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As You Like It

by William Shakespeare

3.75 · rating details · 14,734 ratings · 375 reviews

Each edition includes:

- 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

- An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on

...more

Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages

Published August 23rd 2011 by Penguin (first published 1599)

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Jan 29, 2012

Elizabeth rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Romantic fools

Recommended to Elizabeth by: A most romantic fool

Shelves: in-by-of-england, in-theater, tam-lin, elizabethan-my-dear, reviewed, 2012

I have no words. The bard has leached them from me. He leaves me dry. He leaves me wandering a desert unable to articulate my feelings. It's too easy to borrow from him; it's too easy to quote of the age of second childishness than describe age and loss and collapse in my own words. Why speak of the absurdity of love when I can point to poems nailed to trees and the beloved's name carved among the hawthorns?

I love the imagery in this play. I love that they speak of being in a desert,...moreI have no words. The bard has leached them from me. He leaves me dry. He leaves me wandering a desert unable to articulate my feelings. It's too easy to borrow from him; it's too easy to quote of the age of second childishness than describe age and loss and collapse in my own words. Why speak of the absurdity of love when I can point to poems nailed to trees and the beloved's name carved among the hawthorns?

I love the imagery in this play. I love that they speak of being in a desert, when they are deep in the forest of Arden. This play is my favorite juxtaposition of the corrupt court and the good nature of the forest. The forest in which love grows on trees and a man who approaches with a knife in hand is welcomed to share a meal. A forest in which everyone's true nature is exposed but Rosalind may keep her secrets for as long as she chooses. (view spoiler)

I love this play because Rosalind is one of Shakespeare's great women: Lady MacBeth, Cleopatra, Beatrice, and Rosalind. She sparkles. She shines. She is like the glory of the moon through the trees in a dark forest on a cold night. She lights up the stage. There is no more charismatic presence and she is so light. Her sorrows are real; she's been hurt. But she is now joy. She will put what she's lost behind her and she falls in love. There is no denial. There is a light spirit and an infectious grin. This play is fun. At least it's supposed to be. I have seen more companies fuck up this one than any other production. Rosalind is hard to play; she is more complex than she first seems. There's great intelligence in her and playing her too lightly will get an actor in trouble.

The play suffers from the constraints that affect me with the other comedies as well. The resolution is too easy. It ends too neatly. There is singing. Foolishness is all well and good (and I do love the fool in this one) but there isn't really a struggle here. Suddenly, as if the theater-goers feet are beginning to hurt, the play comes to a swift and musical conclusion. Let us rejoice and wear garlands in our hair.(less)

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Feb 07, 2011

Jeanette rated it

Shelves: netterooski-challenge-2011, classics, plays, four-star-fiction

The fun of Shakespeare's comedies isn't in the plots but in the pure genius of his language. Many of his best lines have become such staples of common usage that most people aren't even aware they're quoting Shakespeare. If they DO know, you can forget about asking them which plays the lines come from.

I find an intensely perverse pleasure in Shakespeare's inventive insults. I can only DREAM of thinking up such clever quips and comebacks in the heat of an argument. And if I could ...more

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Sep 21, 2009

Madeline rated it

Shelves: shakespeare

Just saw this last night at the Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta. So, naturally, here's...

As You Like It, abridged:

OLIVER: Hi everyone, I'm Oliver and I'll be your designated jackass for the evening.
ORLANDO: Hey bro! So, remember how you got me to wrestle that unbeatable guy and were all like, "he's so gonna kill you, mwahaha"? Well, I totally kicked his ass AND met this hot chick Rosalind. Man, it's great to be me!
OLIVER: OMG IMMA KEEL YOU!
ORLA...more

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Apr 26, 2011

Dominic rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classic-literature, drama

When it comes to reading/viewing Shakespeare, I usually like mine cooked on the tragic side. I love a dark, brooding hero. I love Shakespearean angst. And it doesn't quite feel like Shakespeare if there aren't a few dead bodies strewn about the stage by the end of the fifth act.

