In an enchanted forest outside Athens, four young lovers stumble into a world where nothing is as it seems. Fairies quarrel, mischief reigns, and a mischievous sprite named Puck delights in turning order into chaos. As spells are cast and hearts are tangled, dreams and reality blur in a night of comedy, confusion, and unexpected love. Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a sparkling comedy of romance and imagination. Filled with magic, mistaken...

Suspicious King Leontes of Sicily accuses his pregnant wife Hermione of having an affair with his best friend, Polixenes, the King of Bohemia. Enraged at the alleged betrayal, he orders Polixenes poisoned, Hermione imprisoned, and her newborn daughter banished, leaving him a broken man. Sixteen years later, Perdita, the adopted daughter of a shepherd, falls in love with young Prince Florizel, much to the dismay of the boy's father, Polixenes. He disapproves...

You know that thing when you have an incestuous relationship with your daughter, but you don't want anyone to know about it, so you disguise the truth in a riddle and make her suitors guess its meaning? No? Well, that's what the king of Antioch is up to. Guess correctly and marry the princess, he says. Get it wrong and be killed. Today we might shake our heads and wonder why the King didn't just keep his mouth shut instead of broadcasting his dirty...

A COMPLEX COMEDY OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY Twelfth Night is one of William Shakespeare's most complex and intriguing plays. It is a wild and raucous romantic comedy complete with bawdy revelry, comic hijinks, and the rich poetry of Shakespeare's best comedies. Here, two plots combine to create a beautiful exploration of love and laughter, misplaced passions, mistaken identity, all with a touch of melancholy. Viola and Sebastian are almost identical twins...

Blood and Revenge-- Titus Andronicus is by far Shakespeare's most violent play. Set in the later days of the Roman empire it follows a fictional succession to the throne. The play follows Titus, a great Roman general, who is thrown into one bad situation after another. Much blood flows and a cycle of revenge ensues and tragedy abounds. Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead. Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things As willingly as one would...

Twelfth Night is a recommended text for A Level OCR English Literature. In this edition of Twelfth Night, illustrations have been extended and updated; the preliminary notes have been expanded; reading lists have been updated, and include websites; and the classroom notes have been brought in line with recent practice. Twelfth Night, in the popular Oxford School Shakespeare series, updated with a fresh new look. Oxford School Shakespeare is an acclaimed...

London, 1593. Aemilia Bassano Lanier is beautiful and accomplished, but her societal conformity ends there. She frequently cross-dresses to escape her loveless marriage and to gain freedoms only men enjoy, but a chance encounter with a ragged, little-known poet named Shakespeare changes everything. Aemilia grabs at the chance to pursue her long-held dream of writing and the two outsiders strike up a literary bargain. They leave plague-ridden London...

In the heart of Elizabethan England, Richard Shakespeare dreams of a glittering career in one of the London playhouses, a world dominated by his older brother, William. But he is a penniless actor, making ends meet through a combination of a beautiful face, petty theft and a silver tongue. As William's star rises, Richard's onetime gratitude is souring and he is sorely tempted to abandon family loyalty. So when a priceless manuscript goes missing,...

Ed McBain concocts a brilliant and intricate thriller about a master criminal who haunts the city with cryptic passages from Shakespeare, directing the detectives of the 87th Precinct to a future crime -- if only they can figure out what he means. The 87th Precinct gets a visit from one of the city's most accomplished criminals -- a thief known as the Deaf Man. Because he might be deaf. Or he might not. So little is known about the man who is harassing...