As You Like It (Folger Shakespeare Library)

Book Description

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 the play

• Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books

Essay by Susan Snyder

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit www.folger.edu.

Customer Reviews:

Shakespeares' best romantic comedy.......2007-05-24

This is a pastoral romantic comedy that is set in the Middle Ages. The story is about four different sets of lovers who each represent the different faces of love. The characters are wonderfully portrayed. The setting is bucolic, and it is just so much fun. And, of course, the language is exquisite.

All the world is a romantic comedy........2006-08-21

I recently re-read AS YOU LIKE IT prior to attending The Colorado Shakespeare Festival's performance of this play under the summer stars here in Boulder. Shakespeare (1552-1616) produced this romantic comedy in 1599 and published it in the First Folio in 1623.

Summarizing the play is rather challenging. It basically tells the story of Duke Frederick, who has banished his brother, Duke Senior, into the Forest of Arden, thereby usurping the kingdom. In his exile, Duke Senior has found a humble life of merriment with his court. Following a wrestling match, Duke Frederick also banishes Orlando (son of the late Sir Roland de Boys) and Rosalind (daughter of Duke Senior) into the forest. At the match, the two have fallen into love at first sight. Out of friendhip, Duke Frederick's only child, Celia, and the court jester, Touchstone, follow Rosalind (now disguised as a boy, "Ganymede") into the forest. Soon, Orlando, Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone are all welcomed into the merry life of banished Duke Senior. Orlando, however, is lovesick for Rosalind, and Rosalind (still disguised as a boy) decides to cure Orlando of his lovesickness. While counseling him in the ways of true love, Rosalind (disguised as Ganymede) finds herself falling deeper in love with Orlando. Meanwhile, Celia has fallen in love with Orlando's brother, Oliver. The two decide to get married the next day. Even witty Touchstone has fallen in love with a dull-witted goatherd girl, Audrey. In the final scene, and after many hilarious mixups, all romantic entanglements are resolved by marriage; and after a sudden religious conversion, Duke Frederick returns the throne to his brother--thereby righting all wrongs and uniting all couples by love and happiness.

G. Merritt

All The World's A Stage.......2005-08-28

As You Like It is one of Shakespeare's most beloved pastoral comedies. Banishment, disguises and love are the elements with which Shakespeare weaves his tale of several pairs of lovers who ultimately wind up marrying in the forest of Arden.
The melancholy Jaques delivers one of Shakespeare's most familiar speeches regarding the seven ages of man. If you haven't read or seen a performance of As You Like It I highly recommend this paperback edition.
The Folger Library editions are my favorite. Each page has a facing page that explains obscure terms and helps as a handy reference to make reading the plays pleasurable and educational. These paperback editions of Shakespeare's works are a great value and fit in your pocket.

Average customer rating:

Fitting in
A Masterful Story Teller
Romantic and realistic
Great Book
The Past Will Find You Anywhere.

The Saffron Kitchen
Yasmin Crowther
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0670038113
Release Date: 2006-12-28

Amazon.com

In The Saffron Kitchen, Yasmin Crowther has captured, with uncanny accuracy and grace, the deep confusion and conflict visited upon a mother and her daughter by their respective histories. The mother, Maryam, is an Iranian woman, daughter of a general and member of a well-respected family during the Shah's reign. When she became separated from her family at the start of the revolution and was sheltered chastely overnight by Ali, her father's servant, her life was forever changed. Disowned by her father, she moves to Tehran to become a nurse and then to London, where she meets and marries Edward, a fine and gentle man who adores her. When the story begins, their daughter, Sara, born in England, married to an Englishman, and ignorant of her mother's haunted history, is newly pregnant. When she miscarries, during a dramatic confrontation with her mother and her young Iranian cousin, years of secrets and pretending unravel at last.

Maryam decides to go to Iran, to distance herself from these events. What follows, in Crowther's revelatory manner, is a perfect portrayal of a half-life, one lived only on the surface. Maryam comes into her own when she goes back to her village; the sights, sounds, and smells all beckon to her with their sweet familiarity. England falls away, with all its confusing customs and strange language, as does Edward, with his so very different background. Beckoned by her mother, Sara comes to visit and to ferret out the particulars of her mother's past. The question remains: will Maryam return to Edward and England or stay where she is once again at home?

