One of Shakespeare's earlier comedies, "Love's Labour's Lost" does not even hold a candle to some of the Bard's greatest comedic works (A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, The Winter's Tale). Yet, for all its lack of blazing greatness, the play is indeed a joyful diversion.

The plot is that of a philosopher's paradise being invaded by the most nefarious of things...love.

Shakespeare means many things when he speaks of love: often it can be shallow, bawdy lecherous love, sometimes it is an almost Petrachan yearning "courtly" love, once in a while it is a self destructive, clasping, obsessive love. Here it is pretty much straight-up attraction of the "hey, I'd like to marry you" variety.

As the noble, well-meaning but unable to restrain themselves philosopher's fall for the beauties of this tale, many awkward situations occur. Much of the humor here is of this vein. Plays on words and outrageous situations provide most of the laughs.

For fans of Shakespeare, I wholeheartedly endorse this great play. For beginners, I recommend starting with one of the plays mentioned above.

Be forewarned. Even if you have read a lot of Shakespeare's plays, this one is difficult and demands much effort to follow. But, if you can push yourself into reading this, it is well worth the time. Shakespeare himself performed the role of Berowne. While this is a comedy, the humour relies on irony as opposed to funny events. Also, unlike his other comedies, this one does not end in utter happieness. The interaction of the characters, as well as the situation comedy (especially in 4.3) is quite memorable. This comedy differs significantly from most of his others, but it is a wonderful piece of literature.

A clear-headed bit of detective work that builds up a profile of the people Shakespeare was writing his plays for. Seven chapters: The Evidence, How Many People?, What Kind Of People?, Behavior, Quality: Elizabethan Appraisals, Quality: Modern Appraisals (these last two refer to the audience's capacity to appreciate the works), and Our Shakespeares And Our Audiences. Harbage dispels the image of the riotous, illiterate groundlings and the snobbish galleries. I was surprised to learn that the Globe probably had a maximum capacity of 3,000; and Harbage deduces that the average attendance at the Rose was 1,250. Some other tid-bits: about 10 percent of London went to plays each week; craftsmen made up the majority of the audience. Harbage qoutes a lot from a variety of sources and you will get a flavor of the times Shakespeare worked in--and because of Harbage's grounded arguments it will feel like an accurate flavor. A single hold-on-there: the book was written in 1941 and I don't know if later scholarship has made Harbage turn somersaults or not. If you're beginning your study of The Bard (as I am) then include this book--it's only 170 pages!

In his attempt to reconstruct Shakespeare's audience, Harbage rehearses the documentary evidence concerning the architecture and material practices of Elizabethan playhouses, such as the Fortune and the Rose. While arguably dated, his analysis still holds up pretty well.

An important source for anyone interested in period staging of Shakespeare's plays.

Dead Man's Riddle is a tricky mystery about three investigators, Jupiter, Pete and Bob. They set out to find old Dingo'S jewles. Dingo is a old crazy man that died and made up a riddle to find where his jewles were hidden. He did this because he didn't want his greaty family to get their hands on his jewles. During the investigation they get into deep trouble. The Percivals who are related to Dingo kidnapp the three investigators to kerp them out of the way. Who will get the jewles first?

The Mystery of the Shrinking House offers up yet another impressive display of young Jupiter Jones' deduction skills. At first, there does not seem to be much of a case at all-a Countess wants to reclaim the items from her dead brother's estate, all of which had recently been purchased by Jupe's Uncle Titus for the Jones Salvage Yard. By the time the Countess arrives to make the request, all of the items have been sold, and the boys take on the task of tracking the items down. They find almost everything except for a strange series of 20 paintings; these paintings all depict a particular house, and the house is drawn progressively smaller on each one. When bad guys show up to interfere with the Three Investigators' budding investigation, Jupiter knows that the strange paintings are the key to something big. It is worth noting that this book features Jupiter's young nemesis Skinny Norris, but Skinny once again proves himself to be no Dr. Moriarty to Jupiter's Sherlock Holmes.

It's a well-told story, complete with a surprise or two at the end. The whole logic of the shrinking house clue ended up feeling slightly contrived, but the path to discovery was an enjoyable one. The boys seem to walk right into one trap after another, but these detectives have never left a mystery unsolved and refuse to do so now, even in the face of danger. There is plenty of action in these pages, but this story really does hinge on the deductive reasoning powers of Jupiter Jones. In this, his fourth Three Investigators mystery (and the eighteenth in the series as a whole), William Arden demonstrates a good feel for the characters, but even he fails to capture all of the nuances that made series creator Robert Arthur's books so gripping and entertaining.

Wonderfully exciting as I remember it! Although it was seventeen years ago I will never forget it. For a twelve year old growing up off the coast of San Francisco Bay it keep my imagination overflowing with thoughts of sharks and dark mystery! A book I surely recommend for todays youth! If you read this book when you were young E-Mail me, and we'll discuss the book, the age and the interest in reading that this book inspired!

This book is covers a very concise and clear area of Pediatric Dermatology. The index is easy to use and photographs are clear. It should be a very useful reference book for any busy pediatric practice or for those pediatric residents studying for the Pediatric Boards.

