The Winter's Tale
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Classic Books Company
ISBN: 0742652920
Category:
Page: 500
View: 1190
The Winter's Tale is regarded as Shakespeare's most perfectly realized tragicomedy. Though the title may suggest an escapist fantasy, recent criticism has seen in the play a realistic psychology and a powerful commentary on the violence implicit in family relationships and deep, longlasting friendships. This edition considers the play in relation to Renaissance conceptions of both dramatic genre and the family, traces the changing critical and theatrical attitudes towards it and places its psychological and dramatic conflicts within the Jacobean cultural and political context. The commentary pays special attention to the play's linguistic complexity and also includes a complete reprint of Shakespeare's source, Pandosto, by Robert Greene.