Crowther writes with great insight about attempting to cast off one's past--and the impossibility of doing so. The saffron kitchen of the title is a lovely evocation, both symbolic and actual, of what gets left behind and of one daughter's willingness to occupy both worlds. --Valerie Ryan

Book Description

A passionate and timely debut about mothers and daughters, roots and exile, from the streets of Iran to the suburbs of London
In what is certain to be one of the most talked-about fiction debuts of the year, Yasmin Crowther paints a magnificent portrait of betrayal and retribution set against a backdrop of Iran's tumultuous history, dramatic landscapes, and cultural beauty. The story begins on a blustery day in London, when Maryam Mazar's dark secrets and troubled past surface violently with tragic consequences for her pregnant daughter, Sara. Burdened by guilt, Maryam leaves her comfortable English home for the remote village in Iran where she was raised and disowned by her father. When Sara decides to follow her she learns the price that her mother had to pay for her freedom and of the love she left behind.

Poetic, haunting, and brilliantly crafted, The Saffron Kitchen is sure to entrance fans of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake and Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club.

Customer Reviews:

Fitting in.......2007-10-05

I enjoyed the book, even though it was a novel. My background, born in Scandinavia and having grown up in Arabia is probably the reason for me choosing stories from that part of the world, as to me they are just more interesting. I can relate to being/feeling rootless and probably a longing for something that no longer is. The book, albeit being fiction, deals with aspects of how different we all are and how we long for what we had, even though its never the same and how second generations have adapted to their world. Very interesting read which I could relate to quite well. Highly recommended.

A Masterful Story Teller.......2007-09-27

I adored this story. Clearly, Crowther is a masterful story teller. I enjoyed the development of her vivid characters and her love of language. As I was reading this book I had a deep appreciation of how well sentances were crafted, so deliberately and selectively. In many ways I was enraptured with this story as I was with Kite Runner. This is a multilayered story infused with heart, sadness and hope. I would highly recommend it. My thanks to the author for a touching, lasting read that I will gladly recommend to others.

Romantic and realistic.......2007-08-22

I found this immigrant story very satisfying. Being the grandson of immigrants I had marvelled at my grandparent's dual lives. This novel tells the story of an immigrant who never can fully assimulate into London's society. Maryam (the heroine of the story) has fought for the right to make choices her whole life. This fight has not been without consequences, some dire. Now Maryam must chose between East and West, her living family and her dying heritage. A very difficult choice, one that will cause heartache no matter what. The story is a beautiful reminder that East and West, while different culturally, are both peopled by real human beings, with similar hopes and fears.

Great Book.......2007-05-01

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is a great Love story and also shows human tragedy. It is an interesting insight in another culture.
The characters seem alive. It is too bad her mother did not get back sooner to Ali. He seems very loveable.
Thank you Yasmin!

from Christine

The Past Will Find You Anywhere........2007-02-25

Though classified as fiction, most debut novels are based on personal experiences. This one appear to be such, like 'Dancing At the Harvest Moon.' Here, we have Mary returning to her past to reunite with her first love (of her youth). Like so many of us, we marry the wrong man, get stuck in an unhappy life with children, and finally go home to look for our old loves. She has a grown daughter, Sara, who visits her new-old life; she feels that her mother's unhappiness is caused by her bad background as a girl.

Mary discovers things about her dead father to explain his behavior toward her. I had such a father and was told that we couldn't get along because we were too much alike. He did his best to raise the baby of the family after the mother's death from cancer, but was over-protective and overbearing. Hers was a different situation altogether but just as traumatic. Mary, however, fell back on that difficult time while making her life decisions. She learned that timelessness of time makes a huge impact on personal lives and spirits. She hoped that, by going back to her first home, she might be able to dispel the demons of her early years. This is not easy and most times it is impractical to try to relive the past. People have different memories and none are the same. It is hurtful to be called a liar, when you certainly do remember something happening the way it did. This is interesting and a change from the ususal adolescent growing up. It will make a good followup.

As You Like It (The Pelican Shakespeare)

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Cambridge School Shakespeare: Nice Explanations for the Lay Reader
Recommended
All the world is a romantic comedy.
Arguably Shakespeare's Greatest Comedy.
One of the most entertaining of Shakespeare's comedies.

