William Shakespeare

Troilus and Cressida

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

The Trojan War is in its seventh year; bickering and apathy are wearing down the Greeks besieging Troy in their fight to recapture Helen. The pointlessness of the campaign is becoming apparent and manipulation, treachery and betrayal set the tone on the battlefield and in relationships. On the Trojan side the beautiful Cressida, encouraged by her scheming uncle Pandarus, has embarked upon a passionate love affair with Prince Troilus. When her father deserts Troy for the Greek camp, Cressida is forced to join him. Can love survive this difficult separation or will it join the other casualties of war? In many ways Shakespeare's ancient tale is also the most relevant to our modern age. At the same time cynical and filled with dark comedy, this popular play is a study of characters caught in their own turmoil and unable to rise above their foolishness.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Akasha Classics
• Seitenzahl: 184
• Erscheinungstermin: 12. Februar 2010
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 222mm x 145mm x 14mm
• Gewicht: 385g
• ISBN-13: 9781605125572
• ISBN-10: 1605125571
• Artikelnr.: 29289973

Autorenporträt

Venus and Adonis is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare published in 1593. It is probably Shakespeare's first publication.The poem tells the story of Venus, the goddess of Love of her unrequited love and of her attempted seduction of Adonis, an extremely handsome young man, who would rather go hunting. The poem is pastoral, and at times erotic, comic, and tragic. It contains discourses on the nature of love, and observations of nature.It is written in stanzas of six lines of iambic pentameter rhyming ABABCC although this verse form was known before Shakespeare's use, it is now commonly known as the Venus and Adonis stanza, after this poem. This form was also used by Edmund Spenser and Thomas Lodge. The poem consists of 199 stanzas or 1,194 lines.It was published originally as a quarto pamphlet and published with great care. It was probably printed using Shakespeare's fair copy. The printer was Richard Field, who, like Shakespeare, was from Stratford. Venus and Adonis appeared in print before any of Shakespeare's plays were published, but not before some of his plays had been acted on stage. It has certain qualities in common with A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Love's Labour's Lost. It was written when the London theatres were closed for a time due to the plague.The poem begins with a brief dedication to Shakespeare's patron, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, in which the poet describes the poem as "the first heir of my invention".The poem is inspired by and based on stories found in the Metamorphoses, a narrative poem by the Latin poet, Ovid (43 BC - AD 17/18). Ovid's much briefer version of the tale occurs in book ten of his Metamorphoses. It differs greatly from Shakespeare's version. Ovid's Venus goes hunting with Adonis to please him, but otherwise is uninterested in the out-of-doors. She wears "tucked up" robes, worries about her complexion, and particularly hates dangerous wild animals. Shakespeare's Venus is a bit like a wild animal herself: she apparently goes naked, and is not interested in hunting, but only in making love to Adonis, offering her body to him in graphically explicit terms. In the end, she insists that the boar's killing of Adonis happened accidentally as the animal, impressed by the young hunter's beauty, gored him while trying to kiss him.

Bild: Wikipedia