The Winter's Tale is Shakespeare's most perfectly
realized tragi- comedy, as notable for its tragic
intensity as for its comic grace and, throughout, for
the richness and complexity of its poetry. It concludes,
moreover, with the most daring and moving reconciliation
scene in all Shakespeare's plays. Though the title may
suggest an escapist fantasy, recent criticism has seen
in the play a profoundly realist psychology and a
powerful commentary on the violence implicit in family
relationships and deep, longlasting friendships. Stephen
Orgel's 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 the edition
also includes a complete reprint of Shakespeare's
source, Pandosto, by Robert Greene. ABOUT THE SERIES:
For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made
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globe.Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's
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notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for
further study, and much more. |
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