As You Like It (The Pelican Shakespeare)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140714715
Release Date: 2000-08-01

Book Description

"I feel that I have spent half my career with one or another Pelican Shakespeare in my back pocket. Convenience, however, is the least important aspect of the new Pelican Shakespeare series. Here is an elegant and clear text for either the study or the rehearsal room, notes where you need them and the distinguished scholarship of the general editors, Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller who understand that these are plays for performance as well as great texts for contemplation." (Patrick Stewart)

The distinguished Pelican Shakespeare series, which has sold more than four million copies, is now completely revised and repackaged.

Each volume features:

* Authoritative, reliable texts

* High quality introductions and notes

* New, more readable trade trim size

* An essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare and essays on Shakespeare's life and the selection of texts

Customer Reviews:

Cambridge School Shakespeare: Nice Explanations for the Lay Reader.......2007-08-30

Note: This is a review of the particular "Cambridge School Shakespeare" edition [Edited by Rex Gibson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000] of As You Like it and not a review of the play itself.

This edition (a) contains the unabridged play and (b) tries to explain and elucidate Shakespeare's play to teenagers of the age of maybe 15-17. It clarifies difficult language, highlights the main conflicts, puts the play into a historical context and the context of the literary tradition that it belongs to. It encourages the reader to think of different possible ways to play the characters and different ways to understand the play.

I am not a teenager and I am not 16 years old any more, in fact, I am 53 years old with a PhD in Economics and a Masters in Psychology. I read Shakespeare for fun, to challenge my brain, and to grow personally. I found this edition of the play very helpful and enjoyable. The commentary neither spoiled my fun by overanalyzing or showing off its learnedness nor did it offend my intelligence by oversimplifying. In addition, the layout of the book is quite reader-friendly.

If you are a Shakespeare scholar or a scholar of English Lit, this edition will probably be too simple for you. For people of my caliber, however, I can really recommend this edition. Enjoy!

Recommended.......2007-05-09

The Caedmon recording of As You Like It is well worth the purchase just to hear two Redgraves soar in their performances.

All the world is a romantic comedy........2006-08-20

Arguably Shakespeare's Greatest Comedy........2006-07-16

As far as Shakesepare's comedies go, "The Comedy of Errors" will always be my favorite. And while this "As You Like It" never quite obtained the popularity of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" or "The Taming of the Shrew," one probably could argue that "As You Like It" is the best of Shakespeare's comedies. This play contains several plots that Shakespeare cleverly intertwines and it offers a happy ending with love triumphant. But more important than the triumph of love, the theme of reconciliation carries through to virtually everyone in the story. The story begins with the sibling rivalry of Orlando and his older brother Oliver who has hoarded the family inheritence. After a brief fight, Oliver hopes that Orlando may accidentally die in a wrestling match against Charles. This is where a 2nd plot comes in. The Duke Frederick (who has a daughter Celia) has banished his older brother (the true Duke who has a daughter Rosalind). But for now, Rosalind is allowed to stay and she has made good friends with Celia. Orlando meets these 2 girls and falls into favor with Rosalind. After the wrestling match, things start to go bad. Orlando learns that his brother Oliver is planning to kill him, and Rosalind is banished. But all is not lost. Orlando takes his loyal servant Adam and flees while Rosalind (in the male disguise of Ganymede), along with Celia, and the comical Touchstone will flee to look for Rosalind's father. And here is where the play becomes mostly comical. (Good comedies can often have a sad start. "The Comedy of Errors" shows this well.) Moving on, we meet Rosalind's father and his crew who have made exile into a paradise. From Duke Sr's party, we meet the melancholy Jaques. But he is arguably the most interesting character in the story. (In fact, the most famous passage from this play belongs to Jaques. The 7 stages of man which end in nothing. Perhaps Macbeth took lessons from Jaques: 'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.') Duke Sr welcomes Orlando and Adam, and it isn't long before Orlando and Rosalind run into each other. Shakespeare maintains the comedy when Rosalinde keeps her male disguise on and tells Orlando he must practice wooing on him/her. Touchstone has some comical romantic moments with Audrey. And there is an interesting triangle where the shepherd Silvius loves Phebe, but Phebe loves Rosalinde (seeing only Ganymede)! We may recall this from "the 12th Night" when Olivia loved Viola in her male disguise. But after this comical moment, all begins to resolve. Oliver comes on the scene and he and Celia fall in love. (So much so that Oliver is willing to reconcile with Orlando and grant him all.) The play ends with not only the reunion of Rosalind and her father, but the joyous weddings of Rosalind / Orlando, Celia /Oliver, Audrey /Touchstone, and Phebe / Silvius, but more good news comes. Celia's father mends his ways and returns all to Rosalind's father. Jaques offers the crowning touch. Despite his cynical nature, he is NOT a villain. Ironically, this hermit type man converses with more characters than anyone in the story, and while he can not take part in the play's final happiness, he DOES wish everyone well. As I said, my favorite comedy will always be "The Comedy of Errors." But don't make the mistake of overlooking this comedy.