Yet it is oh so hard to resist Rosalind and the entire comedic premise of As You Like It. Instead of dark brooding, Rosalind offers jest and wit and freedom. She never whines or is somber, at least not fo...more

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Feb 16, 2009

Terence rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare-stuff, the-plays-the-thing

I watched a version of this play set in 19th century Japan recently. I don't know why it was set in 19th century Japan since all the principals remained European and they all ended up in the Forest of Arden dressed like...well, 19th century Europeans.

But it did prompt me to reread the actual play, and I found I enjoyed it much more on the second go around.

(And despite my reservations about the setting, the video was pretty good, too.)

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Dec 31, 2010

Bill Kerwin rated it

Shelves: 16th-17th-c-brit

As in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Hamlet" amd "Antony and Cleopatra," Shakespeare in "As You Like It" is able to join disparate elements in unusual proportion into a unified whole of tone and mood which may be rationalized but never completely explained. What I love about this play is the way in which it develops a conventionally suspenseful plot--complete with goodies and baddies, action-packed scuffles and wrestling matches, lovers "meeting...more

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Jan 25, 2009

Ezra rated it

I know I know!!!!! Who really reads shakespeare in their independent time. Well that person is me, I had to read a comedy for one of my afterschool activity groups. This book had kind of faced me to give it a high rating but instead I decided to be honest and give the grade I thought it deserved. Now for a 15 year old Im sure reading this later in life will allow me to increase the grade that I have given it. But for now I will judge on/with the experience I do have. This book was about two cous...more

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Jan 01, 2012

Amy rated it

Shelves: plays, classics, love-stories

I've not yet read all of Shakespeare's plays, but I do not seem to care much for his plays about love, including Romeo and Juliet. So far, the only two exceptions to this have been The Taming of the Shrew and Love's Labour's Lost.

The problem I have with Shakespeare's love plays is that they are almost all too cloying, too simpleminded and simplistic, and they almost seem like juvenile depictions of love. Shakespeare can do the darker emotions like hate, jealousy, revenge, vanity, mur...moreI've not yet read all of Shakespeare's plays, but I do not seem to care much for his plays about love, including Romeo and Juliet. So far, the only two exceptions to this have been The Taming of the Shrew and Love's Labour's Lost.

The problem I have with Shakespeare's love plays is that they are almost all too cloying, too simpleminded and simplistic, and they almost seem like juvenile depictions of love. Shakespeare can do the darker emotions like hate, jealousy, revenge, vanity, murderous ambition, and rage so well, but love? Well, to me his plays about love lack the growth process that is necessary for love. With very few exceptions, people do not fall madly in love with one another based on a passing glance, or a brief conversation. Sparks may fly, there may be lust, there may be interest, but the kind of I-must-wed-you-or-I-will-*die* kind of love that Shakespeare gives us just doesn't happen that fast in real life.

As You Like It is just another example of a play that gives us nothing but a whispy, insubstantial, unrealistic depiction of love. Again a couple falls madly in love with one another on nothing more than a brief encounter. Then the female dresses up as a male, and the man who loves her so madly that he can think of nothing but her face and eyes fails to recognize her, even in close proximity to her, because she's traded in her dress for the latest in woodsman wear. Of course, it's hard to blame him for this, since he probably didn't have time to fully commit her face to memory during that one brief encounter they had before his world was turned upside down by his burning love for her. This is just silliness. Give me Petruchio and Kate any day. Yes, their relationship was volatile, hostile, even abusive at times. But it grew from a real place. Their personalities clashed, their opinions differed, neither of them saw the other as an angel sent from heaven, and isn't this a much more authentic depiction of the birth and rebirth that love is? It's often messy, and full of conflict, and vibrating with the tension of two personalities learning to live together because they somehow fulfill each other. If Kate put on men's clothes, Petruchio would recognize her anywhere because he loves her soul with his soul, not just her face with his eyes. Orlando and Rosalind did not impress me at all.

What I did like about As You Like It, however, was the relationship between Rosalind and her beloved cousin Celia. There was a past there, an authenticity, a true devotion to one another that was lacking in all of the other relationships in this play, and I was impressed that Shakespeare put their relationship on such full display. (less)

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Sep 03, 2011

Serena rated it

Shelves: literature

The story was fun, the characters often funny, but there were so many plot holes.

