Who ever said Shakespeare was boring? A lot of people do, and for reasons still beyond me. His tragedies are well written pieces that hit the human heart so hard we can sympathize greatly. So maybe you don't like everybody dying ... well everyone loves comedy!

Shakespeare just goes to show you that people don't change much ... comedy is comedy, and throughout the ages people like to laugh. There are countless puns, (and clever ones too!), and the situation itself proves to be a funny one. It seems silly, but it is the silly things in life which we laugh at. Shakespeare wasn't a hopeless romantic or depressed and neurotic playwrite ... he was a commidian, and anyone who reads THE COMEDY OF ERRORS should be able to see this.

Laptop Joyce

This is an admirable effort that includes all of "Dubliners," "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," the play "Exiles," a collection of poems, including "Chamber Music" and "Pomes Penyeach," five chapters from "Ulysses," and three from Finnegan's Wake. The entire volume is introduced briefly (16 pages); each major work has a short preface as well. Not surprisingly, such brevity omits the many interpretations of Joyce's works, and much background material. But this is a good get-your-feet-wet volume: An introduction to the major themes and styles of Joyce that can be approached by readers of varying experience.

"Dubliners" is easily comprehended at first reading (although the reader may choose to pursue its many layers by reading books that focus on interpretation), and may encourage the extra effort (and resulting pleasures) sometimes required for the other material. The inclusion of a few chapters from "Ulysses" and "Finnegan's Wake" afford a sampling of the author's more "difficult" books. I don't think the reader will come away with an appreciation of the total book (how could one?), but will gain some familiarity with Joyce's more complex works.

Should you buy this compact, thick, version, or the works individually? I think there are two groups to whom the book will appeal: The reader who wants a fairly comprehensive introduction to Joyce, and the Joyce-fan who knows he or she would like a portable collection. Both types will forfeit some ease of reading (the print is small, but surprisingly clear), the complete text of the longer books, and literary "decoding" and criticism for the convenience and savings of one volume. For these readers, this volume is highly recommended.

I was out on a shopping venture intending to buy a copy of Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" when I stumbled on to this Joyce volume. For only $4 more, this is well worth it. Not only does this include "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", but it also includes Joyce's revolutionary short story collection, "Dubliners". Levin also includes samples of other Joyce writings including pieces of "Ulysses" and "Finnegans Wake". The writings of Joyce speak for themselves; therefore, anyone serious about literature already knows they should read Joyce. Since it is not necessary to tell the literary public to read Joyce, I just wanted everyone to know that this volume contains a lot more Joyce for not too much more money.

Within the pages of the Portable James Joyce the reader will find two of the greatest works of all time, his Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Additionally, Levin has included exerts from Joycs's epic stream of consciousness works, Ulyssis and Finnegan's Wake. But what I found the most pleasant was the inclusion of some of Joyce's lesser acclaimed poetry, including Chamber Music and his three act play Exiles. Harry Levin has strung together all of what has made Joyce the worlds prominent literary artist while also providing for alternative perspectives of his voice and genius. Truly a must for any Joycean and students of the writen word.

This book has useful (though not terribly complete) introductions to each of the plays, focusing mainly on comparing various Folio and Quarto editions of the plays. It also contains some nice pictures, though I wish the Latin in them were translated or shown at a legible size. It has very nice appendicies nothing the first appearances of all the characters in the plays, and a timeline showing what historical events were occuring in relation to works written by Shakespeare and events in his life, as well as to plays by other playwrights and other literature produced at that time. The pages are relatively thin and the print small. However (this referes to the '74 edition, maybe they have changed it since then) the plays are a royal pain to read. The pages are about a foot high and the notes are at the bottom. There is no marking to indicate whether a line has a note, so the reader must read a line or two, glance down at the notes, read another few lines, look at the notes again, and so on. Were it not for this major annoyance, this would be a very good (and very complete) edition of Shakespeare's works.

While I sympathize somewhat with the review below -- the introductions do quibble a bit over the differences between Folio and Quarto versions, the exact source material etc. -- I found this to be an excellent version of the complete works. The essay before each play is very helpful toward understanding the literary context of the play--they _do_ talk about the characters and the action of the play, in a way that nicely complements the text. The illustrations (some black and white, some color) are also interesting and helpful. The book contains both a general introduction, which is accessible, if slightly daunting, to a reader who might not be intimately familiar with all of the plays, serving to excite interest at least. It also contains an essay on 20th century Shakespeare criticism, which introduces many of the newer movements in Shakespeare criticism that are not included in the general introduction (which focuses more on the Elizabethan historical period, and more immediate reactions to the plays). The footnotes, while they are not indicated on the line itself, are located on the same page. In looking at several other editions, I found that footnotes were sometimes actually endnotes--i.e. located in one section at the end of the play, which would be very disruptive to reading. Happily, this is not the case in this edition.