One of the most entertaining of Shakespeare's comedies........2005-07-03

As with all of Shakespeare, the concept of love at first sight is given far too much credit, but other than that, this is a delightful romp filled with much amusement. The language is as beautiful as one expects in Shakespeare, but is somewhat less difficult for the modern reader to follow than in some of his plays; I found myself being more distracted than helped by most of the footnotes. As with most Shakespearean comedies, it was easy to see that this play was intended for the amusement of the common people; the similarities in style between the plot here and in much modern pop culture were striking (the sexual innuendo to be had when a woman passes for a man and finds another woman falling in love with her, for instance). If it had a flaw, it was that the ending was just a little TOO pat and contrived, even for a comedy, but that's just a minor quibble.

The Inheritance of Exile: Stories from South Philly

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A family history from Jerusalem to South Philly
Daughter/Mother Bonds
The Inheritance of Exile: Stories from South Philly
Culture clash in South Philly
amazing collection

The Inheritance of Exile: Stories from South Philly
Susan Muaddi Darraj
Manufacturer: University of Notre Dame Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0268035032

Book Description

"This sweet, sorrowful book is rich with insight. The Inheritance of Exile tells an authentic story of Arab-American life--these characters are true, expressive, and moving. A fully engaging, satisfying collection indeed." -- Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Origin, Crescent, and The Language of Baklava

"These dazzling stories of four Palestinian-American women and their families give us a rare portrait of the life of exiles in America. Susan Muaddi Darraj writes with care and intelligence, and her compassion for her flawed and complex characters reminds us of our own humanity." -- Laila Lalami, author of Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits

"The Inheritance of Exile is a remarkably engaging collection. With this effort, Muaddi Darraj announces her presence as a major voice in the genre of fiction. The collection sparkles with a lively sense of place, conflict, and description. So often, and so vividly, I felt as if I was reading the cultural items from my own memory." -- Steven Salaita, author of Arab American Literary Fictions, Cultures, and Politics

In The Inheritance of Exile, Susan Muaddi Darraj expertly weaves a tapestry of the events and struggles in the lives of four Arab-American women. Hanan, Nadia, Reema, and Aliyah search for a meaningful sense of home, caught in the cultural gap that exists between the Middle East and the United States.

Daughters of Palestinian immigrants who have settled into South Philly, each struggles to reconcile her Arab identity with her American one. Muaddi Darraj adds the perspectives of the girls' mothers, presented in separate stories, which illuminate the often troubled relationship between first and second generations of immigrants.

Customer Reviews:

A family history from Jerusalem to South Philly.......2007-08-01

Muaddi Darraj's collection of short stories, read together, form a loosely chronological narrative of the three-generation history of a Palestinian Christian immigrant family in south Philadelphia: Nadia, the narrator, her parents Nader and Siham, and her grandmother Siti. Strong women run in the family, and each generation is faced with the need to compromise between Old Country tradition and the American Dream. When Siham leaves her native Jerusalem to follow her new husband Nader to America, she is in for a rude discovery: that he was once married to a beautiful blonde American. When her sister falls in love with a WASP, the whole family turns against her for marrying outside of her community. When the daughter, Nadia, publishes a short story lampooning a family wedding, her father- initially so proud of his "writer" daughter- is indignant over the insulting portrayal of the behavior of certain family members. Why, he laments, could she not have stuck to fiction?
This particular theme is likely to strike a wincing chord from many writers of immigrant heritage, caught between the imperatives of using the material at hand in their writing, and the indignation and incomprehension of traditional-minded relatives for whom family dignity is sacred. But then, wasn't it Thomas Wolfe who said you could never go home again, at least not after washing your family's linen in public?
Not that Darraj does this here. Her stories are gently humorous at worst. The cultural and generational tensions that run through her work are merely the frame for the fierce interactions of close-knit families everywhere, in Jerusalem or in South Philly.

