The Taming of the Shrew

by William Shakespeare, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat (Editor), Paul Werstine Ph.D. (Editor)

Overview

Love and marriage are the concerns of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Lucentio’s marriage to Bianca is prompted by his idealized love of an apparently ideal woman. Petruchio's wooing of Katherine, however, is free of idealism. Petruchio takes money from Bianca’s suitors to woo her, since Katherine must marry before her sister by her father's decree; he also arranges the dowry with her father. Petruchio is then ready to marry Katherine, even against her will.

Katherine, the shrew of the play’s title, certainly acts much changed. But have she and Petruchio learned to love each other? Or is the marriage based on terror and deception?

The authoritative edition of The Taming of the Shrew from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, is now available as an eBook.

Features include:

· The exact text of the printed book for easy cross-reference
· Hundreds of hypertext links for instant navigation
· Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
· Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
· Scene-by-scene plot summaries
· A key to famous lines and phrases
· An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language
· Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books
· An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476788517
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	10/14/2014
Series:	Folger Shakespeare Library
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	559,571
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.
Barbara A. Mowat is Director of Research emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Consulting Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and author of The Dramaturgy of Shakespeare’s Romances and of essays on Shakespeare’s plays and their editing.
Paul Werstine is Professor of English at the Graduate School and at King’s University College at Western University. He is a general editor of the New Variorum Shakespeare and author of Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and the Editing of Shakespeare and of many papers and articles on the printing and editing of Shakespeare’s plays.

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Table of Contents

The Taming of the Shrew - William Shakespeare - Edited by Sylvan Barnet Richard Hosley: Sources and Analogues of 'The Taming of the Shrew'
Maynard Mack: From Engagement and Detachment in Shakespeare's Plays
Germain Greer: From The Female Eunuch
Alexander Leggatt: From Shakespeare's Comedy of Love
Linda Bamber: Sexism and the Battle of the Sexes in 'The Taming of the Shrew'
Sylvan Barnet: 'The Taming of the Shrew' on the Stage and Screen

NEWLY ADDED ESSAYS:
Karen Newman: Missing Frames and Female spectacles
Camille Wells Slights: From Shakespeare's Comic Commonwealths

Editorial Reviews

"The Taming of the Shrew" is one Shakespeare's finest comedic efforts. It is the tale of Lucentio who is in love with Bianca, unfortunately Bianca already has two other suitors and her father will not let her marry until her older ill-tempered sister, Katherine, is married. The second problem is remedied when Petruchio comes to town in search of a wife. Only interested in her money, Petruchio marries Katherine and returns with her to his country house to "tame" her, a task that Petruchio is soon to discover is easier said than done

Gorgeous new Shakespeare paperbacks.” 
—Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

“I have been using the Pelican Shakespeare for years in my lecture course—it's invaluable, the best individual-volume series available for students.”
—Marjorie Garber, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English and Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University 

From the Publisher