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The Winter's Tale

by William Shakespeare, Sylvan Barnet (Introduction)

3.66 of 5 stars 3.66 · rating details · 9,684 ratings · 351 reviews

The Newly Revised Signet Classic Shakespeare Series The work of the world’s greatest dramatist edited by outstanding scholars

The Winter’s Tale

Unique Features of the Signet Classic Shakespeare

• An extensive overview of Shakespeare’s life, world, and theater by the general editor of the Signet Classic Shakespeare series, Sylvan Barnet

• Special introduction to the play b...more

Paperback, 304 pages

Published November 1st 1998 by Signet Classics (first published 1609)

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Apr 04, 2012 Bill Kerwin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 16th-17th-c-brit, stuart-drama

A masterpiece, demonstrating how grace redeems and love restores over time. This play features one of Shakespeare's most interesting psychological studies (Leontes) and two of his most charming heroines (Hermione and Perdita). Shakespeare's art has deepened to the point where he can deliberately choose an outrageously improbable denouement and present it in a way that makes his play more moving and richer symbolically than it would have been with a more probable conclusion.

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Oct 12, 2007 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of Shakespeare's last four, this usually gets filed under Romance in the more modern anthologies, but you could just as easily file it under fustercluck. There's an underlying logic to this bifurcated tale, but I'm not sure I buy it. It's a sharply divided tragi-comedy. The first three acts are a compressed tragedy of Leontes, who puts the insane in insanely jealous. It's hurried, and despite hints that Leontes' masculine insecurities have festered for years, the violence of his reaction to...more

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Feb 06, 2007 Keith Mukai rated it 4 of 5 stars

Written near the very end of Shakespeare's run, this is a mature work from a mature writer. It has elements that are oddly light and somewhat comical but it's not quite a comedy. It's not a tragedy either. I think it's more a fairy tale about forgiveness late in life and magically being granted a second chance. This is wish-fulfillment from a writer who must have experienced a lot of personal pain.

It's also the most heartfelt and insightful depiction of love and relationships that I've seen in t...more

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Dec 31, 2009 Laurele rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arkangel-shakespeare-complete, books-read-in-2009

This is one of my favorite Shakespearean plays. It's like a fairy tale that is pagan in setting but Christian in its themes, which include guilt, repentance, redemption, resurrection, forgiveness, grace,and love. There are, in a sense, two plays here, divided by the passage of time. The first play ends with the stage note, "Exit, pursued by a bear." This time through, I listened to the audio production from my Arkangel Complete Shakespeare set. An added benefit of this audio--Ciaran Hines plays...more

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Jan 31, 2008 Holly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: top-shelf, holly-recommends

I remember listening to my 12th grade english teacher explain why he didn't like the book. It has too much, he said. The romance and the lost child and the political intrigue and the clown and magic. But that's exactly why I love it: the giant jumble of everything Shakespeare loved to explore. I love the surprisingly strong and well-developed female characters. I love the story and the wild adventures that happen, but which are all grounded in an emotional story about love, family and regret. Pe...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was my first encounter with this particular play.

My impressions:

- As much as any work of Shakespeare that I have read, this felt at times to be a conglomerate of story lines and genres. Personally, I was most taken with the first three Acts of the play, which followed the formula for tragedy (I have heard it referred to as Othello-lite). The middle section of the play bears resemblance to Shakespeare's comedies. The ending section places it in the category with Shakespeare's romances, due l...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Ben rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 08, 2013 Dave marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: calibre, fiction

SUMMARY: One of the last plays Shakespeare penned on his own, The Winter’s Tale is a transcendent work of death and rebirth, exploring irrational sexual jealousy, the redemptive world of nature, and the magical power of art.Under the editorial supervision of Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, two of today’s most accomplished Shakespearean scholars, this Modern Library series incorporates definitive texts and authoritative notes from William Shakespeare: Complete Works. Each play includes an Intro...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Craig Smillie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Certainly Shakespeare’s late play “The Winter’s Tale” is not a realistic view of Sicilian or Bohemian society in classical times, nor did Shakespeare ever intend it to be. It is the very artificiality of setting, plot and character relationships which makes it possible for Shakespeare to explore timeless and archetypal human values and which gives the work its lyrical and romantic appeal.