The book, as the title claims, includes all of Shakespeare's plays, Sonnets, and poems. The appendices include many other interesting tidbits that help shine some light on old Billy's life, including his will, in which he enigmatically bequeathed a "second-best bed" to his wife. Other documents are included, often with explanations to help the reader to understand (as the documents are printed verbatim, the Elizabethan spelling and punctuation is a slight impediment).

Overall, I found this to be the best of the paperback and hardcover editions I examined.

This one-volume edition of Shakespeare's works is the most complete I found on the market: it includes "The Two Noble Kinsmen", Shakespeare's addition to "Sir Thomas More" (with photographical reproduction of the pages believed to be in his handwrite), the currently hot debated poem "A Funeral Elegy by W. S." and, above all, "The Reign of King Edward III", a new play recently accepted in the canon by many authoritative editors (Arden, Cambridge, Oxford). The text of each work is carefully edited and accompanied by helpful glossarial notes, a textual discussion with short bibliography, and an impressive collation which allows the reader to find variant readings and emendations. An exhaustive critical introduction precedes each play and poem, dealing with authorship, date, sources, textual differences between quarto and folio texts, and of course the principal thematic issues. What makes this a superb edition - and indeed a real "companion" to Shakespeare studies! - is the great amount of subsidiary material, including a general introduction - focusing on Shakespeare's life, art, language, style, and on the Elizabethan historical and theatrical background - and a series of useful essays on various themes: critical approaches to the plays and poems, philological issues, history of the plays on the stage, television and cinema. There are also many interesting documents, synoptic tables, glossaries, indexes, illustrated tables (both coloured and b&w) , the reproduction of the introductory pages of the First Folio of 1623, and a rich bibliography. I personally consider this book a must have for every teacher, scholar, or simply amateur of the greatest of all poets. Buy it!

With its scenes of war and mobs, CORIOLANUS is a work best expirienced on the stage, of course, being one of his least popular plays, it doesn't get produced too often.

The only killing Coriolanus does is on the battle field, but he still comes off as a much less likable character than the murdering Hamlet or Macbeth because Coriolanus spends much of the play berating the citizens of Rome. CORIOLANUS has often been called Shakespeare's manifesto against democracy because of this, but the play is much more complex than that. Yes, it's a play about the fickleness of the masses, but it's also about leaders who don't perform their responsibilities either.

The play is much more political than emotional, and therefore not one I'll return to often, but its political statements are as timely today as they were 400 years ago, if not moreso.

I never understood why this play is so unpopular. Coriolanus is a very striking figure. He is a brave and valiant soldier. Yet, he has contempt for the people he protects. In all honesty this is very common. Shakespeare never allows the intensity of this play to drop for a moment. At first Coriolanus fights to the extreme for Rome. Then he fights to the extreme against Rome. His reconciliation with his former enemy Aufidius in 4.5 is a very memorable scene. Only when he is confronted by his mother, wife, and son does he go through a crisis of conscience. It is interesting that because he begins to see the world in terms other than himself, his downfall becomes inevitable. To be sure, this play is not a masterpiece like "Julius Caesar," "Hamlet," "King Lear," or "Richard III." But it is A LOT BETTER than some of his popular plays like "Othello" or "Romeo and Juliet." I highly suggest it!

This inexpensive volume is a fine edition with very readable text, good notes, and a nice introduction. Coriolanus is not one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, though it has its partisans. As with several of Shakespeare's best plays, it is an attempt to combine an investigation of the nature of power with a psychological portrait. The nature of power or kingship was one of Shakespeare's great themes, featured in some of the great tragedies like MacBeth or Lear, and this theme runs through many of his history plays. In Coriolanus, however, this theme is handled less well. It is interesting to speculate why Shakespeare, who dealt with this theme so well in many plays, doesn't do such a good job in Coriolanus. The action in Coriolanus is set in a republic, not a monarchy. The structure of republican politics is not one Shakespeare would have known well and the problems of politics and authority in a republican are different than those of a monarchy. Particularly for modern audiences, whose intrinsic understanding of republican politics is much greater than Shakespeare's, the clumsy handling of the tension between the aristocratic Coriolanus and the plebes rings false. In addition, the psychological portrait of Coriolanus is not nearly as rich as Shakespeare's analysis of quite a few of his other protagonists. Much of the language in Coriolanus is powerful but it lacks the dramatic movement and insight of his best work.

Reading "The Ambassadors," I was awed by the subtletly of emotion and social gesture James was able to describe. Clearly here was a crafted that had been years in the honing, and I appreciate the book's liberation from the plot-heavy mechanics of earlier books like "The Portrait of a Lady" and "The American." Everything is only subtly insinuated; whole lives can hinge upon half-meant gestures or long-buried social prejudices. In this way, the book has some of the wistful tone of "The Age of Innocence," but more depth if less elegant prose.

The prose is the thing -- James was dictating by this time (how on Earth does one dictate a novel?), and it shows. His chewy ruminations and meandering, endlessly parenthetical sentences are hard to digest. I think James went too far in his late style, and "The Ambassadors" might have benefited from a sterner editor. Still, this is an important book, absolutely worth the read.

