A Midsummer Night's Dream

By William Shakespeare

"A Midsummer Night's Dream", one of Shakespeare's earliest comedies is a spectacular tale of fantasy. The story revolves around two couples (Hermia and Lysander and Helena and Demetrius) who escape to a fairyland forest ruled by Oberon and Titania, the King and Queen of the Fairies. "A Midsummer Night's Dream", is light-hearted fare that exhibits some of Shakespeare's greatest comedic and lyrical work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781596250635

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is the world's greatest ever playwright. Born in 1564, he split his time between Stratford-upon-Avon and London, where he worked as a playwright, poet and actor. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway. Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two, leaving three children—Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. The rest is silence.

Book preview

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Reviews for A Midsummer Night's Dream

[kennethwdavis_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My favorite Shakespearean comedy, a miracle.

[pilgrimjess · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

" The course of true love never did run smooth."This is one of Shakespeare's most performed comedies and as such probably one of his best known. Consequently I'm not going to going to say anything about the plot. I personally studied this whilst at school as part of an English Literature course and despite my callow years I remember enjoying. However, I haven't read it since.Now, far too many decades later, I read Bernard Cornwell's novel 'Fools and Mortals' which centres around a speculative and fictional première of the play. Having really enjoyed reading that book decided to revisit the original. Once again I found it a highly enjoyable read which made me smile and a piece of true genius.

[jfoster_sf · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great romantic comedy.

[anagarika · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Kinda boring.

[meandmybooks-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well, what do you know? Third time wasn't the charm with this one – between reading it during my own education and with my kids for theirs, this is more like my fifth go with this play – but it's finally growing on me! I've always thought of this as “that stupid play with the lovers, the donkey, and all the irritating fairies,” but this time it seemed less stupid! I give the credit, as usual this year, to the amazing Marjorie Garber. Her essay, in Shakepeare After All, on this play was particularly good. Having just read “Romeo and Juliet” last week, I could fully appreciate the parallels she drew between the two plays, and she persuasively illustrated the ways the themes of love and envy, dreams and rationality, transformation and imagination give depth, meaning, and coherence to the play that I just hadn't seen before. The lovers are still silly and Theseus is still obnoxious, sure, but the play isn't quite the silly fluff I'd previously thought. A solid four stars.As well as Garber's book, my reading was enhanced by an audio performance from L.A. Theatre Works (2013) and the BBC's creative retelling of the play from their “Shakespeare Retold” series. The notes in the Folger Shakespeare Library (Updated) edition are quite adequate without being excessive, though in the mass market paperback edition I have the inside margin is so skimpy that the text threatens to disappear into the gutter.

[antao-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Physics of the Impossible: "A Midsummer Night&#039;s Dream" by William Shakespeare, Burton Raffel, Harold Bloom Published 2005.

I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the
wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass, if
he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was&mdash;
there is no man can tell what. Methought I was&mdash;and
methought I had&mdash;but man is but a patch&rsquo;d fool, if he
will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man
hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man&rsquo;s hand
is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart
to report, what my dream was.
(4.1.203&ndash;212)

(Paraphrase: I had the strangest dream. It is outside of the abilities of mankind to explain it: a man is as foolish as a donkey if he tries to about to expound this dream. Methought I was&mdash;there explain the dream of mine. I thought I was &ndash; well no one can really say what exactly. I thought I was &ndash; and I methought I had, -- but man is but a patched fool, if thought I had &ndash; but someone would be an idiot to say what I thought I had).

I remember watching the play for the first time in Quinta da Regaleira, Sintra in 2002 (staged by Rui M&aacute;rio). Shakespeare has always been an over-riding need for me. I don&#039;t have the ability to act, though I do write betimes, but there&#039;s nothing like the thrill of a life performance, like the one I watched in 2002.

The rest of this review can be found elsewhere.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"The course of true love never did run smooth,” comments Lysander, articulating one of A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s most important themes—that of the difficulty of love (I.i.134). Though most of the conflict in the play stems from the troubles of romance, and though the play involves a number of romantic elements, it is not truly a love story; it distances the audience from the emotions of the characters in order to poke fun at the torments and afflictions that those in love suffer. The tone of the play is so lighthearted that the audience never doubts that things will end happily, and it is therefore free to enjoy the comedy without being caught up in the tension of an uncertain outcome.This play has insoired many musicians, notably Felix Mendelssohn who wrote an overture and incidental music for the play. It also inspired Benjamin Britten to write one of his best and most impressive operas. Britten used the text of the play for his libretto which is rarely done. A fantasy, this is among my favorite of all Shakespeare's plays.