Even a cursory examination of the text makes it clear in how many ways the play strays from reality. The se...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Esdaile rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-library, theatre, renaissance-drama

I have never had much luck with this play. I saw it when I was too young (8) and only remember reviivng with the hilarious appearance of a superb bear and my forlone hope that the bear would come back. Having read the play more recently I have to say that were it not for the language, which is inimitable and unsurpassable indeed, many more people would be scratching their heads at this play and its unwieldy and implausible plot and saying "come off it." It is a fairy tale and intended as one but...more

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Jun 01, 2012 James rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A very entertaining drama full of the predictable and the implausible.

Shakespeare can basically do no wrong, especially writing in blank iambic pentameter, which he, along with Milton, is the master of. Metaphors and similes feel quite dry and under-used in this present-day world. The cold, calculating confidence of our scientific speech, or the crude, fractured, and unconscious poetry of slang doesn't quite cut it in comparison to the mesmerizing shapes of sound that issue like marble figures...more

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Oct 21, 2011 Trevor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, poetry

You might be forgiven for thinking that the most ‘fairy-tale’ like of Shakespeare’s plays is A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream. I mean, there are fairies and sprites and crazy things like that running about in it. But in some ways this play is even more like a fairy-tale. The play also starts off a bit like Othello – where jealousy inspires acts of vengeance, even though the cause of the jealousy is baseless and the product of a mind fevered by suspicion. The first half of the play ends pretty much wer...more You might be forgiven for thinking that the most ‘fairy-tale’ like of Shakespeare’s plays is A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream. I mean, there are fairies and sprites and crazy things like that running about in it. But in some ways this play is even more like a fairy-tale. The play also starts off a bit like Othello – where jealousy inspires acts of vengeance, even though the cause of the jealousy is baseless and the product of a mind fevered by suspicion. The first half of the play ends pretty much were Othello ends, with a man realising he has destroyed his entire life by his willingness to believe and has killed all those who love him by his irrational revenges caused by his jealous rage. And, of course, a guy gets eaten by a bear and there is a ship wreck.

The fairy-tale elements really come to the fore in part two of this play – because this really is a play in two parts. The driving force of the second part is that the daughter of the king who was left to be exposed and die is, in fact, brought up by a simple farmer. This is another of those stories where nature triumphs over nurture. The unknown princess catches the eye of a prince who falls helplessly in love with her. This causes some problems with the prince’s father and so prince and farmer’s daughter (really a princess – you know the score) elope.

The play ends with a curious retelling of Ovid’s Pygmalion story – with a statue literally coming back to life. This being a comedy everything works out in the end – you can generally tell the difference between one of Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies by what happens to the characters at the end, if they all die, it was a tragedy, if they all get married, it was a comedy. Although the king had clearly repented his jealousy and forgiveness is next to holiness and all that – I’m not sure I could have as willingly forgiven him as is done at the end of this play. He had still been the cause of the death of a son and had separated mother and daughter for decades. But this is theatre, not life, I guess.

This is a bizarre little play in many ways, but also a bit of a favourite – it does feel a little ‘bitsy’ at times and a bit like three quite different plays slammed together, and it is also a little hard to suspend disbelief right at the end, but there are parts of this play that are jaw-droppingly good.
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Oct 02, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of Shakespeare's lesser known stories, it was on a recommended list of books about midlife crisis! I listened to it and got some semblance of the meaning. Then I watched the play. In my humble opinion, the ending is absolutely absurd and the king's ability to get a second chance is ridiculous. This was considered a comedy because of a lighthearted charlatan in the latter part of the play. I didn't find any humor in it. And the ending is considered "happy". All I can say is that the entire pl...more

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Aug 26, 2011 Molly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was totally unfamiliar with this Shakespeare play until this summer and was pleasantly surprised by it.

Some thoughts on Leontes: “Engendering the Narrative Act” by Mary Lamb (another criticism read for grad school) got me thinking about the question what must be forgotten to move forward? Lamb writes that boys must forget their connection with the feminine to become men but deems this separation “potentially traumatic” (533). I’m curious now about the function of Leontes’ memory in the play....more I was totally unfamiliar with this Shakespeare play until this summer and was pleasantly surprised by it.