Daughter/Mother Bonds.......2007-06-28

As I finished reading this book poolside, in a rare late afternoon alone and reading, I was so obviously teary that the also-reading-woman beside me asked, "Good book?"
"Yes," I admitted, diving back into the narrative that had held me for the last 24 hours. I could not stop. Nadia, Hanan, Layla, and all the mothers, the Babas held me in the webs that had been woven for me to follow. And follow I had. This book is so well written, the stories so specific, yet full of the universal appeal of love/birth/survival/death, that I was entranced, caught in the web of South Philly and Arab-American culture.
While this is a collection of short stories, they do weave a web of tales that create a plot for careful readers to follow. The daughters seek ways to stay within family bounds while finding a path in American society. All Americans not native to this country will be able to trace a connection to these women, both generations, and the various men whom they love. I will be a long time holding the lives and loves of these characters as I continue to find my own path in this American society.

The Inheritance of Exile: Stories from South Philly.......2007-06-04

The Inheritance of Exile is an authentic novel discussing the lives of Arab-American women living in south Philly. The author portrays the difference of the two cultures very well. Her book represents the dilema,and the frustrations that all first generation Immigrants face living in this country; trying to embrace the new culture and letting go of some of the old. While reading the book I felt that I am reading about my life living and growing up in this country. It is an excellent novel and I am looking forward to reading more written by the author in the future.

Culture clash in South Philly.......2007-05-31

Susan Muaddi Darraj is a thoughtful young writer who uses a set of interlocking stories about four young Palestinian-American women and their mothers to explore the theme of exile, adjustment and hope, set in the very real neighborhoods of South Philadelphia. Her lyrical stories about her appealing and all too real characters explore important themes associated with immigration: cultural misunderstanding, religious differences (most of her exiled characters are Christians), intergenerational expectations, and the role of food and family in preserving and exploring culture. Overall, a very good read.

amazing collection.......2007-05-30

I am not an Arab-American, but I loved this book just the same. I fell in love with the characters--all of them. Their stories actually belong to anyone who hails from an immigrant background and who understands the effort to navigate two worlds: the one at home that includes relatives, parents and friends of parents, uncles, aunties--and the larger one outside the insular immigrant and cultural circle. I picked it up and read it in two days because I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys excellent, well-crafted, wonderful stories.

Castro's Daughter : An Exile's Memoir of Cuba

Average customer rating:

Name calling, lies, and innuendo... AND very poorly written.
It's like Hitler's daughter bringing you inside Dachau
Please, do you think we are that gullible?
Vanity and Poor Writing Detract from the Intrigue
Look for commies to discredit this book

Castro's Daughter : An Exile's Memoir of Cuba
Alina Fernandez , and Dolores M. Koch
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0312193084

Book Description

"Mommy, mommy, call him. Tell him to come here right away. I have so many things to tell him!"

I had a ton of things to tell him. I wanted him to find a solution to all the shortages of: clothes; of meat, so it would again be distributed through the ration books.

I also wanted to ask him to give our Christmas back. And to come live with us. I wanted to let him know how much we really needed him...

Fidel didn't answer my letter. I kept writing him letters from a sweet and well-behaved child, a brave but sad girl. Letters resembling those of a secret, spurned lover...

Customer Reviews:

Name calling, lies, and innuendo... AND very poorly written........2006-08-13

This book has zero credibility. Does she think the planet is stupid enough to believe this tripe?

