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Arden Shakespeare: "Love's Labours Lost" (Arden Shakespeare)
by: William Shakespeare

List Price: £8.99

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Used Price: £3.93
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 820
EAN: 9781904271109
ISBN: 1904271103
Label: Arden Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Arden Shakespeare
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 392
Publication Date: June 25, 1998
Publisher: Arden Shakespeare
Studio: Arden Shakespeare
Sales Rank: 161542

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
Another example of Shakespeare's comic fascination with the battle between and misunderstanding of the sexes, Love's Labour's Lost is a difficult play to read, but one which is extremely effective on stage. The Play opens with King Ferdinand of Navarre and his courtiers taking a vow of study and sexual abstinence for a period of three years. However, their vows are soon placed under strain with the arrival of the Princess of France and her ladies in waiting. The inevitable happens, and the different couples attempt to surreptitiously communicate, causing much hilarious confusion and embarrassment in the process. Shakespeare deploys every farcical element in the book, including impersonation, wrongly delivered letters, outrageous puns and word play, fights, drunkenness and masquerades, as Ferdinand's entourage soon learn that rather than running from women to books, it is in fact the opposite sex that "are the books, the arts, the academes/That show, contain, and nourish all the world". However, one of the most interesting aspects of the play is that it does not end with everyone marrying and living happily ever after. The women give as good as they get from the men, and in the end turn the tables in extremely interesting ways. One of Shakespeare's most linguistically challenging, but also intelligent comedies. --Jerry Brotton

Amazon.co.uk Review:
An early romantic comedy of mistaken identities and word play, Love's Labours Lost is a delight to watch performed. The Arden third series offers a distinctive interpretation of this previously neglected play, in particular its innovative linguistic patterning. The story revolves around the king of Navarre and his courtiers, who decide to devote themselves to three years of study and denial of the opposite sex, but reluctantly fall in love with the Princess of France and her three ladies in waiting. From here, the tangles and cross-purposes begin and the men decide to devote themselves to the study of love. Although dense with sophisticated literary techniques, the play is a wonderful satire of romance and aristocratic pretensions. This edition of Loves Labour's Lost is suitable for both drama and literature students of Shakespeare, as it is a practical guide to staging the play, but also an insightful critique into the play's meaning and history. --Simon Priestly

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- This is probably the most scholarly review of LLL to date.
Admittedly, LLL is an obscure Shakespearean play. [Kenneth Branagh and Patrick Doyle have revived it, through adaptation into a musical film.]

LLL is highly original, with no known sources. It is very funny. It is full of linguistic jokes. LLL also has textual tangles, which require elucidation, by any editor. Because of the passage of time, many of the jokes [puns] require explanation, too. Mr Woudhuysen tackles these topics thoroughly and convincingly. He makes sensible choices regarding emendations of the text. He covers the stage history. He gives credit to previous editors. He deals with the positive reactions by eminent writers such as Thomas Mann and W H Auden. Despite its obscurity, this is a play to possess, and this ... Read More:

Books : Arden Shakespeare: "Love's Labours Lost" (Arden Shakespeare)