Some thoughts on Leontes: “Engendering the Narrative Act” by Mary Lamb (another criticism read for grad school) got me thinking about the question what must be forgotten to move forward? Lamb writes that boys must forget their connection with the feminine to become men but deems this separation “potentially traumatic” (533). I’m curious now about the function of Leontes’ memory in the play. He seems to be a King who lives a little too much in the past. He obviously has an intense (strange?) attachment to a childhood friend in Polixenes. And he shares a clear memory of himself in the feminine sphere: “Of my boy’s face, me thoughts I did recoil/ Twenty-three years, and saw myself unbreeched” (1.2.154-155). Could this strong connection to the female-dominated world of his past play into Leontes’ excessive display of masculinity? Between Acts One and Two, he decides Hermione is cheating, openly shames her, rips Mamillius away from his mother, sends his wife to prison, and requests that a newborn be “instantly consumed with fire” (2.3.133). Is Leontes just enraged by jealousy or is he being overly male in an effort to cover up the femaleness he can’t quite repress on his own?

In the end, I found my fingers crossed for Florizel and Perdita. "Please make it!" I kept chanting to myself. But after reading six of Shakespeare's later plays this summer, will they/ can they end up happy? I was so glad about their relationship as I read the play-- thinking that these guys are one couple that could actually WORK in one of Shakespeare's later plays. Florizel promises to stand by Perdita when his father denies him. He says some pretty amazing lines to her (i.e. "For I cannot be/ Mine own, nor anything to any, if/ I be not thine" (4.4.43-4). She isn't scared to share her opinion with him. Perdita knows that he is from a higher class. ETC. But I'm not so sure that Florizel's not just another Leontes (or Polixenes?) in the making.

Perdita insists that Florizel is "vilely bound up" in costume, and his rationale is that "the gods themselves,/... have taken/ the shape of beasts... Their transformations/ were never for a piece of beauty rarer" (4.4.22, 25-32ish). On my own, I thought this was Florizel's silly rationale to be with the woman he loves-- and perhaps flattering himself a bit in the process. I did not realize until now that the disguises of the gods he calls upon-- Jupiter, Neptune and Apollo-- don't work out so well for the females involved. Eeek!

So when Florizel says, "From my succession wipe me, father; I/ Am heir to my affection," is he not being honest about his love for Perdita?" should we trust that he will be good to her? (4.4.460-1) Or am I just the one wooed by his loving sentiments? Is there a problem that Florizel can't be "[his] own" without Perdita-- (sounds a little like Helen to me...)? The more I think about it, Florizel's feminine-like language probably isn't pointing him in a good direction either. Should we be worried that he is so quick to abandon his own past to be with a woman? Upon initial examination, Florizel and Perdia's relationship seemed good, but now I'm not so sure... (less)

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Apr 30, 2011 Ea Solinas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"The Winter's Tale" is one of Shakespeare's most underrated works, probably because it can't be easily classified as a romance or a comedy. That's a shame, because this lush, emotionally-wrenching little play displays Shakespeare's powerful writing and fine grasp of human nature. It's just incredibly moving and exquisitely written.

Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, has been visiting his pal King Leontes in Sicilia, and eventually he wants to go home. But after Queen Hermione convinces him to stay...more "The Winter's Tale" is one of Shakespeare's most underrated works, probably because it can't be easily classified as a romance or a comedy. That's a shame, because this lush, emotionally-wrenching little play displays Shakespeare's powerful writing and fine grasp of human nature. It's just incredibly moving and exquisitely written.

Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, has been visiting his pal King Leontes in Sicilia, and eventually he wants to go home. But after Queen Hermione convinces him to stay awhile, Leontes suddenly goes nuts and decides that Polixenes and Hermione have been having an affair, and that her unborn child must be his old friend's. Polixenes flees back to his own land, and Hermione dies soon after her newborn daughter is abandoned in the wilderness.

Of course, Leontes soon finds out that he was off his gourd, and that poor Hermione was completely innocent. Charming, isn't he? Sixteen years later, Polixenes' son Florizel falls in love with a mysterious young shepherdess, who is actually Leontes' daughter Perdita (of course!). But with royal opposition to their marriage, the young couple must overcome many obstacles before everything is settled happily.

"A Winter's Tale" is a curious hybrid of Shakespeare's different theatrical "types" -- there's some gentle comedy, some mellow tragedy, and a hefty dose of romance. The first three acts are basically one long disaster, with Leontes' crazy paranoia destroying his friendships, marriage and children's lives, until it seems that there's no happy ending for anybody.