And who got her out of Cuba? Armando Valladares, supposedly crippled in a Cuban prison and relegated to a wheelchair but after his release when the French press met him at the airport with a wheelchair he came bounding out of the plane walking without a problem. Then there was the fiasco of Valladares being the US's U.N. Human Rights Commission ambassador--he couldn't even speak the language of the country he represented--and who tried to strong arm other countries in voting for a Reagan/Bush resolution against the island, which failed.

Alina has had her share of problems--eating disorders, three failed marriages, disillusionment with the US, and as Wendy Gimbel points out in her book "Havana Dreams", Alina realized after a while the Miami exiles only wanted to use her in their sick 47 year vendetta against her father. Two years after her arrival in the US, she remarked to Gimbel "My father was right. The Cuban exiles are impossible."

Bottom line: not worth the paper it's printed on.

It's like Hitler's daughter bringing you inside Dachau.......2005-05-31

It's amazing how detailed Alina gets about her upbringing, her 'father' and the rollercoaster lifestyle she endured while living under her 'father's' reign. To get an idea of what Castro has done and what he is doing, especially to his offsprings is unreal. This is a book one can't put down. I don't think it had much publicity and it's underated.

Please, do you think we are that gullible?.......2005-02-25

This book is full of factual errors first of all. Second, according to spoiled, racist, elitist Alina... Fidel tells the sun when to rise and set. She makes the most outlandish claims in this book (not only about Fidel, but about everyone she mentions). According to her, Fidel had Camilo Cienfuegos killed (nevermind that his brother continues on as one of Fidel's inner circle), El Che was left to die on purpose (nevermind that El Che's family have remained close to Fidel as well), El Che's good-bye letters were forgeries (nevermind that at least one of them was made public WAY before El Che was killed). She also thinks Fidel was also responsible for the assasination of Salvador Allende (nevermind the friendship that Fidel maintained with his widow). According to her the fall of Noriega, the Shining Path and the Sandanistas was his personal doing and was all part of a deal he made with the CIA in return for the CIA covering up Cuba's cocaine trade.

Poor Alina, well you would feel sorry, but it is imposible after reading her mean and nasty comments about every single character in her story.

She admits toward the end that she was not aware that people in the "outside world" were making bundles airing thier family's dirty laundry until a publisher approached her about writing a "daddy dearest". Well, it appears that she decided to give it a try. It would be one thing if she told the truth..... but this book is a damn crime....

Maybe this is Alina's last ditch effort to get her daddy's attention. They say negative attention is better than none. This book is pathetic.

Sorry Fidel.

Vanity and Poor Writing Detract from the Intrigue.......2004-07-02

In this review, I will refrain from disgustingly regurgitating my experiences with and opinions of Cuba, Castro, and politics in general, and will provide a simple synopsis of the book. If you decide to purchase it, it will certainly evoke your own opinion of the aforementioned.

Alina Fernandez is a very poor writer who presumably has received enough fame to allow her book to be published by her nearly undeniable personal connection to Castro, the longest-reigning leader in modern Latin America. She spends the vast majority of the book explicating on her own personal battle with a variety of psychoses and mental illnesses.

The book's content is redeemed primarily by its usefulness in exposing the little talked about lifestyles of post-Revolutionary Cuba's "Rich and Famous." Fernandez sees herself as a debutante unfortunately stuck in the eternal ghetto of Havana and has little sympathy for her less fortunate countrymen. She spends pages disdaining poor country girls who come to Havana to study and reside in expropriated mansions in her neighborhood. She ridicules how, not knowing how to use a washing machine or a toilet, these "bumpkins" throw them out windows to decay on the front lawns of her once-stylish neighborhood.

This book is thoroughly wrought with poor writing and certain vanity, but its veritable glimpse into the disturbing life of Castro's daughter is admittedly appealing.

Look for commies to discredit this book.......2004-05-05

This is a great book, written by Fidel Castro's own daughter. Would you question her authenticity? I think not. Knowing the extent that the Cuban government's propaganda campaign will go to in order to discredit her, would you think that another reader named Cube could be spouting out the same rhetoric?

