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The Winter's Tale (Arkangel Complete…
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The Winter's Tale (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare) (original 1623; edition 2005)

by William Shakespeare (Author), John Gielgud (Narrator), Ciaran Hinds (Narrator), Eileen Atkins (Narrator), Arkangel Cast (Narrator)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
4,740592,358 (3.67)210
Interestingly, despite being a rather conflicting mix of tragedy, humour, and romance, with a usual heapin' helpin' of coincidence, this one works better than the past two or three I've pounded through, but enjoyed very little.

But seriously, what kind of king can afford to hang with his BFF for almost a year?

Overall, one I consider a touch more slight than his better known plays, but I had to laugh at the unexpected bawdiness of the mention of dildos, orgasms, and the "jump her and thump her" lines. Shakespeare, you old dog! ( )
  TobinElliott | Sep 3, 2021 |
English (56)  Catalan (1)  Spanish (1)  Swedish (1)  All languages (59)
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This is not one of the big hits by Big Bill, but it still has charms. In spite of being set on "The Seacoast of Bohemia", and containing the amusing stage direction "Exit, pursued by a bear" there is a good deal to be gained by a reading but even more by a performance. I've read it seven times.
there is a king, who has lost his wife and daughter. A lady of the court as concealed the queen, and insured the daughter will be brought up by a reputable shepherd. Eventually, all are happily reunited. the play is brought into the shalespeare canon by 1624, but seems to have been written about 1611. ( )
  DinadansFriend | Oct 7, 2023 |
In spite of not really understanding about half the dialog, this play moved me as none of the other comedies of Shakespeare have. I was so angry with Leontes! Cheering for Paulina! Horrified at the tragic aspects of the tale, and surprised at the twist in the end. I look forward to seeing this one performed. ( )
  MrsLee | Jan 7, 2023 |
Story of a jealous man (King) who destroys his life because of his paranoid jealousies that his wife is cheating on him. He rejects his wife and the daughter she has and he supposes his wife and daughter to be dead. He is all alone as a consequence of his jealousy and realizes his error. ( )
  Kristelh | Dec 5, 2022 |
I read this due to fond memories (of reading it closely at St. Johns) and because the Shakespeare theatre (in dc) is using this place as material for its annual court case with supreme court judge and other fancy people. I believe the trial will be of Paulina, who conceals Hermione's death after the bad king Leontes falsely accuses her of adultery with his best friend. Still have fondness for this and i am open to the Winter's tale aspect (wild tale / unrealistic but to make a strong fairy tale type point) but still... the outlandishness of it did not wear well overall. No reason given for crazy jealousy, just zero to ten in anger all of the sudden and from that the deaths and tragedy all flow. but not tragedy, right? as the characters are sort of bailed out in the end. Stil... not quite the best. ( )
  apende | Jul 12, 2022 |
Leontes deserved worse than a happy ending. This is not how you treat your wife, sir.
Paulina was great though. ( )
  _Marcia_94_ | Sep 21, 2021 |
Interestingly, despite being a rather conflicting mix of tragedy, humour, and romance, with a usual heapin' helpin' of coincidence, this one works better than the past two or three I've pounded through, but enjoyed very little.

But seriously, what kind of king can afford to hang with his BFF for almost a year?

Overall, one I consider a touch more slight than his better known plays, but I had to laugh at the unexpected bawdiness of the mention of dildos, orgasms, and the "jump her and thump her" lines. Shakespeare, you old dog! ( )
  TobinElliott | Sep 3, 2021 |
Shakespeare: Hmm. "Content. 'Tis strange"... In fact, don't care much at all for it (hence all the histories I just retold, the plays I plagiarized from others). Honestly, I'm just bored by form– all tragedies and comedies have the same predictable stories.
Oh, I've got it: I'll write a play that begins as a tragedy–let's set it in winter because "a sad tale's best for winter" (2.1.25)– but halfway through, I'll come out on stage dressed up as Time, holding an hourglass, and re-do the whole play. I'll ask the audience to bear with me (mmm, yes, that's a good word, "bear"... I'll play a lot with that one, maybe even have a guy get chased offstage by a bear).
Antingonus: Arghhghhhh
Shakespeare (unbothered): You know, suspend disbelief like you're supposed to do in theater (I mean, who even cares that Bohemia's not really on the coast– anything is fair game in theater, right?). Right, so I'll come out and ask everyone to bear with me (smirk) while I speed up time: "to th' freshest things now reigning" (ha, that's good, "raining," get it? We're moving into spring rains, fertility, rebirth, etc) "and make stale/ The glistering of this present, as my tale/ Now seems to it."
Okay, so as we move into summer, my winter's tale will become "stale"/old news in the warmer weather.