But the last few acts are very different. Shakespeare's writing takes on a more romantic, sweet tone, particularly when Florizel and Perdita are lavishing lovers' praise on each other ("My prettiest Perdita!/But O, the thorns we stand upon!"). Having worked up a massive tragedy in the first parts of the play, Shakespeare spends the latter half repairing all the cracks in the characters' lives.

If there's a flaw in the story, it's that Hermione is so in love with a crazy belfry-bat like Leontes, but I suppose his story is meant to show the folly of letting suspicions rule your actions. Florizel and Perdita are charmingly earnest young lovers who initially know nothing of their parents' tragic past, and there are solid supporting characters like the thief Autolycus and the steadfast Camillo.

"The Winter's Tale" is an emotionally wrenching but eventually uplifting story, and a roller-coaster ride that plunges you down into tragedy before hoisting you back up.
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Mar 23, 2010 Bruce rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is University of Virginia’s Professor Clare Kinney’s favorite Shakespeare play, and as she described it in her final Teaching Company lecture, she was clearly moved to tears. I recall having seen it at the Chicago Shakespeare in 2002 or 2004; it was good, and I was eager to experience it once again, this time, alas, only in the reading.

Act I details the dawning and development of Leontes’ baseless jealousy of his innocent wife, Hermione, and his best friend, Polixenes, a jealousy that threa...more This is University of Virginia’s Professor Clare Kinney’s favorite Shakespeare play, and as she described it in her final Teaching Company lecture, she was clearly moved to tears. I recall having seen it at the Chicago Shakespeare in 2002 or 2004; it was good, and I was eager to experience it once again, this time, alas, only in the reading.

Act I details the dawning and development of Leontes’ baseless jealousy of his innocent wife, Hermione, and his best friend, Polixenes, a jealousy that threatens to undo them all. Unlike Othello, Leontes has no Iago egging him on, his convictions being the phantoms of his own mind. Warned, Polixenes flees the kingdom, and the innocent and pregnant Hermione is imprisoned. All the court supports Hermione and tries to convince Leontes of his folly, to no avail. The most courageous and vocal critic of his actions and the strongest supporter of Hermione is her lady, Paulina.

In Act II.i.36-44, Shakespeare provides a poignant expression of how knowledge of a situation more than a situation itself is what causes the most acute suffering. I’ll not quote all of that here; you can look it up.

Act III.ii, is a turning point. Leontes’ newborn daughter is exposed and abandoned in the wilderness, his son having died of grief at the imprisonment of his mother, Hermione reported having consequently died of grief, and the oracle of Apollo having exonerated Hermione; Leontes is finally brought to his senses and realizes his mistake and folly, but, alas, too late, all the damage of his madness having been done.

Act IV moves to Bohemia, where King Polixenes, hitherto a sympathetic figure who has been unjustly accused, learns that his own son Florizel has fallen in love with an apparent peasant girl, Perdita, in reality the lost daughter of Leontes. To our dismay, he reacts as violently to this apparent misalliance as Leontes did to Hermione’s alleged infidelity, proving that the play is not only about foolish husbands but also foolish fathers. Florizel and Perdita flee to Sicilia, where Leontes still reigns. The episodes featuring Florizel and Perdita lone are as tender and caring as anything Shakespeare wrote, softening an otherwise harsh story.

In Act V all is joyfully resolved, facilitated by Paulina. Identities and relationships are clarified, old wrongs righted, and Hermione, thought dead but hidden by Paulina, is presented to Leontes as a statue who, at the last, comes to life. The most beautiful line of the play, in my estimation, is when Leontes touches supposed statue of Hermione and says, “O! She’s warm.”

This late play, written after the Shakespeare’s major tragedies, has a tenderness and ending happiness that bespeaks a maturing and mellowing of the playwright who looks on human frailties with a forgiving and redemptive eye. What a marvelous play!
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Dec 18, 2012 Ape rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: france-italy-spain-portugal, history-fact-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read this much more easily and quickly than I thought I would! I ought to explain... I'm not in the habit of reading plays, and I've not touched Shakespeare since school (basically half my lifetime ago) when I'd studied Romeo and Juliet and MacBeth. I've been feeling that I need to read more classics, so I have a couple of these kicking around the house, and have finally dared to try one again.

