Agostino Lombardo Livres

"Non appartenne a un'epoca, ma a tutti i tempi", disse di Shakespeare Ben Jonson. William Shakespeare è considerato infatti da sempre il più grande autore teatrale mai esistito. La straordinaria energia creativa e la vastità della sua produzione suscitarono nei romantici l'immagine di una "forza immane della natura", di un "genio universale". Oggi, dopo oltre quattro secoli dalla nascita, Shakespeare non cessa di stupirci per la complessità, la bellezza, la varietà e la "modernità" dei personaggi e delle trame.

'A Midsummer Night's Dream' is perhaps Shakespeare's most popular comedy, & also a profound, archetypal play. In this new edition, the editor takes account of the number of important professional theatre productions & the large output of scholarly criticism on the plays which have appeared in recent years.

À sa publication en 1910, Howards End a été immédiatement et largement reconnu comme un classique. Ce roman explore les tensions entre les classes sociales en Angleterre à travers les destins entrelacés de plusieurs personnages. Il aborde des thèmes tels que la décadence des valeurs rurales, l'impact de l'urbanisation sur la vie humaine, et la suprématie de l'argent. Les préoccupations exprimées dans Howards End, comme la tyrannie croissante de la voiture et la superficialité des modes de vie modernes, résonnent encore aujourd'hui. La caractérisation subtile de Forster, son mélange d'ironie et de lyrisme, son humour, ainsi que sa richesse en symboles discrets, en font l'un des grands romans anglais. L'œuvre est une déclaration poignante des valeurs humaines et civilisées, toujours pertinente dans le contexte contemporain.

In this lively comedy of love and money in sixteenth-century Venice, Bassanio wants to impress the wealthy heiress Portia but lacks the necessary funds. He turns to his merchant friend, Antonio, who is forced to borrow from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. When Antonio's business falters, repayment becomes impossible--and by the terms of the loan agreement, Shylock is able to demand a pound of Antonio's flesh. Portia cleverly intervenes, and all ends well (except of course for Shylock).

In the hope of saving her brother's life, should a woman submit to rape? Should the law be respected when its administrator is corrupt? How powerful in the state should religion become? Although Measure for Measure ends like a comedy, with reconciliations, forgiveness and marriages, it has often been regarded as one of Shakespeare's problem plays. The drama shows the difficulty of effecting an appropriate balance between judicial severity and mercy, between sexual repression and decadence, and between political vigilance and social manipulation. These problems remain topical, and, in Measure for Measure, they are given immediacy by vivid character-conflicts and memorably intense poetry. This is one of Shakespeare's most probing and powerful works.

The introduction reviews the few known facts about this early Shakespeare play and discusses the puzzling problems of its date and authorship. The text has been freshly edited with the aim of presenting the play as revised for the first recorded performance in 1594, with the addition of stage business from the prompt-copy from which the Folio edition derives.

"Representing the full richness of Shakespeare's writing, the World's Classics offer the best value critical editions of his plays. Authoritative and up to date, they are 'not simply a better text but a new conception of Shakespeare'." --Publisher description