Oh yeah, and let's make the "winter tragedy" be about a king who wrongly accuses his wife of being a whore, since "stale" is also slang for whore, and I like a good pun, you know? "The Winter's Stale?" Get it? Ha ha.
He'll kill her and his son (who he thinks is someone else's love child), banish his newborn daughter, but everything will be fine in the end-- a statue of the kings wife will be SO realistic that it comes to life. Ugh, and theater's so perfect for this too. Only actors can make representations of living people physically breathe. My art's way better than those stupid gilded monuments, since my characters are always coming to life again on stage. So in this play, everyone's a winner!

Antigonus and Mamillius: Hey!
Hermione: Hello? I was killed by my husband and then I have to marry him?
Paulina: My husband gets eaten by a bear and then I have to marry some random guy at the end? Psh, happy ending? What century do you live in?

Shakespeare: Ok, well, maybe the little boy stays dead. And Antigonus does get eaten by a bear, but that bear scene is just so good, it's got to stay. (I mean, how quotable are these stage directions: "Exit pursued by a bear"? So quotable.) [To the women] Hey, who's writing this play anyway?

Barthes: Well actually... ( )
  melanierisch | Oct 25, 2020 |
Definitely one of Shakespeare's lesser plays, The Winter's Tale wrestles unsuccessfully with structural problems that the Bard would only resolve in his later play The Tempest. He also delves into dynamics that he had already represented much more successfully elsewhere (the jealousy of Othello, the madness of King Lear, the disguises of Much Ado About Nothing and the fantastical cornucopia from A Midsummer Night's Dream).

On the face of it, this might suggest a muddle, but The Winter's Tale is more straightforward than many commentaries let on. A king fears he is being cuckolded by his wife and, jealously plotting revenge, he drives her into the grave and their daughter (who he believes illegitimate) into an abandoned exile. Seeing the error of his ways, a blizzard of fantastical coincidences leads his daughter, raised by a shepherd, to marry a foreign prince and return home for a happy reconcilement.

This switch from tragedy to comedy is far from elegant, and Shakespeare essentially Leeroy Jenkins-es his way through The Winter's Tale, one moment talking about cuckoldry and dashing babies' brains out and the next penning odes to flowers and chaste maidens. The resolution at the end is almost brazenly curt. It's like a dream, where there is a coherent narrative but your drowsy brain is pulling in elements from wherever it can find them, so that the play embraces violence, sexual jealousy and pastoral festivity, the coastline of the famously-landlocked Bohemia, and noblemen with Roman names consulting ancient Delphic oracles before commissioning a statue from Giulio Romano, a 16th-century sculptor.

And, crucially, like those dreams, it all makes sense in the moment, even if once you wake up you struggle to piece it together. I remember once reading a book called The Reavers by George MacDonald Fraser, a piece of nonsense by a writer who, in all his other books, had provided novels that were humorous, meticulously researched and characterised by strong storytelling. My conclusion was that The Reavers – composed in 'some sort of fit', as the blurb put it – was a revealing insight into what Fraser found funny and interesting when all the structure and responsibility was taken away. Similarly, in The Winter's Tale, seeing Shakespeare in this loose, peculiar mood is very revealing. In a strange way it makes you feel closer to him than you would get from one of his more daunting, more expertly constructed plays. ( )
1 vote MikeFutcher | Oct 7, 2020 |
This play is wild! It's so good, both comic and tragic and utterly crazy. Great. ( )
  askannakarenina | Sep 16, 2020 |
This play is wild! It's so good, both comic and tragic and utterly crazy. Great. ( )
  askannakarenina | Sep 16, 2020 |
This play is wild! It's so good, both comic and tragic and utterly crazy. Great. ( )
  askannakarenina | Sep 16, 2020 |
This play is wild! It's so good, both comic and tragic and utterly crazy. Great. ( )
  askannakarenina | Sep 16, 2020 |
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Winter's Tale
Author: William Shakespeare
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Play
Pages: 256
Words: 74K