It takes a few pages to get your head back into the flowery language, and the fact that this is a pla...more I read this much more easily and quickly than I thought I would! I ought to explain... I'm not in the habit of reading plays, and I've not touched Shakespeare since school (basically half my lifetime ago) when I'd studied Romeo and Juliet and MacBeth. I've been feeling that I need to read more classics, so I have a couple of these kicking around the house, and have finally dared to try one again.

It takes a few pages to get your head back into the flowery language, and the fact that this is a play, but after that I found it quite enjoyable reading. And now I know about that old pub quiz question about the stage direction "Exit, pursued by a bear". I don't have a massive amount of Shakespeare to compare this to, but I suspect it's not going to be my favourite, and in someways it's not overly convincing, in how these discoveries about people's lost identities just come to light in the blink of an eye with no real reason, and how the plot jumps predictably about. It has to contain one of the most irrational, paranoid jealous gits I've ever read about - the King of Sicilia, Leontes. He has a young pregnant wife, and a young son. His chum, the King of Bohemia, has been visiting and is saying he needs to get home. Leontes says to his wife, tell him how much we want him to stay. She has a pleasant conversation with him, and on the basis of this Leontes decides that 1) his wife and the king of Bohemia are having an affair; and 2) the unborn child isn't his - so he has his wife arrested. He then tries to get one of his lords to poison the king of Bohemia. The lord isn't keen on this, so warns the king; and then Leontes concludes that his wife was plotting to have him killed! The queen has a baby girl in prison, whom Leontes refuses to recognise and has sent off to the wilds to be abandoned. It's all too much for the queen, who dies, followed shortly by the son. And where is Leontes' cumupance for all this, other than that he has to live with what he's done when he finally accepts reality?!? Nothing! (less)

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Jul 09, 2012 Matt rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It’s Othello-lite. Jealousy without the evil and a focus on redemption instead of despair. Shakespeare starts by leading in with two Acts of tragedy then spins it into a romantic, sort of funny, comedy. It’s a pretty bold switch-up and it fits in with some of the other problem plays like Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida better than either the tragedies or comedies.

Autolycus steals the show in the way that only a good-natured rogue can. “Though I am not naturally honest, I am sometime...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Lydia Shellenbarger rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Okay, if I were ever going to be in a Shakespeare production ever, I would totally want to play Paulina from The Winter's Tale!

More on that latter, but just to give an overall perspective, this is the story of a foolish king, who everything is going great for, he has a loving queen, his neighboring kingdom is run by his best friend, he has a smart young son who looks to become a good king after him and the kingdom itself is running smoothly. Then the king notices that his wife is friends with t

...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Abigail Hartman rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

"The Winter's Tale" did not turn out to be my favorite work of Shakespeare. The passage of sixteen years between Acts III and IV, and the introduction of new characters in the latter, gave the play a choppy and incomplete feel. The cast seemed larger than necessary, for several characters served almost no purpose whatsoever, and I cannot say I found myself invested in any of them; no one character - save perhaps Paulina, who could be downright irritating - was ever dwelt upon long enough for the...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Karoliina rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The only things I liked about The Winter's Tale were:

- Autolycus's scene with the clown (satire of court life, yus)
- Paulina (one badass lady)
- The bear (my favourite character)

I feel very strange giving something by Shakespeare just one star, but here we go. This is actually so far Shakespeare's only play I haven't enjoyed. I love all the other ones I've read (Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, 12th Night and Henry IV pt. 1) but this one I just couldn't get into at all.