*SPOILERS*

I don't understand how Oliver and Celia fell in love. And they married each other right away after seeing each other once.
I didn't see anything special between the two when they first met either, so Oliver's declaration of this love to Orlando was really abrupt.

The Duke Frederick suddenly banishing Rosalyn was too abrupt too. It just came out of the blue, I could...more

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Aug 17, 2011

Rushad rated it

I think that this story is a very lovely piece of work by Shakespeare, who expresses each and every character very well. Throughout the play Shakespeare expresses the love and hatred between the different characters. He also differentiates between the two lifestyles of the people who are from the court and have experienced royalty just the way it is and the people who live in the country and spend a simple life as as a shepherd and not know about the proper behavior as a courtier would know. The...more

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Jul 30, 2011

Greg added it

I read "As You Like It" because we will be reading it in seminar this Fall, and the Villanova Theatre Dept. will stage it in November. - Despite the obligation to read it, I am glad that I did; it is a wonderful, enjoyable play. The sexual and gender confusion is fun - males and females falling in love with characters who are females playing males standing in for females (in the case of Rosalind, beloved of Orlando and Phebe). In general I dislike the "clown" characters in S...more

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Apr 14, 2011

Shaun rated it

O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man´s eyes

The pursuit of happiness, the search for the princess, is full of challenges. Sometimes you´re rocking life, sometimes it´s rocking you, and so it goes. Funny that I finish a play that celebrates the ridiculousness of love as my world begins to turn upside down. This play celebrates the absurdity of love, the theatre of life, and the mystique of places outside the confines of society all themes which are...more

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Mar 05, 2011

Tiger Holland (All-Consuming Books) rated it

The play begins with problems between two pairs of brothers. Duke Frederick has usurped his brother, "Duke Senior" and taken over the land, but the more immediate problem lies between Oliver de Boys and his younger brother, Orlando. Oliver's a bad dude of the Bad For No Reason school of villains and he mistreats Orlando because: "my soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he." Oliver tried his hardest to keep Orlando from any sort of achievement or accomplishment, y...moreThe play begins with problems between two pairs of brothers. Duke Frederick has usurped his brother, "Duke Senior" and taken over the land, but the more immediate problem lies between Oliver de Boys and his younger brother, Orlando. Oliver's a bad dude of the Bad For No Reason school of villains and he mistreats Orlando because: "my soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing more than he." Oliver tried his hardest to keep Orlando from any sort of achievement or accomplishment, yet Orlando is "gentle, never schooled and yet learned, full of noble device, of all sorts enchantingly beloved". In other words, he's a Mary Sue. Everybody loves Orlando, except the antagonists. But for all that unearned virtue, he's still cool. He even wins me over, and I usually despise the leading men in Shakespeare's comedies *cough*BassanioandClaudio*cough* So those are the brother problems, and now we move on to the girls' problems.

Rosalind is the deposed duke's daughter, and she is best friends with her cousin Celia, the new duke's daughter. The new duke banishes Rosalind, and Celia goes off into exile with her. Both of them put on disguises so they won't be assaulted in the wilderness (apparently, taking Touchstone the clown with them is not sufficient protection). Rosalind disguises herself as a teenage boy called Ganymede, and Celia pretends to be Ganymede's shepherdess sister.

So, Orlando flees into the forest to escape from his brother, Rosalind and Celia flee to the forest from Duke Frederick, and suddenly all of the cool people in the dukedom are out in the forest of Arden. The disguised girls rent a cottage and relax, while Orlando occupies himself by writing really bad poetry and hanging it on the trees. Rosalind find his poetry, which is all about her since they had a love-at-first-sight thing back at court, but instead of revealing her identity she stays hidden and becomes Orlando's buddy while passing herself off as Ganymede.