[bryndahlquis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This will always be my favorite Shakespeare play. I love all the fairies, Puck especially, and I'll never get over the four lovers' quarrels when half of them are under spells. Plus, how can anyone not enjoy Pyramus and Thisby?

[lhlogan1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Finally, a Shakespeare book I can get behind. Fun, light and crisp; this tale is a hit.

[elmyra_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Was promted to re-read this by reading Neil Gaiman's eponymous Sandman short story. Learned:That my English has gotten a hell of a lot better in the last 11 years. This was the first Shakespeare play I tried to read, and I read it by myself at the time, so I didn't really get it.That I still don't really get the "brilliance" of this particular Sandman story.That I should probably read more Shakespeare.That some of the notes to this edition are utterly useless, and that Reclam can't quite decide what level of audience they're aiming their notes and translations at.

[aarondesk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A comedy by Shakespeare on love and marriage. The way he mixes English culture with ancient mythology is brilliant.

[kerrilea-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great story of romance with enough trickery to make it fantastical. He loves her but she loves him, and nothing is ever clear when you're in the middle of it all!

This is an easy-to-read for anyone who is new to Shakespeare, play formats, or both. I highly recommend this for a fun look into romance and the drama that naturally ensues. It seems that we all have our own Fae dictating the rules of our hearts, sometimes.

[seraphinac.b4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In "A Midnight's Summer Dream", there are four lovers, Lysander and Hermia, and Demetrius and Helena. Hermia wishes to marry Lysander but Demetrius is also in love with her. Hermia's father, Egeus, wants her to marry Demetrius. If she refuses, she could receive the full extent of the law and be executed. Nevertheless, Hermia and Lysander plan to flee Athens the next night and marry in the house of Lysander's aunt. They tell Helena, who was once engaged to Demetrius, who still loves him even though he dumped her for Hermia. Helene wanting to regain Demetrius's love, tells him about Lysander and Hermia escaping. Demetrius follows Lysander and Hermia while Helena follows Demetrius. Fairy king, Oberon, notices how cruelly Demetrius acts towards Helena. Oberon orders Puck, a fairy messenger, to spread the juice of a magic flower on Demetrius's eye lids so that the first person he sees, he will love. Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and when Lysander wakes up he immediately falls in love with Helena, who was the first person he saw. Later that night, Puck tries to fix his mistake, but it ends up that they both now love Helena. The next night Puck succeeds in making Lysander love Hermia, and Demetrius love Helena. Theseus, a duke, and Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, find them sleeping and take them to Athens to be married. Overall, this book was lacking. I thought this because it was dull. I found it dull because you would know what happened next. it didn't have any cliffhangers. I thought it was slow to get to the climax... if there was one. Shakespeare wrote using strong literal and metaphorical language, which makes it confusing. It was not my cup of tea.

[grytajme · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was a stagehand for this. Incredibly fun.

[amaraduende · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

*gasp* Can I put Shakespeare in my fantasy shelf? :)

This is just such a delicious treat to read. Do yourself a favor and read it outloud - at least parts of it. It's just so fun.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Studied it for A Level. I wasn't really fond, though there were some good/clever bits in the writing.

[leslie398 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While I liked the overall plot, I found this to be one of the plays in which Shakespeare's language is hard for me. I have seen some of the film versions (most notably the 1935 movie with Olivia de Havilland & Jimmy Cagney and the BBC Production with Helen Mirren as Titania) & seeing the action does help (especially in the 'humorous' parts!).One thing that I noticed in reading this was how unpleasant I found Oberon to be.

[osunale · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I consider this my first Shakespeare: this is the play that made me fall in love with the master. It's a supremely delightful work that never wears thin with time. It's that immortal "O lord, what fools these mortals be" that does me in every time. Humorous and splendidly human despite the fairies dancing across the words.

[clq_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've been meaning to catch up on various Shakespeare plays that "everyone" has read, and after finishing a book and having no immediate plans for what to read next, A Midsummer Night's Dream was conveniently waiting for me on my Kindle.In short, I didn't really like reading it much. I can see how it would probably work much better on stage, but read as a book it didn't really do much for me.If I ever get the opportunity to see it on stage I probably will, and I'll be prepared to be pleasantly surprised at how well it can work as a play.That said, I do enjoy poems, and I found the lyrical nature of the dialogue, the rhythm and the rhyme, to be quite fun. But as a story I just didn't really appreciate it as much as I had expected.