I don't find sexual jeal...more

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Apr 26, 2013 melanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shakespeare: Hmm. "Content. 'Tis strange"... In fact, don't care much at all for it (hence all the histories I just retold, the plays I plagiarized from others). Honestly, I'm just bored by form– all tragedies and comedies have the same predictable stories.
Oh, I've got it: I'll write a play that begins as a tragedy–let's set it in winter because "a sad tale's best for winter" (2.1.25)– but halfway through, I'll come out on stage dressed up as Time, holding an hourglass, and re-do the whole play...more Shakespeare: Hmm. "Content. 'Tis strange"... In fact, don't care much at all for it (hence all the histories I just retold, the plays I plagiarized from others). Honestly, I'm just bored by form– all tragedies and comedies have the same predictable stories.
Oh, I've got it: I'll write a play that begins as a tragedy–let's set it in winter because "a sad tale's best for winter" (2.1.25)– but halfway through, I'll come out on stage dressed up as Time, holding an hourglass, and re-do the whole play. I'll ask the audience to bear with me (mmm, yes, that's a good word, "bear"... I'll play a lot with that one, maybe even have a guy get chased offstage by a bear).
Antingonus: Arghhghhhh
Shakespeare (unbothered): You know, suspend disbelief like you're supposed to do in theater (I mean, who even cares that Bohemia's not really on the coast– anything is fair game in theater, right?). Right, so I'll come out and ask everyone to bear with me (smirk) while I speed up time: "to th' freshest things now reigning" (ha, that's good, "raining," get it? We're moving into spring rains, fertility, rebirth, etc) "and make stale/ The glistering of this present, as my tale/ Now seems to it."
Okay, so as we move into summer, my winter's tale will become "stale"/old news in the warmer weather.

Oh yeah, and let's make the "winter tragedy" be about a king who wrongly accuses his wife of being a whore, since "stale" is also slang for whore, and I like a good pun, you know? "The Winter's Stale?" Get it? Ha ha.
He'll kill her and his son (who he thinks is someone else's love child), banish his newborn daughter, but everything will be fine in the end-- a statue of the kings wife will be SO realistic that it comes to life. Ugh, and theater's so perfect for this too. Only actors can make representations of living people physically breathe. My art's way better than those stupid gilded monuments, since my characters are always coming to life again on stage. So in this play, everyone's a winner!

Antigonus and Mamillius: Hey!
Hermione: Hello? I was killed by my husband and then I have to marry him?
Paulina: My husband gets eaten by a bear and then I have to marry some random guy at the end? Psh, happy ending? What century do you live in?

Shakespeare: Ok, well, maybe the little boy stays dead. And Antigonus does get eaten by a bear, but that bear scene is just so good, it's got to stay. (I mean, how quotable are these stage directions: "Exit pursued by a bear"? So quotable.) [To the women] Hey, who's writing this play anyway?

Barthes: Well actually...(less)

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Feb 27, 2012 Andreea added it · review of another edition

Shelves: drama, renaissance

Shakespeare is unrate-able. I think we've already established this, but of all the plays by him I've read so far (and by my calculations I've read little under 1/3 of his plays: most of the tragedies, a few comedies and just one history play - Richard III), historical time is the most bizarre in this one. The blend of Greek-Roman myths with a Medieval setting and a modern (well, 17th century modern) Christian writer and audience is as peculiar as the appearance of Time on stage between two acts...more

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May 19, 2013 Anna Bahn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have only read a few works of Shakespeare so far, but this one is definitely my favorite. It was the first Shakespeare piece I read by choice (I was some what forced to read it, but I was going to read it anyway), and I had the most amazing experience with it. If you are interested in Shakespeare, TRY TO BE IN A SHAKESPEARE PLAY. I know that opportunity does not come about very often, but I was able to have that chance. It was definitely one of the best experiences of my life. I didn't have a...more

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May 18, 2013 Kathleen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, drama, reread, weirdness

This is a weird play. Like, really weird. It ping-pongs back and forth between intense tragedy and some really bawdy humor and then to the resolution of a comedy and then STRAIGHT INTO FAIRY TALE with the statue thing. It's like Shakespeare couldn't decide what genre play he wanted to write next and so wrote them all.

That said, it's a pretty good read. The language can be lovely, and even though you will probably want to beat Leonates about the head and shoulders (we all do, don't worry), it's s...more

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May 06, 2009 Liz (Consumed by Books) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: plays, 3-star, own, high-school-required

I enjoyed this play enough, but it certainly wasn't my favorite. I thought the plot was good. I thought the book raised interesting questions about faith and taking things at face value. I only really thought the writing was especially good in a couple of places, I found some of the characters a bit difficult to relate to. Thre's also one speculation about the title which I find interesting. At one point Hermione asks her son to tell a story and some people believe that this would be the story h...more

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May 10, 2010 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare, plays

Another masterpiece. Almost the reverse of Romeo and Juliet: the first three acts are a perfect little tragedy, and then the final two are a romantic comedy. I believe it was Mark Twain who said that comedy was just "tragedy plus time." Shakespeare does exactly this: tragedy; 16 years pass; then comedy.

