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The Winter's Tale

By William Shakespeare
Series: Folger Shakespeare Library
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Winter's Tale, one of Shakespeare's late plays, blends tragedy and comedy in a tale of jealousy, redemption, and unexpected joy. It features passionate betrayals, a man-eating bear, disguises, and dramatic transformations, all woven with echoes of Greek myth and grounded in relatable human emotions.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$3799

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for students, Shakespeare enthusiasts, and general readers seeking a richly annotated, accessible edition of one of the Bard's most imaginative and genre-blending plays.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The authoritative edition of The Winter’s Tale from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.

The Winter’s Tale, one of Shakespeare’s very late plays, is filled with improbabilities. Before the conclusion, one character comments that what we are about to see, “Were it but told you, should be hooted at / Like an old tale.”

It includes murderous passions, man-eating bears, princes and princesses in disguise, death by drowning and by grief, oracles, betrayal, and unexpected joy. Yet the play, which draws much of its power from Greek myth, is grounded in the everyday.

A “winter’s tale” is one told or read on a long winter’s night. Paradoxically, this winter’s tale is ideally seen rather than read—though the imagination can transform words into vivid action. Its shift from tragedy to comedy, disguises, and startling exits and transformations seem addressed to theatre audiences.

This edition 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 Stephen Orgel

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.

Series: Folger Shakespeare Library

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781982122508

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 14 September 2021

Country: United States

Imprint: Simon & Schuster

Contributors:

  • Edited by Dr. Barbara A. Mowat
  • Edited by Paul Werstine
  • Edited by Dr. Barbara A. Mowat
  • Edited by Paul Werstine

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 20.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 213.0mm

Weight: 404g

Pages: 352

Collections

Classic Fiction Classic Poetry Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Series: Folger Shakespeare Library William Shakespeare

About the Author

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

Barbara A. Mowat is Director of Research emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Consulting Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and author of The Dramaturgy of Shakespeare’s Romances and of essays on Shakespeare’s plays and their editing.

Paul Werstine is Professor of English at the Graduate School and at King’s University College at Western University. He is a general editor of the New Variorum Shakespeare and author of Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and the Editing of Shakespeare and of many papers and articles on the printing and editing of Shakespeare’s plays.

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