One of the main things Rosalind does as Ganymede is to insult all women and to tell Orlando why he shouldn't love "his" Rosalind. She really lays it on thick, all the reasons why he shouldn't pursue her. When I first read this play, I thought Rosalind was just bing sadistic, enjoying Orlando's emotional pain while she taunted and baited him and risked nothing. I'm now convinced that's not what is going on. Orlando is acting the part of a stricken lover--sighs, groans, poetry, etc--and Rosalind's trying to figure out if he's legit. And, okay, maybe she's having a little fun watching him squirm. For the audience, part of the trouble with these scenes is that Orlando's flagrant displays of lovesickness and his later tested and true love for Rosalind both look much the same to us. We're comparing one type of old-timey love convention against another, and it's hard to sort out what's supposed to be lasting when we know well get a happy ending in either case.

Silvius and Phebe, a lover and his icy beloved are even more clearly ancient archetypes of love. Rosalind doesn't think much of their behavior, and rails on Silvius for pursuing an idiot. Rosalind's words for Phebe are even harsher: "Sell when you can, you are not for all markets". Burn! Silvius and Phebe are one of the four couples who get married by the end of the play, and you have to wonder how well their union will turn out. Silvius has no self-esteem and Phebe has no mercy. But then again, we are in a play where the evil usurping duke suddenly gets religious and easily gives his land back to it's rightful leaders, so maybe these crazy kids will turn fine, all evidence to the contrary.

I feel sorry for Celia, who gets few lines after she enters Arden, although she deserves better attention after bravely following Rosalind into exile. She's an excellent but underused character who gets to be part of the play's resolution. Orlando's land problems are solved when his brother Oliver falls in love with Celia and decides to take up shepherding. It's Oliver and Celia's insta-love that inspired the famous lines "no sooner met than looked, no sooner looked than loved" and so on. With four major weddings, everyone's happy in Arden except for Jacques, the resident gloom-spreader who is nevertheless a source of entertainment for his companions because they love to hear his weird turns of melancholy. The play ends kind of unusually when Hymen, the god of marriage, comes down to perform the marriage ceremonies. And nobody thinks this is weird. But any play that includes this many "hey nonny nonny"s isn't taking itself too seriously. Rosalind's one of Shakespeare's best heroines, and her play can survive guest appreances by retro figures from Greek drama. (less)

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Dec 26, 2010

Marija rated it

Shelves: classics, drama, medieval-renaissance

“Who ever lov’d, that lov’d not at first sight?” This famous line essentially becomes the main theme of this play. Several young characters in the play are linked by this common thread, but that’s not to say that there aren’t consequences to their actions. Like Shakespeare’s other comedies mistaken identities, cross-dressing and unrequited love fuel the plot—all of which causes mishaps and mischief along the way.

Yet, As You Like It doesn’t rely as much on amusing anecdotes to drive ...more

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Jun 04, 2010

Rowland Bismark rated it

· review of another edition

As You Like It was most likely written around 1598–1600, during the last years of Elizabeth’s reign. The play belongs to the literary tradition known as pastoral: which has its roots in the literature of ancient Greece, came into its own in Roman antiquity with Virgil’s Eclogues, and continued as a vital literary mode through Shakespeare’s time and long after. Typically, a pastoral story involves exiles from urban or court life who flee to the refuge of the countryside, where they often disguise...moreAs You Like It was most likely written around 1598–1600, during the last years of Elizabeth’s reign. The play belongs to the literary tradition known as pastoral: which has its roots in the literature of ancient Greece, came into its own in Roman antiquity with Virgil’s Eclogues, and continued as a vital literary mode through Shakespeare’s time and long after. Typically, a pastoral story involves exiles from urban or court life who flee to the refuge of the countryside, where they often disguise themselves as shepherds in order to converse with other shepherds on a range of established topics, from the relative merits of life at court versus life in the country to the relationship between nature and art. The most fundamental concern of the pastoral mode is comparing the worth of the natural world, represented by relatively untouched countryside, to the world built by humans, which contains the joys of art and the city as well as the injustices of rigid social hierarchies. Pastoral literature, then, has great potential to serve as a forum for social criticism and can even inspire social reform.

