Romeo and Juliet Paperback – November 20, 2019

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Film, comic TV series adaptations multiply the story of Romeo and Juliet. I have enjoyed many of its mirrors as the version with Leonardo DiCaprio in Miami, the kung fu version with Jet Li, the black and white classic with Cantinflas ("London! I mean... Paris!"xD), or Juleo and Rumiet by Chespirito, among many others. But just now I dared to read the original and it was jaw-dropping...Shakespeare is invisible. He creates a world where he is not seen and all is doomed to fit or crash by its own accord. The first scenes indirectly set the following drama. In a world where Romeo and Juliet are not meant to be, they violently and inevitably fall in love with each other. There is Rosaline, whom Romeo loved with juvenile passion to her idealized shape. She is there and she is not there to make a contrast with the feelings toward Juliet. Juliet for her part has to clad her tears of love with the disguise of mourning for her cousin Tybalt; she utters words of revenge against Romeo because the world is against her love. Similar to the end of Don Quixote, when he awakes from madness to the tiredness of reality, Romeo also, at his end, has no romance but solitary longing; one that awakes him into a conscious lucidity of his "world-weary flesh" of man. The moment in which he is alone with himself after losing everything at hands of death... is not Hamlet that descends into madness, is Romeo that now seems to understand everything. Rather than romance Romeo and Juliet is about the struggle of small humanity against destiny, to do anything despite to have the whole universe plotting against you. As so this story is a triumph.Borges said that secretly the national book of Englishmen is the bible, not Shakespeare's works; and that Shakespeare's works was secretly the national book of Germany, not Goethe's works. I love so much the diverse authors of the United Kingdom, especially those at the end of 19th century and beginning of 20th century. But I have to concord that Shakespeare seems different. Clearly universal, not for the location of his plays, but because the human nature is common to each man and woman; a quality that Romanticism, in its insistence for exotic objects to clad the fellow citizens instead to get to to the heart of the exotic cultures, failed to accomplish (although in fairness perhaps that wasn't its goal). Maybe indeed Shakespeare is more akin to the Germanic and Nordic old sagas, those that have a wise understanding of men and women, with characters that deeply say far more in their actions or in subtle words.About the AmazonClassics Edition it has a minimal of X-Ray to indicate the allegiance of each character to the Capulet or Montague families. Beyond that there are not footnotes nor prologues; and I am happy for that because Shakespeare is better discovered without intermediaries.

A masterpiece of prose and poetry, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet has stood the test of time. But as times have changed, so has the way we speak the English language. Indeed, the English of our mother country is not the same as the American version. Therefore, deciphering the meaning of what is being said by the colorful characters in this play by William Shakespeare, can be a daunting task. Not to mention that the traditions, customs, and things considered to be humorous or off-color were so different in that day and age, that one could easily be confused trying to figure it all out.Taking all of this into account, Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare Made Clear by Garamond Press is just the ticket when it comes to translating this work from Olde English to American English.As much as I liked having the American version of the script available just below each section the original version, I also found it distracting at times. When I understood the original Shakespeare, I sometimes felt that I was reading the same thing over and over again. On the whole though, this book is very helpful, and I tend to think it can be an invaluable aid to high school students studying Shakespeare in their English classes.Also, it must be noted that the book exposes errors in the original script and attempt s to explain them. A lot of "extras" come with this compilation; certainly one gets more than their money's worth here and really can't go wrong making this purchase.by teresa graziadei

I am a retired English, reading teacher. I used the Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet editions for years in my classes. This was because it was Shakespeare and Modern English side by side. Because my kids usually read 2-4 years below level, the class would read the modern English version ,but we referred to to the famous passages in the original because they had to know them also. They had to memorize those in the original. Students who were advanced or could read on level could choose to read the original, but they had the modern version there if they needed it. This way all could experience the story ,but no one had to "sleep" as the class read the old English. The series also has chapter questions at the back of the books. This is a wonderful series. 1985 Perfection-the best yet. 9-10 lopw readers; 6-9 advancecd