A Midsummer Night's Dream: No Fear Shakespeare Deluxe Student Edition

by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare everyone can understand—now in this new EXPANDED edition of MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM!
 
Why fear Shakespeare? By placing the words of the original play next to line-by-line translations in plain English, this popular guide makes Shakespeare accessible to everyone. And now it features expanded literature guide sections that help students study smarter.
 
The expanded sections include :  

Five Key Questions: Five frequently asked questions about major moments and characters in the play.
 
What Does the Ending Mean?: Is the ending sad, celebratory, ironic . . . or ambivalent?
 
Plot Analysis: What is the play about? How is the story told, and what are the main themes? Why do the characters behave as they do?
 
Study Questions: Questions that guide students as they study for a test or write a paper.
 
Quotes by Theme: Quotes organized by Shakespeare’s main themes, such as love, death, tyranny, honor, and fate.
 
Quotes by Character: Quotes organized by the play’s main characters, along with interpretations of their meaning.
 

288 pages, Paperback

Published June 23, 2020

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[Madison Head · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was better than I thought it would be, but not my favorite play. Just a lot of nonsense going on.

[David Doel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shakespeare is Shakespeare; who am I to be a critic? In my opinion, this is not his best play. The play within the play was probably the best part.

The modern translation seemed almost silly when dealing with the two Athenian couples. I was reminded of a harem manga more than a Shakespeare play. The plot description almost turned me off to reading the play; the play was better. The other supporting materials were decent.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly and fun, but not nearly as good as some of Shakespeare's other plays.

This particular version of the play, with analysis and commentary, is very useful for anyone unfamiliar with the play itself or uncomfortable with Shakespearean language. The text of the play is printed side-by-side with more modern language on the opposite page. There's also a plot summary and a sample essay.

[Sophia Zhang · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was hard to understand but the twisted plots with lysander and hermia was very breathtaking overall very good book with transalations.

[jana overzet · Rating 3 out of 5]

forgot about this one for a few months! the significance was lost on me, therefore. nostalgic tho!

[Claire Montierth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shakespeare? Yeah no. Until this! My teacher used this so we would switch between the Shakespeare-ish English and modern English and acted it out as we did it, tons of fun and I actually remember it!

[Kusuma Patnaik · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️
Okay, so first of all, the modern text translation by SparkNotes didn’t feel quite engaging (I wonder if it's just for this play or other Shakespeare plays as well). There were a few characters (particularly Helena and Nick Bottom) that were "really" annoying at times.
It was a fun read but still, it's just a 2.5 for me.