In general, Shakespeare’s As You Like It develops many of the traditional features and concerns of the pastoral genre. This comedy examines the cruelties and corruption of court life and gleefully pokes holes in one of humankind’s greatest artifices: the conventions of romantic love. The play’s investment in pastoral traditions leads to an indulgence in rather simple rivalries: court versus country, realism versus romance, reason versus mindlessness, nature versus fortune, young versus old, and those who are born into nobility versus those who acquire their social standing. But rather than settle these scores by coming down on one side or the other, As You Like It offers up a world of myriad choices and endless possibilities. In the world of this play, no one thing need cancel out another. In this way, the play manages to offer both social critique and social affirmation. It is a play that at all times stresses the complexity of things, the simultaneous pleasures and pains of being human.

As You Like It spoofs many of the conventions of poetry and literature dealing with love, such as the idea that love is a disease that brings suffering and torment to the lover, or the assumption that the male lover is the slave or servant of his mistress. These ideas are central features of the courtly love tradition, which greatly influenced European literature for hundreds of years before Shakespeare’s time. In As You Like It, characters lament the suffering caused by their love, but these laments are all unconvincing and ridiculous. While Orlando’s metrically incompetent poems conform to the notion that he should “live and die [Rosalind’s:] slave,” these sentiments are roundly ridiculed (III.ii.142). Even Silvius, the untutored shepherd, assumes the role of the tortured lover, asking his beloved Phoebe to notice “the wounds invisible / That love’s keen arrows make” (III.v.31–32). But Silvius’s request for Phoebe’s attention implies that the enslaved lover can loosen the chains of love and that all romantic wounds can be healed—otherwise, his request for notice would be pointless. In general, As You Like It breaks with the courtly love tradition by portraying love as a force for happiness and fulfillment and ridicules those who revel in their own suffering.

Celia speaks to the curative powers of love in her introductory scene with Rosalind, in which she implores her cousin to allow “the full weight” of her love to push aside Rosalind’s unhappy thoughts (I.ii.6). As soon as Rosalind takes to Ardenne, she displays her own copious knowledge of the ways of love. Disguised as Ganymede, she tutors Orlando in how to be a more attentive and caring lover, counsels Silvius against prostrating himself for the sake of the all-too-human Phoebe, and scolds Phoebe for her arrogance in playing the shepherd’s disdainful love object. When Rosalind famously insists that “[m:]en have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love,” she argues against the notion that love concerns the perfect, mythic, or unattainable (IV.i.91–92). Unlike Jaques and Touchstone, both of whom have keen eyes and biting tongues trained on the follies of romance, Rosalind does not mean to disparage love. On the contrary, she seeks to teach a version of love that not only can survive in the real world, but can bring delight as well. By the end of the play, having successfully orchestrated four marriages and ensured the happy and peaceful return of a more just government, Rosalind proves that love is a source of incomparable delight.

In Act II, scene vii, Jaques philosophizes on the stages of human life: man passes from infancy into boyhood; becomes a lover, a soldier, and a wise civic leader; and then, year by year, becomes a bit more foolish until he is returned to his “second childishness and mere oblivion” (II.vii.164). Jaques’s speech remains an eloquent commentary on how quickly and thoroughly human beings can change, and, indeed, do change in As You Like It. Whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually, those who enter the Forest of Ardenne are often remarkably different when they leave. The most dramatic and unmistakable change, of course, occurs when Rosalind assumes the disguise of Ganymede. As a young man, Rosalind demonstrates how vulnerable to change men and women truly are. Orlando, of course, is putty in her hands; more impressive, however, is her ability to manipulate Phoebe’s affections, which move from Ganymede to the once despised Silvius with amazing speed.

In As You Like It, Shakespeare dispenses with the time--consuming and often hard-won processes involved in change. The characters do not struggle to become more pliant—their changes are instantaneous. Oliver, for instance, learns to love both his brother Orlando and a disguised Celia within moments of setting foot in the forest. Furthermore, the vengeful and ambitious Duke Frederick abandons all thoughts of fratricide after a single conversation with a religious old man. Certainly, these transformations have much to do with the restorative, almost magical effects of life in the forest, but the consequences of the changes also matter in the real world: the government that rules the French duchy, for example, will be more just under the rightful ruler Duke Senior, while the class structures inherent in court life promise to be somewhat less rigid after the courtiers sojourn in the forest. These social reforms are a clear improvement and result from the more private reforms of the play’s characters. As You Like It not only insists that people can and do change, but also celebrates their ability to change for the better.