Someone on here validly pointed out that Winter's Tale is "a fairy tale that is pagan in setting but Christian in its themes, which include guilt, repentance, redemption, resurrection, forgivenes...more

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Oct 12, 2010 Bruno da Maremma rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hadn’t read a Shakespeare play since high school so I thought I would go back to him and see if I would enjoy the experience anymore.
And the answer is ‘Somewhat’. Shakespeare’s English is about as comprehensible as Lowland Scots, at least to an untutored ear. His writing is full of words whose meanings have changed radically and are therefore very confusing.
Getting a well annotated copy of a play is a great idea to help clarify the meanings of words and phrases but it does detract mightily from...more Hadn’t read a Shakespeare play since high school so I thought I would go back to him and see if I would enjoy the experience anymore.
And the answer is ‘Somewhat’. Shakespeare’s English is about as comprehensible as Lowland Scots, at least to an untutored ear. His writing is full of words whose meanings have changed radically and are therefore very confusing.
Getting a well annotated copy of a play is a great idea to help clarify the meanings of words and phrases but it does detract mightily from a smooth reading and the ability to winnow out any emotion in the dialogues.
I read a good synopsis of ‘The Winter’s Tale’ and then read through the play itself while referring to the notes so that I could understand what he was saying. The notes are critical in helping to explain the meaning of words/ phrases in the context of late 16th century/early 17th century English culture and society. Finally the notes also are really important to help you, dear reader, to make sense of allusions to Greek or Roman tales to which S refers or to explain bizarre phrases and slang that have long since left the language. Next I bought a DVD of the play and watched it with the book open in front of me. Finally I started reading the play through again, looking for character development and emotional impact etc. I quit about half way through.
Was it worth it in the end? No, don’t waste your time. Watching the DVD was certainly more revealing than any reading since there is almost no stage direction in the text of the play itself to help you judge the emotions of the characters as they present their lines on the page. And, as I said earlier it is very hard to winnow out emotions in the dialogue when you are busy skipping to the bottom of each page to find the meaning of a word or phrase or to understand some obscure allusion to Greek mythology or some phrase that makes no sense to a speaker 400 years removed from the culture and language of Shakespeare’s day.
Frankly I’d rather spend the time getting fluent in French or Russian so that I could appreciate the much greater canon of excellent writing that is available in those languages.
Oh, one more thing. Shakespeare makes some really blatant errors that jar badly while you are reading. I’m not talking about geography goofs, after all it is a work of fiction, but here’s an example. Queen Hermione is present and hears the message from the Oracle of Delphos that she is innocent. Later in the play, she says that Paulina had given her this information. Sloppy! Perhaps a bit too much ale or mead was consumed during the editing process.
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Feb 24, 2009 kyle added it · review of another edition

Ya know this guy wrote some good plays. And a bucketload of em. How exciting to know that I'm gonna keep discovering them for a long time.
Struggled with this. The whole sexual jealousy thing just doesn't resonate with me (though I love Bloom and others' suggestion that it's really homosexual confusion that sets the whole thing off). But watching Mendes/Bridge Project's extraordinary production the why didn't matter. It just worked.
Superficially it's much like Cymbeline (which I adore). Conflic...more

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Feb 10, 2011 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's hard for me to give a star rating and review for this play because I really don't have much experience with Shakespeare to have some in depth feelings or analysis on it. I did enjoy the story, even though everything worked out too perfectly--I guess it's suppose to since its a comedy.

I sometimes have a hard time relating to character's in Shakespeare because I feel like so many times they have such extreme emotions, like King Leontes in this tale, that they are always beyond reason and it...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. His plays have been tr...more 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. 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. Scholars believe that he died on his fifty-second birthday, coinciding with St George’s Day. It is an interesting idea that English writer is so closely identified with the Patron Saint of England!

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.

According to historians, Shakespeare write 37 plays and 154 sonnets throughout the span of his life. Shakespeare's writing average was 1.5 plays a year since he first started writing in 1589. There have been plays and sonnets contributed to Shakespeare that were not authentically written by the great master of language and literature.
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“Exit, pursued by a bear.” — 130 people liked it

“Though I am not naturally honest, I am sometimes so by chance.” — 39 people liked it

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