alan D.D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

the strangest issue so far. I couldn't focus on the story or connect with the characters, but at least it was entertaining. Hope this doesn't happen again, though. Maybe I wil re read it later.

[Fay · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favourite play gets seen by it's own characters.

[Sara]

This one hit different!
جاودانگی اون آرزوی محقق شونده‌ست که فانیان بعد از رسیدن به‌ش می‌بینن نمی‌خواهندش.

[Fernando · Rating 1 out of 5]

A Shakespeare episode. Quite boring and a disappointing end to the audiobook.

[OutSideTheBoxox · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one didn't interest me

[Jenna Alcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much fun, well many stories start through dreams. Puck is still out there. Though I thought hamnet would go with the queen and not just die.

[OinkFish Pigs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved this issue and how it showed the dynamic of mortals and immortals.

Low 10

[Oana · Rating 5 out of 5]

While not the biggest fan of Shakespeare, I really enjoyed what Dream did here, basically ensuring that through art and acting the old can be remembered. Better to be an ancient folk tale than to be forgotten fully, a lovely way to honor them