Pastoral literature thrives on the contrast between life in the city and life in the country. Often, it suggests that the oppressions of the city can be remedied by a trip into the country’s therapeutic woods and fields, and that a person’s sense of balance and rightness can be restored by conversations with uncorrupted shepherds and shepherdesses. This type of restoration, in turn, enables one to return to the city a better person, capable of making the most of urban life. Although Shakespeare tests the bounds of these conventions—his shepherdess Audrey, for instance, is neither articulate nor pure—he begins As You Like It by establishing the city/country dichotomy on which the pastoral mood depends. In Act I, scene i, Orlando rails against the injustices of life with Oliver and complains that he “know[s:] no wise remedy how to avoid it” (I.i.20–21). Later in that scene, as Charles relates the whereabouts of Duke Senior and his followers, the remedy is clear: “in the forest of Ardenne . . . many young gentlemen . . . fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world” (I.i.99–103). Indeed, many are healed in the forest—the lovesick are coupled with their lovers and the usurped duke returns to his throne—but Shakespeare reminds us that life in Ardenne is a temporary affair. As the characters prepare to return to life at court, the play does not laud country over city or vice versa, but instead suggests a delicate and necessary balance between the two. The simplicity of the forest provides shelter from the strains of the court, but it also creates the need for urban style and sophistication: one would not do, or even matter, without the other.

Like many of Shakespeare’s plays and poems, As You Like It explores different kinds of love between members of the same sex. Celia and Rosalind, for instance, are extremely close friends—almost sisters—and the profound intimacy of their relationship seems at times more intense than that of ordinary friends. Indeed, Celia’s words in Act I, scenes ii and iii echo the protestations of lovers. But to assume that Celia or Rosalind possesses a sexual identity as clearly defined as our modern understandings of heterosexual or homosexual would be to work against the play’s celebration of a range of intimacies and sexual possibilities.

The other kind of homoeroticism within the play arises from Rosalind’s cross-dressing. Everybody, male and female, seems to love Ganymede, the beautiful boy who looks like a woman because he is really Rosalind in disguise. The name Rosalind chooses for her alter ego, Ganymede, traditionally belonged to a beautiful boy who became one of Jove’s lovers, and the name carries strong homosexual connotations. Even though Orlando is supposed to be in love with Rosalind, he seems to enjoy the idea of acting out his romance with the beautiful, young boy Ganymede—almost as if a boy who looks like the woman he loves is even more appealing than the woman herself. Phoebe, too, is more attracted to the feminine Ganymede than to the real male, Silvius.

In drawing on the motif of homoeroticism, As You Like It is influenced by the pastoral tradition, which typically contains elements of same-sex love. In the Forest of Ardenne, as in pastoral literature, homoerotic relationships are not necessarily antithetical to heterosexual couplings, as modern readers tend to assume. Instead, homosexual and heterosexual love exist on a continuum across which, as the title of the play suggests, one can move as one likes.

As You Like It abounds in banishment. Some characters have been forcibly removed or threatened from their homes, such as Duke Senior, Rosalind, and Orlando. Some have voluntarily abandoned their positions out of a sense of rightness, such as Senior’s loyal band of lords, Celia, and the noble servant Adam. It is, then, rather remarkable that the play ends with four marriages—a ceremony that unites individuals into couples and ushers these couples into the community. The community that sings and dances its way through Ardenne at the close of Act V, scene iv, is the same community that will return to the dukedom in order to rule and be ruled. This event, where the poor dance in the company of royalty, suggests a utopian world in which wrongs can be righted and hurts healed. The sense of restoration with which the play ends depends upon the formation of a community of exiles in politics and love coming together to soothe their various wounds.(less)

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May 18, 2010

Bruce rated it

This play, one of my favorites, is an exploration of love using the contrasts between court and country, artifice and nature, guile and innocent simplicity. Various pairs of lovers are contrasted, the most important protagonist being Rosalind. The norm is blank verse, usually unrhymed. Gender roles are explored and exploited; for example, Rosalind, played of course in Elizabethan drama by a boy, masquerades in the play as a man with whom a woman falls in love and whom a man allows to pretend ...more