[therebelprince · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A reasonably mild edition of a great play, but one that will be eminently suitable for highschool students and actors.

[brianinbuffalo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As hard as I've tried, I could never quite get into this one. I've read it once and seen it performed twice. Both productions were classy. Still, I found the play tedious.

[paradox98_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorite comedies. Significant to me because I've actually been in a love rhombus, as it were; therefore, I can relate some of the characters.

[librarylou · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of my favourite Shakespeare plays, very witty and funny.

[hvymetalmg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Having taken a Shakespeare class in college, I've read, studied and analyzed a number of the bard's plays. This was a sleeper as it turned out to be my favorite. If a book this old can make me laugh, that says something, especially when most television shows today can't make me smirk.

[unclebob53703 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful copy of Shakespeare's play, with the text written out by hand and Arthur Rackham's gorgeous illustrations and decorations. Gave away my copy of this to my niece one Christmas, and recently found this replacement. I'm not sure it's the same size.

[fredacochran · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Read it in high school. Loved it, it was funny

[deckla_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Perfect comedy.

[nicolesch-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"If we shadows have offended,/Thing but this--and all is mended--/That you have but slumber'd here/While these visions did appear./And this weak and idle theme,/No more yielding but a dream,/Gentles, do not reprehend;/If you pardon, we will mend./And, as I'm an honest Puck,/If we have unearned luck/Now to' scape the serpent's tongue,/We will make amends ere long;/Else the Puck a liar call:/So, good night unto you all./Give me your hands, if we be friends,?/And Robin shall restore Amends"

By ending the play with this quote, Shakespeare seems to leave it for us to decide whether the events that occurred in the woods, or if they were dreams. Perhaps this play is what inspired Louis Carroll and Frank L. Baum to do the same in their famous stories.

Everything that happens in the woods is somewhat confusing--for the characters at least. We know more-or-less what is going on, being party to Puck and Oberon's doings, but, as will sometimes happen in a dream, the characters are buffeted by abrupt changes to themselves, and those they care about. One moment Demetrius is cruel to Helena, the next he loves her. At one time Lysander loves Hermia, then claims to despise her, then back again. No wonder the characters were confused. These kind of character changes only happen in dreams, or if a person is crazy.

Every character in the play is victim to Oberon's whims, including Puck, and every character is the subject of Puck's gaffe or impishness. Oberon wants Titania's changeling. A child to whom she is attached because she was friends with his mother, and so Oberon devises a cruel game to trick Titania into giving the child to him. Along the way he decides to help Helena, but tells Puck only to find a man in Athenian clothing to enchant into love with Helena, so Puck finds Lysander, who then upsets Helena by claiming to love her, and breaks Hermia's heart. Demetrius and Lysander could have hurt one another--therefore further breaking their lady's hearts--in the turmoil that followed.

Bottom is the subject of Titania's manipulated love and Puck's parody on the two of them. Through that the rest of Bottom's troupe is also victim, being frightened, and having their practice interrupted (maybe their play wouldn't have been so painful to read if they had been able to practice more).

A Midsummer Night's Dream has got to be the most popular Shakespearean play there is. It's one of the one's that I became familiar with through Jim Weiss (though this is my first time reading the actual play) and it has been brought into books and movies, it has been adapted into movies. It has become a ballet via Felix Mendelssohn (part of which is a violinist's nightmare,) an opera by Benjamin Britten, and has shorter pieces written for it by Henry Purcell and Ralph Vaughn-Williams.

(Please note that this review was written as a discussion post in an online Shakespeare class.)

[kristina_brooke-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love sharing Shakespeare with my 5 year old. This is a very good children's version of one of my favorites. She loved it and was scolding Puck for being such a bad boy!

[cathywoolbright · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Every read of this classic reveals another tongue in cheek pun. This humorous comedy of errors deals with love, romance, fairies in an enchanted forest, a traveling actors' troupe that passes itself as professional, but offers comic relief, mistaken identity, and of course parents at the crux who will not let true love have its way. Just a simple, straightforward Shakespearean tale. Enjoy!