Antony and Cleopatra
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Performing Arts
Antony and Cleopatra Details
Review Praise for "William Shakespeare: Complete Works" "A remarkable edition, one that makes Shakespeare's extraordinary accomplishment more vivid than ever." -James Shapiro, professor, Columbia University, bestselling author of "A Year in the Life of Shakespeare: 1599" "Two eminent Shakespeareans . . . have applied modern editing techniques and recent scholarship to correct and update the First Folio. . . . Superb.""-The New York Times" "A feast of literary and historical information.""-The Wall Street Journal" "I look forward to using it over many years, enjoying Jonathan Bate's perceptive comments, trusting Eric Rasmussen's textual scholarship."-Peter Holland, president of the Shakespeare Association of America and editor of Shakespeare Survey "From the Trade Paperback edition." Read more From the Publisher A magnificent drama of love and war, this riveting tragedy presents one of Shakespeare's greatest female characters--the seductive, cunning Egyptian queen Cleopatra. The Roman leader Mark Antony, a virtual prisoner of his passion for her, is a man torn between pleasure and virtue, between sensual indolence and duty . . . between an empire and love. Bold, rich, and splendid in its setting and emotions, Antony And Cleopatra ranks among Shakespeare's supreme achievements. Read more See all Editorial Reviews
Reviews
This is a review of a specific edition of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" - namely the New Cambridge edition of 1990, edited by David Bevington.The book is a good size, and the print is easy to read. There are about 70 pages of front matter in this edition, and, on each page of the play, copious notes. Following the play's text, there is a discussion of general editorial choices and approaches, supplementing the specifics covered in notes.The front matter dutifully took up the sources of the play, its dating, structure, stage history, and a number of other topics. I found it occasionally a bit heavy going, as, in many sections, any straightforward statement seemed to be buried under a pile of citations from various critics. This was by no means always the case, and in such things as stage history I found the discussion brisk but entertaining.The text was thoroughly annotated - too thoroughly for my taste. It did not get tedious, as in the Arden editions, but still, too many notes were devoted to specific editorial decisions, and too many supersized with references to other plays. I guess there is some interest in this, and one does not have to read the notes one does not want to, but it does tend to slow one down. This is good though, if one wants to delve. Moreover, virtually every word or passage that might cause difficulty is discussed and interpreted, which is certainly what one wants.In summary, I would say this edition is well worth having: it gives one most of the information one could conceivably need, does some interpretation, and explains the text helpfully. It does not include a transcription of Shakespeare's main sources (although this is done piecemeal in the notes), nor a plot and scene summary. These would have been nice, but are not necessary.