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Mar 29, 2010

Angelia rated it

My other favorite Shakespearean comedy. It features the 'forest as place of transformation' theme, in this case, a family essentially in exile in the forest Arden. In the play are disguised characters, cross-dressing characters, mistaken identity--all in the name of comedy, and all for the sake of the transformations that must occur by play's end in order for everything to turn out properly. Rosalind and Orlando are the play's primary lovers, and they are by far the most interesting of all the c...more

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Feb 03, 2010

Billie Pritchett rated it

I overheard an English professor yesterday say during his lecture that he doesn't like Shakespeare. Although he said it was considered almost sacrilegious for an English professor to say, his reasons were that Shakespeare relied heavily upon conventional settings and plot, neither of which this professor found imaginative, and because he felt Shakespeare's plays lacked emotional or intellectual depth. As You Like It is a play that uses similar settings as, for example, A Midsummer Night's Dream....moreI overheard an English professor yesterday say during his lecture that he doesn't like Shakespeare. Although he said it was considered almost sacrilegious for an English professor to say, his reasons were that Shakespeare relied heavily upon conventional settings and plot, neither of which this professor found imaginative, and because he felt Shakespeare's plays lacked emotional or intellectual depth. As You Like It is a play that uses similar settings as, for example, A Midsummer Night's Dream. In AMND, characters leave the courtly world of Athens to frolic in the fairy woods; in AYLI, characters leave the courtly world of England (or so it appears) to escape to the woods of Arden. Also recognizable is at least a couple of similar plots. One of the plots revolves around the theme that young people (here used to capture a decent proportion of the world demographic) seek love and/or marriage in times of idleness. In AMND, loving Lysander and Hermia are eager to be betrothed; in AYLI, loving Rosalind and Hermia are eager to be betrothed. Another plot involves doters, namely Helena for Demetrius in AMND and Silvius for Phebe in AYLI. Was the English professor correct in his assessment of plot and setting conventions? Well, yes. But he was correct that Shakespeare's plays lack emotional or intellectual depth only inasmuch as he was referring to the characters and only insofar as these characters reflect human beings' lack of emotional or intellectual depth. It is not a criticism in the pejorative sense to say that his characters do not speak or act in profound ways, because surely most of them don't. But neither do normal folk, and the characters reflect well normal folk's tendency to be as they are, driven by life's vicissitudes, caprice, new or contrived situations, etc. What seemed, then, a fair criticism to the professor seems to turn more on a taste for what aspects of human nature Shakespeare focused on, which appear to be the parts of what it means to be human that humans have less control over than they think, to wit the passions.(less)

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Nov 08, 2009

Jessica rated it

Eh. And I never thought I'd eh about Shakespeare. The play's dialogue is witty with Shakespeare's trademark puns, the identity confusion makes for some good laughs, and some of the quotes are famous. However. The play seemed like a rehashing of Twelfth Night only not as good. I also found the characters lacking in common sense and any motivation that can be associated with human behavior. The evil characters are evil because...just because. Young women run into the woods and for whatever ...more

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May 02, 2009

A.J. rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare

I'm more drawn to the Hamlet side of Shakespeare than his comedies. His writing is very clever and often funny, but bang for your buck entertainment is more likely to be found in his darker materials. That said, when reviewing a Shakespeare play, it's hard to rate anything under four stars unless you were simply bored out of your skull. In English literature there's Shakespeare...and then there's everything else. The fluidity of his writing, depth of theme, etc. is just so far above and beyond t...more

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May 02, 2009

Amy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novel

This is the classic story of As You Like it by Williams Shakespeare simplified and put into graphic novel form. While Orlando and Rosalind still end up together and all of the characters and plot line are the same, it looses a lot of the literary quality. All of the language is updated to modern day language and much is lost in the translation. The idea of a woman pretending to be a man is present in literature and history throughout time, so it is believable. However, it does seem dated in ...more

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Aug 03, 2011

Kevin de Ataíde added it

As my first reading of any playscript, this was most entertaining, and it's far better to begin with a comedy. The character of Rosalind is very peculiar, because of the abrupt mood shifts; there is a version on Youtube with Helen Mirren playing Rosalind that is well done but a little unconvincing. How do you disguise a woman to look like a man consistently for an entirely play?

