Unique features include an extensive overview of Shakespeare's life, world, and theater by the general editor of Signet Classic Shakespeare series, plus a special introduction to the play by the editor Sylvan Barnet, Tufts University. This book contains information on the source from which Shakespeare derived "Othello"--selections from Giraldi Cinthio's "Hecatommithi". Special introduction by Alvin Kernan, Princeton University.

Love and marriage and coming to terms with the mate one has chosen are examined in this comedy of cross purposes when a father stipulates that his elder, and shrewish daughter, must be married before the younger.

Romeo and Juliet, two teens from opposite sides of feuding families in medieval Verona, spark a tragic chain of events when they fall in love and secretly marry.

Has any other love story become so enmeshed in our culture as the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet? In fair Verona the families of Montague and Capulet are locked in a long-standing, bitter blood feud when young Romeo Montague slips into a masquerade party at the Capulet's. During the dance he glimpses Juliet, the daughter of the house, and is struck by love at first sight. She returns his passion and they promise each other everlasting love notwithstanding...

Passions unleashed cause much wooing and confusion in the magical woods of Athens. Whether real or induced by magical potions seems to mak little difference, showing that love is far from rational, though those afflicted might feel otherwise. A Midsummer night's dream is a delightful comedy that offers something for everyone. The intertwined love constellations include Hermia and Lysander, who having decided to elope, steal away into the forest. Demetrius,...

Moss lives alone with her magician father and a dog on a magical island, until a tempest sweeps a wild, not-quite-human boy, Callan, onto its beaches, and the two grow close, despite her father's worries--and then one day, a young man from the outside world is shipwrecked on her island, and after that nothing will be the same again.

When the mysterious fog of the Ruining crept over the world, the living died and the dead rose. Only the walled city of Viyara was left untouched. The heirs of the city's most powerful--and warring--families, Mahyanai Romeo and Juliet Catresou, share a love deeper than duty, honor, even life itself. But the magic laid on Juliet at birth compels her to punish the enemies of her clan--and Romeo has just killed her cousin Tybalt. Which means he must...