Synopsis:


From Wikipedia

Following a brief setup scene the play begins with the appearance of two childhood friends: Leontes, King of Sicilia, and Polixenes, the King of Bohemia. Polixenes is visiting the kingdom of Sicilia, and is enjoying catching up with his old friend. However, after nine months, Polixenes yearns to return to his own kingdom to tend to affairs and see his son. Leontes desperately attempts to get Polixenes to stay longer, but is unsuccessful. Leontes then decides to send his wife, Queen Hermione, to try to convince Polixenes. Hermione agrees and with three short speeches is successful. Leontes is puzzled as to how Hermione convinced Polixenes so easily, and so he begins to suspect that his pregnant wife has been having an affair with Polixenes and that the child is Polixenes'. Leontes orders Camillo, a Sicilian Lord, to poison Polixenes. Camillo instead warns Polixenes and they both flee to Bohemia.

Furious at their escape, Leontes now publicly accuses his wife of infidelity, and declares that the child she is bearing must be illegitimate. He throws her in prison, over the protests of his nobles, and sends two of his lords, Cleomenes and Dion, to the Oracle at Delphos for what he is sure will be confirmation of his suspicions. Meanwhile, the queen gives birth to a girl, and her loyal friend Paulina takes the baby to the king, in the hopes that the sight of the child will soften his heart. He grows angrier, however, and orders Paulina's husband, Lord Antigonus, to take the child and abandon it in a desolate place. Cleomenes and Dion return from Delphos with word from the Oracle and find Hermione publicly and humiliatingly put on trial before the king. She asserts her innocence, and asks for the word of the Oracle to be read before the court. The Oracle states categorically that Hermione and Polixenes are innocent, Camillo is an honest man, and that Leontes will have no heir until his lost daughter is found. Leontes shuns the news, refusing to believe it as the truth. As this news is revealed, word comes that Leontes' son, Mamillius, has died of a wasting sickness brought on by the accusations against his mother. At this, Hermione falls in a swoon, and is carried away by Paulina, who subsequently reports the queen's death to her heartbroken and repentant husband. Leontes vows to spend the rest of his days atoning for the loss of his son, his abandoned daughter, and his queen.

Antigonus, meanwhile, abandons the baby on the coast of Bohemia, reporting that Hermione appeared to him in a dream and bade him name the girl Perdita. He leaves a fardel (a bundle) by the baby containing gold and other trinkets which suggest that the baby is of noble blood. A violent storm suddenly appears, wrecking the ship on which Antigonus arrived. He wishes to take pity on the child, but is chased away in one of Shakespeare's most famous stage directions: "Exit, pursued by a bear." Perdita is rescued by a shepherd and his son, also known as "Clown".

"Time" enters and announces the passage of sixteen years. Camillo, now in the service of Polixenes, begs the Bohemian king to allow him to return to Sicilia. Polixenes refuses and reports to Camillo that his son, Prince Florizel, has fallen in love with a lowly shepherd girl: Perdita. He suggests to Camillo that, to take his mind off thoughts of home, they disguise themselves and attend the sheep-shearing feast where Florizel and Perdita will be betrothed. At the feast, hosted by the Old Shepherd who has prospered thanks to the gold in the fardel, the pedlar Autolycus picks the pocket of the Young Shepherd and, in various guises, entertains the guests with bawdy songs and the trinkets he sells. Disguised, Polixenes and Camillo watch as Florizel (under the guise of a shepherd named Doricles) and Perdita are betrothed. Then, tearing off the disguise, Polixenes angrily intervenes, threatening the Old Shepherd and Perdita with torture and death and ordering his son never to see the shepherd's daughter again. With the aid of Camillo, however, who longs to see his native land again, Florizel and Perdita take ship for Sicilia, using the clothes of Autolycus as a disguise. They are joined in their voyage by the Old Shepherd and his son who are directed there by Autolycus.