There is also the character of Touchstone, whose lines are often deliberately overdone and showy, and I don't believe ...more

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Jun 24, 2011

Edward rated it

It may be just a passing enthusiasm, but I found on this reading of AS YOU LIKE IT that it's one of Shakespeare's best efforts, with echoes of many other plays. Its setting, for example,The Forest of Arden is not a part of society but yet not totally detached from its turmoils either. It reminds you of the woods of MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM's, Prospero's island in THE TEMPEST, and even in its darker moments of folly, the blasted heath of KING LEAR.
This play balances optimism an...more

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Jul 28, 2011

Phil rated it

Shelves: drama

From the comedies I've read, this one ranks pretty low for me. The writing isn't great in a few spots (though the editors of the edition I read suggest that Shakespeare may not have written sections of the text), there's a problematic component of the ending, and some of the characters aren't really necessary or interesting.

The writing is mostly good, but there are a few songs and scenes toward the end that don't need to be there, or that are just poorly written. Particularly the rhyme scheme in...more

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May 25, 2011

Sasha Sardar rated it

As You Like It, by William Shakespeare, is the epitome of the perfect fairy tale story, without the fairies. It is a testament to his story writing, using dramatic dialogue and unlikely events to weave a perfect story. There is love, deception, discovery, and adventure, all put in somewhat equal amounts to create this comedy. In the book, there are not many details that lead to some kind of moral revelation. It’s not an extremely complicated outline. It follows the structure of a story right dow...more

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Oct 19, 2011

Keith Eckert rated it

· review of another edition

There’s not much I can add to the appreciation of this play. Although I have little interest in the Bard’s comedy/romances (particularly the “twin” plays and the “boy portraying a woman impersonating a man” plays), this has a simple charm and a wealth of songs and dance that make it a delight. Yes, the plot is preposterous with gaping holes and puzzling motivations, but that’s not really the point here. It’s all about the songs, the humor and the wit. The misanthrope, Jaques, adds a dash of dar...more

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Jul 09, 2011

Jan rated it

This is my absolute favourite of all the plays - I think that it is the only one where everyone ends up happy - to a greater or lesser degree....
unlike Twelfth Night where poor Malvolio is left lost and alone.

When I was much younger, Rosalind irritated the devil out of me - she seemed so smug and a downright pain, but when I came to direct the play, I really came to appreciate the wonderful language, humour and charm of the piece.

One of the really interesting things ab...more

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May 04, 2011

Elliot rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: ap-literature-2010-11, drama

I spent a considerable amount of time typing and retyping the opening sentences to this review, but, feeling a bit dry on wit, I settled to instead begin this review by explaining that I wasn't able to think of a proper beginning.

As You Like It, unfortunately, could neither move me to eloquent praise or vehement dismissal, so it sits in the awkward corner of "How can I possibly review this?"-mediocrity. I admit, I struggle to critically appreciate comedy (let alone pastoral...more

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Dec 13, 2011

Glendamyers rated it

I'm not going to go into the complicated plot on this one, but it's the one with Rosalind and Orlando, where Rosalind, for her own mysterious reasons, pretends to be a boy and flirts with Orlando, who is extremely dense, and never figures out that she is a girl.
Forget about whether this is believable or not. (It's not.) In fact, the whole plot is pretty darn farfetched. It is, however, funny in some places and thoughtful in other places. Like all Shakespeare, it's much better on stage tha...more

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Jul 24, 2011

Hannah rated it

Out of the Shakespeare plays that I've read so far 'As You Like It' is definitely the fluffiest and most light-hearted, and I wouldn't put it on the same level as 'Much Ado About Nothing' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. However, although it does lack the depth of those comedies, 'As You Like It' is still a charming play and a fun read. The plot is surprisingly difficult to put into words but it's always easy to understand what's going on. Also, there's humour, the language is obviously great ("...more

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About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. Hi...moreWilliam Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
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Quotes from As You Like It

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” — 18,645 people liked it

“Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak.” — 219 people liked it

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