Cube, you are a bigger clown than Castro. You regurgitate the same excuses used on the island. Everyone knows that the United States is only 35% of the world's economy and Cuba trades with the rest of the world - do the math yourself. Everyone knows that the reason Cubans are starving is because all funds are diverted to exporting communism: in Colombia (FARC), in Venezuela (Hugo Chavez), in Brazil (Lula) in Nicaragua (Sandinistas), in El Salvador (FMLN), in Africa, in Vietnam, in Grenada, and in the United States (wasn't Lee Harvey Oswald distributing Pro-Castro leaflets just before Kennedy was assassinated?). The planes shot down in 1996 were flying in international waters looking for Cubans, like yourself, who chose to leave the island on a raft rather than live under this regime. You yourself live in Brazil - did you leave for a better life, or are you working for the Cuban government like your father? The percentages you quote ("95% of the population was starving, living in the streets, illiterate, poorly educated, had no job opportunity, etc. the other 5% lived in mansions, ate the finest food, bathed everyday, slept on a matress, etc") closely resemble what is presently happening in Cuba. Under Batista, the 5% represented wealthy land owners; under Castro, that 5% represents government officials.

Universal health care in Cuba translates to a lack of medical supplies - try and find gauze for your wounds or stitches for your surgery. Education is simply indoctrination. There exists no access to outside news agencies (the only news in Cuba is the official government news agency). Try and find a book written by George Orwell (himself an admitted socialist) or better yet, find a book by Ayn Rand. What a wonderful education system that jails individuals for up to 30 years simply for possessing books like these. In Oliver Stone's movie, Castro proudly states that "in Cuba, even our prostitutes have College Degrees." Ever wonder why someone with a college degree would have to turn to prostitution?

Book Description

The Oxford School Shakespeare is a well-established series which helps students understand and enjoy Shakespeare's plays. As well as the complete and unabridged text, each play in this series has an extensive range of students' notes. These include detailed and clear explanations of difficult words and passages, a synopsis of the plot, summaries of individual scenes, and notes on the main characters. Also included is a wide range of questions and activities for work in class, together with the historical background to Shakespeare's England, a brief biography of Shakespeare, and a complete list of his plays. Roma Gill, the series editor, has taught Shakespeare at all levels. She has acted in and directed Shakespeare's plays, and has lectured on Shakespeare all over the world.

As You Like It (Shakespeare in Production)

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As You Like It (Shakespeare in Production)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521786495

Book Description

Providing a detailed history of the play in production, both on stage and on screen, this volume's introduction demonstrates how changing conceptions of gender roles have affected the portrayal of Rosalind. The striking differences between the British tradition and the freer treatment the play has received abroad are discussed, as well as the politics of "court" versus "country." Printed alongside the New Cambridge edition of the text, the commentary draws on primary sources to illuminate how costuming, stage business, design, and directorial choices have affected the play's performance.

As You Like It (No Fear Shakespeare) (No Fear Shakespeare)

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As You Like It (No Fear Shakespeare) (No Fear Shakespeare)
SparkNotes Editors
Manufacturer: SparkNotes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1411401042

As You Like It (Oxford World's Classics)

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'Nature' , which is universally venerable
"Sweet are the uses of adversity."

As You Like It (Oxford World's Classics)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192834193

Book Description

With its witty heroine Rosalind, who has the longest role of Shakespeare's female characters, As You Like It is Shakespeare's most light-hearted and most performed comedy. This edition includes numerous illustrations of productions and reassesses both its textual and performance history,
showing how interpretations have changed since the first recorded production in 1740. It also examines Shakespeare's sources and elucidates the central themes of love, pastoral, and doubleness, and provides detailed annotations investigating the play's allusive and often bawdy language.

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'Nature' , which is universally venerable .......2005-12-16

One of William Shakespeare's comedy 'As You like it' has a lesson that a good will must be a praiseworthy thing and villainous intention is something always discouraged by the justice. It is something that we were able to learn from the fables and parents during the childhood. Duke Senior who living in banishment done by Duke Fredrick who is rascal in this comedy, and Duke Senior's daughter Rosalind disguied as a Ganymede searching for her father shows intriguing scene for the readers. True problem is that, Duke Fredrick's daughter Celia escaped with her cousin Rosalind because they are truly the confidant for each other. Therefore, Duke Fredrick displayed sense of resentment toward what his daughter and niece has done, and decide to go to wood to penalize his brother the Duke Senior. However, his attitude experiencing sudden transformation and repentant about his previous behaviors. Duke Fredrick's rapid psychological revolution should be awkward factor in this play. But we as a reader should interpret this as charater's assimilation to the nature. It means that the 'Nature' is place where has an innocent spirit and the castle, where deteriorated by human's negative will. I recommend this masterpiece, becuase there is a lesson implied in this comedy inculcate us that our human's mind has been deteriorated because of dwell in a city and surrounded by various artifact circumstances, it contradict to the 'Nature'
which has a universally respectable tranquility.