In Sicilia, Leontes is still in mourning. Cleomenes and Dion plead with him to end his time of repentance because the kingdom needs an heir. Paulina, however, convinces the king to remain unmarried forever since no woman can match the greatness of his lost Hermione. Florizel and Perdita arrive, and they are greeted effusively by Leontes. Florizel pretends to be on a diplomatic mission from his father, but his cover is blown when Polixenes and Camillo, too, arrive in Sicilia. The meeting and reconciliation of the kings and princes is reported by gentlemen of the Sicilian court: how the Old Shepherd raised Perdita, how Antigonus met his end, how Leontes was overjoyed at being reunited with his daughter, and how he begged Polixenes for forgiveness. The Old Shepherd and Young Shepherd, now made gentlemen by the kings, meet Autolycus, who asks them for their forgiveness for his roguery. Leontes, Polixenes, Camillo, Florizel and Perdita then go to Paulina's house in the country, where a statue of Hermione has been recently finished. The sight of his wife's form makes Leontes distraught, but then, to everyone's amazement, the statue shows signs of vitality; it is Hermione, restored to life. As the play ends, Perdita and Florizel are engaged, and the whole company celebrates the miracle. Despite this happy ending typical of Shakespeare's comedies and romances, the impression of the unjust death of young prince Mamillius lingers to the end, being an element of unredeemed tragedy, in addition to the years wasted in separation.

My Thoughts:

These Ancient History plays, based on Greek history stuff, bore the stuffing out of me. Plus, the characters act completely nonsensical.

Leontes going into his jealous rage for no reason, then suddenly repenting, it just pissed me off. Of course, he repents after his wife and son die and he has sent his newborn daughter to be killed by exposure. What a bastard.

While I'm always a sucker for a Redemption story, simply changing your mind about some extremely horribly bad behavior is NOT redemption. Gahhhhh, I'm really disliking this Shakespeare fellow at the moment.

★★☆☆½ ( )
  BookstoogeLT | Aug 30, 2020 |
The title of this play, which means something between old wives' tale and fairy tale and romance (in the older sense), shows that Shakespeare was well aware of the preposterous and silly nature of the material. Arguably the setting of "the coast of Bohemia" is another nod to this because the the term was a proverbial error used ironically - and if you're not Ben Jonson you probably think Shakespeare was well enough educated to know that Bohemia was land-locked.

Despite, therefore, it being foolish to take the play too seriously it still doesn't seem to work very well. The shift from tragic to comedic tone doesn't seem to work as well as the reverse, as exemplified by Romeo and Juliet, and the resurrection in the statue scene is irritating - leaving some tragedy would have suited better and the lack of any explanation of how it could have happened irks. Perhaps one is supposed to take the whole thing ironically, like the Scream movies? I think maybe someone should take this approach to a production.

The equally daft Pericles seems to work better and I think it's because it is much more uniform in tone - it's just silly and jolly through-out. ( )
  Arbieroo | Jul 17, 2020 |
I read this after reading The Gap of Time, a retelling of it. I feel like this is the only way I'll ever get round to reading all the Shakespeare plays on my tbr shelf. Although interesting to read and compare this did not grip me and was lacking in the recognisable lines you often come across reading Shakespeare. ( )
  AlisonSakai | Jul 12, 2020 |
When I read this in High School last, I believed that I loved it more than all the other Shakespeare plays combined, and it still holds a ton of charm for me now, although not quite as much as before.

For one, the thief was slightly more annoying than as a charming plot device.

For another, it's hard to believe that even divorce could be so reconciled. :)

Granted, this is an almost magical divorce, so why not ramp up the reconciliation to wipe away the tragedy of a child's death, the loss of the newborn as well, the wrongful accusation and downfall of a true wife, and his betrayal of his loyal servant JUST BECAUSE he's been regretting all his actions for 20 years?

It's a very strong story if we're meant to feel pity for the old man. He regains everything except his eldest child because he was sincere in his remorse. It's damn beautiful, even, but in the end it's pure fantasy.

This was written at the end of Shakespeare's career and it was possibly meant to be his own expression of remorse. It fits the narrative, anyway, in the same way that Mozart wrote his own Requiem.

However, from an alternative reading of the text, I can't help but hate the blasé disregard for Hermione, the way she quietly retired away out of anyone's company for 20 years after the events (or she really did die and come back as a reanimated statue, which is slightly more palatable because at least she wouldn't have been so bored or lonely,) or the way that the rest of the world could even ALLOW THESE EVENTS TO HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE.

*groan*

Look. I'm just upset at the state of the world here. I suppose Shakespeare is upset about it as well. After all, he focuses the second act entirely upon letting young people choose who they want to love and paint all other choices as tyrannical, and Perdita herself certainly knows her own mind, so it's not all black-and-white in the play. Her mother also knew her own mind when she used her wits to do as her husband bade, too, but we all know how that turned out.