James' novel affected me in part because I also fell in love with Paris, though not with a Parisian. The sinuous, difficult prose provides the perfect vehicle for the adventures of aging Lambert Strether as he goes to Paris to try to recover a New England son who will not return to his domineering mother and take a role in the family business--manufacturing an article that is never named. In Europe he meets a degree of sophistication he had never known but also a jungle of moral ambivalences. If I gave the novel only four stars, it is not because of the difficult prose, which I sometimes cursed, but because the crucial instance of moral turpitude which he describes seems practically banal now. I once bundled up all my Henry James books in a fit of pique and was on the way to taking them to a library book sale, but thought better of it. And it was a better thought.

The prose is certainly difficult, but the extra attention it requires from the reader yields benefits: the slightest nuance in the narrative registers. And, as in all late James, these subtle hints and nuances are of the essence.

I was rather surprised as to how funny it often was. But, as with many great comedies - "Twelfth Night", "Don Quixote" - there is a profound sadness under the surface. There is a passage near the beginning where Strether looks back on the disappointments of his life, and, in particular, his failure to communicate with or understand his son, who is now dead. This passage affected me so deeply, that I had to read it a few times before progressing with the rest of the novel.

Strether becomes increasingly aware that life has passed him by, and that in the course of it all, he has missed something: but what it is he has missed he can not specify. He urges the young people around him to live, but his instructions on how to do so are necessarily vague. Eventually, he has to to reject the narrow puritanical code which has fettered his life, but remains to the end a quixotic figure, clinging on to his moral integrity even when all around him appear to lose theirs. The closing episodes of this novel are as moving as anything I have read.

Although The Scalet Letter is superbly written and there is no denying the greatness of Nathanel Hawthorne, I must admit that the book was, perhaps, a bit on the dry side. Hawthorne, himself having grown up in Puritan Salem, writes from first-hand experience of the unwavereing rigidity and intolerance of Puritan society. Hester Prynne, having committed the unthinkable sin of adultery and conceiving her illegitimate child Pearl, becomes a veritable pariah as she is forced to live on the outskirts of town and wear the ignominious scarlet letter A on her bosom for eternity.

In sanctimonious colonial Salem, Hester's impropriety is tantamount to murder in today's society. She, however, should not have to bear the guilt alone. As they say, it takes two to tango. Reverend Dimmesdale, in his absolute cowardice, is just as, if not moreso, guilty than Hester. Furthermore, the biggest coward and hypocrite proves to be none other than her spineless husband, Roger Chillingworth. I must say that the reading was at times a bit laborious, but a good read nonetheless. I must further confess that the movie version with Demi Moore is much more rewarding, although the book should undoubtedly be read first.

I enjoyed reading The Scarlet Letter. I was not forced into by a Literature teacher; I picked it up on my own because I heard it was a great American classic; and, indeed, I have to agree. It is truly timeless. It has been almost five years since I have read this book and I can remember the scenes and words so vividly. Hawthorne's dizzying imagery provides an adventure into the life of a Puritan woman, Hester Prynne, that one does not soon forget.

Hester, practically abandoned by her husband is left to take care of herself in a lonely new world. She is flesh and bone with desires and passions like any other human being. Hester commits adultery and is found out by a cruel, judging community. She must wear a Scarlet A on the front of her dress; A for Adultery. Hester refuses to give the name of her lover Dimmesdale so he goes free and untouched by the damning society, but must face the tortures of his own conscience.

Hester is humiliated and must suffer the consequences for her actions but she is not a broken woman. She stands, brave.

Dimmesdale comes through in the end and admits his role in the dangerous game. Hawthorne takes the readers on a spinning ride to get to this point. Read it and know the exact ending for yourself. I recommend it; highly.

The majority of reviews for Hawthorne's classic, THE SCARLET LETTER, here at Amazon.com have been negative. Many of the people writing the reviews appear not to have read much classic literature. To give them credit, I don't know why this novel is forced upon young minds and influential minds. This book is not meant for the close-minded. Having lived a life as shallow as most Americans do today, it would be hard to appreciate the genius of Hawthorne's masterpiece.

THE SCARLET LETTER remains as significant today as it did when it was first published. The book, though full of symbolism, is much more than a simple morality tale. It is a tale of passion and lust, truth and lies, life and death, revenge and betrayal. The story illustrates the disasters of living an unhonest and sinfilled life. It serves as a historical text in to an age that has past away and it gave us one of the first truly feminist characters in American literature. The story remains prevalent because it speaks on so many different levels, illuminating a little of each person as they read.

Therefore, do not be discouraged by the large vocabulary and do not let one's inexperience in life and literatrue dissuade you from reading one of the great pieces of American literature.

As a footnote, the WSP Enriched Classic edition of the novel includes a wonderful introduction, pictures, critical excerpts, notes of Hawthorne's, and a few other extras that make this a superb copy to own.