The best guides "take us to the point where the view is best, step aside and let us look at it, assuming a right sense of propriety that their forms are not essential to the landscape."

I first read Harbage's book in college nearly twenty years ago to help me through an advanced level course, but recently picked it up again to find it just as fresh and inspiring. Many of us, even those who love to read, initially experience frustration when reading the massive works of Shakespeare. Harbage asserts that this predicament is due primarily to "barriers to communion," certain challenges we experience in our efforts to understand Shakespeare's four-hundred-year-old writings, not the least of which Hargage calls the bard's "complex simplicity."

But Harbage, with delicate and expert hands, removes the barriers one by one allowing us a clearer view without telling us how to respond so that we can experience the works in our own unique and wonderful way.

We learn about alliteration, prose, oxymora, juxtapositions, characterization, metamorphosis, submerged metaphors, "diction, the metrical and non-metrical media, and the dramatic design as it emerges from a script" until when, before we know it, we become our own producers for plays that magically dance and flow across the stages of our minds. By the end of the book we have the foundational tools we need to truly enjoy all the passion, wit, and marvelous imagery that is Shakespeare.

The book is a collection of diverse papers on inverse problems. The papers cover different applications and different techniques applied to inverse problems.

For a starter on inverse problems, the book presents the latest work and provides pointers to follow up the content. This will save a lot of boring library work :)

This is Three investigators at there best ...Looking for a Java Jim (no refernce to the computer language as the book was written much before Java was invented).Those rainy sunday mornings & an island in morning mist...there is a certain thrill which is beyond words...all the three investigator lovers will find it as absorbing as it gets.Long live Pete,Jupe & bob!!

Many people would like to say that Shakespeare did not write this play. But this is hardly fair. Even with the world's finest writers such as Marlowe and Dickens, not every single thing they write can be a masterpiece. But what makes "The Two Gentleman of Verona" worth reading? Well, Shakespeare presents us with a valid theme. (Conflicts often exist between romance and friendship.) There is also beautiful language. Launce and his dog offer some interesting comedy as well as a beautiful and memorable passage in 2.3. The scene where Valentine is accepted amonst the outlaws is memorable. This is Shakespeare's first play where a woman (Julia) disuises herself as man to do some investigating. It is also easy to see that several elements of this play were used in "Romeo and Juliet." To be sure, this is not a masterpiece like "The Comedy of Errors," "Richard III," or "King Lear." But it is still an good study that is worth some interest.

Although few would claim that Two Gentlemen of Verona is one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, it is well worth reading in order to serve as a reference for the best of his romantic comedies. In essence, Two Gentlemen of Verona gives you a measuring stick to see the brilliance in the best works.

The play has the first of Shakespeare's many brave, resourceful and cross-dressing heroines, Julia.

Shakespeare always used his fools and clowns well to make serious statements about life and love, and to expose the folly of the nobles. Two Gentlemen of Verona has two very fine comic scenes featuring Launce. In one, he lists the qualities of a milk maid he has fallen in love with and helps us to see that love is blind and relative. In another, he describes the difficulties he has delivering a pet dog to Silvia on his master, Proteus', behalf in a way that will keep you merry on many a cold winter's evening.

The story also has one of the fastest plot resolutions you will ever find in a play. Blink, and the play is over. This nifty sleight of hand is Shakespeare's way of showing that when you get noble emotions and character flowing together, things go smoothly and naturally.

The overall theme of the play develops around the relative conflicts that lust, love, friendship, and forgiveness can create and overcome. Proteus is a man who seems literally crazed by his attraction to Silvia so that he loses all of his finer qualities. Yet even he can be redeemed, after almost doing a most foul act. The play is very optimistic in that way.

I particularly enjoy the plot device of having Proteus and Julia (pretending to be a page) playing in the roles of false suitors for others to serve their own interests. Fans of Othello will enjoy these foreshadowings of Iago.

The words themselves can be a bit bare at times, requiring good direction and acting to bring out the full conflict and story. For that reason, I strongly urge you to see the play performed first. If that is not possible, do listen to an audio recording as you read along. That will help round out the full atmosphere that Shakespeare was developing here.

After you finish Two Gentlemen of Verona, think about where you would honor friendship above love, where equal to love, and where below love. Is friendship less important than love? Or is friendship merely less intense? Can you experience both with the same person?

Enjoy close ties of mutual commitment . . . with all those you feel close to!

"The Two Gentlemen of Verona" is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. Maybe that's because it's one of the only one's I understand. My youth Theatre did a wonderful production of this play. I was not in it, but I saw it twice. It was set in the 60's, peasant-shirted and bell-bottomed. I think it's a wonderful story, although a bit unrealistic because of all the forgiveness that happens at the end of the play. But I think that it's a play everyone should read. This edition of the play is, I think, a very good one. If you are planning to buy a copy of "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," I would advise you to buy the most current edidtion printed by the Folger Shakespeare Library. They have lots of information in the book, and many definitions of the more difficult Elizabethian words.