Double-standards and insane jealousy seems to be the name of the game for us all, no? *sigh*

Still, it's undeniably a brilliant play. :) ( )
  bradleyhorner | Jun 1, 2020 |
The Winter’s Tale is part tragedy, part comedy; a combination that for me did not work so well. Leontes displays the worst kind of tyranny of a jealous man; destroying his wife and children by his rage; losing his best friend and trusted servant in the process. The destructive power of jealousy is well described - he cannot hear good counsel, and rails that those who give it are trying to cover up the crime he imagines. The severe and solemn tones of the first three acts are all tragedy, ending with tragic deaths and departures.

Then we swerve into comedy in the last two acts - sheperd’s festival, bawdy jokes, a thief’s dirty tricks, and a love story dominate the second half. Darker tones do surface, however, in an angry king, echoing Leontes’ tyranny. But is it all well if it ends well? And, perhaps most ambigously of all Shakespeare’s plays I have read, does it really end well? What did really happen?

My Arden Shakespeare edition advises me that the Reneissance’s big questions are pondered here - Time and Nature and the like. Perhaps. I am still reading the non-play parts of the text, so I might learn more. However, without the talking heads interpreting the text for me, I find this play a bit too disjointed - the two tones did not merge for me well, and I could not forgive Leontes for his tyranny, which went unpunished, as it was his right to abuse his wife in such terrible way. It us a reminder how utterly women were subjected to men, and that their word did not count. ( )
  Gezemice | Mar 8, 2019 |
I have drunk and seen the spider.

One’s suspension of disbelief will be sorely tested here. The king of Sicily is a paranoid git. Was he always of this character or did he arrive at such by an untoward alignment of humors? Again, just go with it. The tyrant is convinced that his wife has been untrue. The king of Bohemia is the suspect. His wife is pregnant, a physical symbol of his being cuckolded. This is a comedy, right? He's allowed to fume and bellow, allowing a stage of fire and fury to persist through a trial and beyond with a flourish of Nixonian exactness .

The accused flee and then the sunny Czech coast becomes the subsequent location as sixteen years have lapsed since the previous act, the interim allowing the child to have grown to a plot pivot. There’s a bear, a clown and several royals in disguise. There is an amazing of wooing where the natural character of the garden is discussed and explored. I was hoping for something akin to The Tempest and alas it didn’t happen. ( )
  jonfaith | Feb 22, 2019 |
The first Shakespeare I've read on my own, i.e. not for a class. Not sure what I think of it yet. The ending seemed wooden, as if everyone was just going through the motions. Probably my own projection.

It was enjoyable, but I'm motivated more by my desire to read Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare than I am Shakespeare himself. ( )
  TheMagnificentKevin | Oct 12, 2018 |
This is another Shakespeare play I have read in anticipation of seeing it next weekend at The Globe, as I did a fortnight ago with Othello. However, I found this play to be nowhere near as enjoyable. The plot seems too thin and insubstantial in practice for five acts, and the atmosphere of fantasy does not work for me - this is considered one of the Bard's "problem plays", neither a true tragedy nor a comedy, though containing elements of both. Like Othello, it is marked by themes of jealousy and remorse, but nowhere near as vividly and convincingly for me. ( )
  john257hopper | Oct 7, 2018 |
It's the binding and illustrations that make this edition of The Winter's Tale special. ( )
  deckla | Jul 16, 2018 |
We weep, we dance, we shiver, we bake, we live, we die. This is the Ecclesiastes of the dramatic canon and I want it played at my funeral. ( )
2 vote MeditationesMartini | Jul 17, 2017 |
Had no idea how good this one was until we hit it in class, now it's really stuck with me, and really changes how I've always thought of Shakespeare (which, to be fair, is based more on his earlier plays and career than these later ones). ( )
  likecymbeline | Apr 1, 2017 |
I really wanted to see this play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this year but had to settle for Hamlet on the night I rolled through Ashland. Really enjoyed this one, especially as I realized that I hadn't read it before. Also cool to realize the queen might be the namesake for the Harry Potter character. And the Folio Society Letterpress edition is a joy to read.
  jveezer | Oct 12, 2016 |
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Penguin Australia

2 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 014071488X, 0141013893

 

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