"Sweet are the uses of adversity.".......2005-08-23

AS YOU LIKE IT presents itself as a comedy but more substantially a spiritual meditation of one's conversion to goodness. While the play retains conventionalities that resonate in his other comedies, Shakespeare had obviously nudged the play to a direction that is redolent of a religious overtone. The main plot concerns Rosalind, a woman who disguises as a man but pretends to be the woman she actually is so she can woo the man by teaching him to court her. A streak of melancholy runs through the play from the beginning when Orlando is bitter at his brother Oliver who has deprived him of a genteel education and retains him at home. The melodrama of the brothers presages a possible tragedy as Oliver proposes to burn the lodging where Orlando customarily lives and with Orlando in it.

Diversion away from the city and court somewhat mitigates the tension. Far away in the fairyland-like Forest of Arden (allusive to Eden) resides a banished duke whose crown and lands his brother Frederick has usurped. Duke Senior, in his landmark opening speech in Act 2, which introduces the allegorical Arden, duly expounds the pastoral philosophy. He articulates the monologue so well that the phrases become proverbial and the speech a sermon. Most of the actions then occur in Arden and in which almost all of the characters converge. Arden in a way represents a religious ideal and a converging ground for everyone to renew their identity and spirituality.

As Orlando flees from his villainous brother, Rosalind's venomous uncle Duke Frederick banishes her from the court to be with her father. Rosalind enters Arden disguised as a young man Ganymede and teaches Orlando about wooing. Whereas the woodlands of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM are genuinely magical and populated by fairies, the Forest of Arden is like a fictitious realm that represents an ideal in which social values, love, marriage, and identity are renewed and re-examined.

Shakespeare contrived to make a tale of redemption or some sort of a moral lesson out of AS YOU LIKE IT, preaching the ideal pastoral philosophy through the de-emphasizing of the plot. The story does not seem to matter as much as the underlying moral theme Shakespeare determined to convey. While Rosalind plays a leading part of the play and peremptorily takes charge of the play's situation (which facetiously involves entangled love among multiple parties), she extorts the necessary promises from all concerned and ties the right knots. Her preponderating overshadows Orlando despite the initial stress on his manliness and valor.

AS YOU LIKE IT is predominantly in prose: the opening scene that delineates Orlando's pent-up agony proceeds in verses so does the scene in which the usurping Duke dismisses Orlando and that in which he banishes Rosalind. The scenes involving the banished Duke, who delivers a tirade on pastoral philosophy in Arden, are all written in prose. It is not a coincidence, but rather a meticulous choice that the sober and solemn parts of the play are penned in prose.

Variation of theme that manifests in different plays again surface in AS YOU LIKE IT. Rosalind, whose disguise is already a Shakespearean convention, in teaching Orlando how to woo, speaks about the caprice of human heart, the failure of lovers' to keep in pace with emotions, and the conflict between impulse, feeling, and truth.

AS YOU LIKE IT could be easily one of the most canonical plays in the repertory owing to the fact that readers can lay claim to the text on their own behalf. The endless possibilities to interpret the play also ironically invite misleading account from focusing on only selected features. The famous line "sweet are the uses of adversity" cunningly sums up how in most comedies a near tragic crisis at which disaster or happiness may ensue could be overcome by such overriding force of goodwill.

El mercader de Venecia (Clasicos seleccion series)

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El mercader de Venecia (Clasicos seleccion series)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Edimat Libros
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Readers will take pleasure in discovering the classics through these beautifully packaged and affordably priced editions of famous works of literature from all over the world. A variety of periods, themes, and authors are represented.

Los lectores tomarán un gran placer en descubrir los clásicos por estas bellas y económicas ediciones de literatura famosa y universal. Se representa una variedad de épocas, temas, y autores.

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