Customer Reviews
Arden Shakespeare - By: Spider Monkey, 03 Nov 2007 
In some respects I think it'd be rather presumptuous of me to attempt to review Shakespeare. Someone so well known & influential wouldn't benefit from my opinions on their work, plus there are more scholarly & concise reviews out there. But I can comment on these Arden versions. Of all the Shakespeare I've read I've always found the Arden copies to be well laid out & to have excellent commentary & notes on the text. They really add to your understanding of Shakespeares outstanding plays & introduce you to the depthin his work. They have superb paper quality & are bound well, withstanding repeated readings & intensive study. For your collection of Shakespeare you can't do much better than Arden publications, some are quite hard to get hold of but it's worth the effort.
High-quality guide - By: T. Bently, 07 May 2007 
I recently went to see Patrick Stewartin an RSC production of The Tempest & thought I would buy a copy of the play to look again at some of the speeches. Although I'm a little way past GCSE level I found this Cambridge School edition provided clear presentation of the text, with the play displayed down the right hand side & study notes opposite.
However, the book's real selling point is the inclusion of wonderful colour & black & white photographs of various productions of The Tempest. Several of these are from The Globe Theatre, London so provide a glimpse of what Elizabethan theatre (probably) looked like.
On the downside, some of the further study suggestions are a little simple-minded ("Draw a theatre poster advertising The Tempest featuring Ariel") but overall this is an attractively-presented guide which implicitly steers students towards the idea that Shakespeare's plays were meant to be seen & heard rather than read.
Excellent activity orientated edition - By: Bruno, 02 Feb 2007 The Tempest is rightly regarded as being one of the Bard's greatest works, containing some of his deepest thoughts on the nature of power & the relationship between rational man as controller of nature, & the animal man always to be at the mercy of the passions both of himself, others, & the world around him. In fact, this play could be thought of as representing Shakespeare's final & definitive statement on topics that he had explored throughout his cannon. But profound as the philosophy is, & despite the beauty of the poetry & the many magical elements contained within the play, the fact is that as far as the average attention lacking teenager is concerned, not a lot happens. This is why this Cambridge schools edition scores over most others. It is almost entirely activity focused, the expressed aim being to 'bring the play to life'. With at least one suggested activity beside each page of Shakespeare's text (as well as a decent amount of background notes & interpretation), every teacher armed with this book should be able to enthuse his charges with the very real relevance of this play to the world which we have bequeathed them.
bigup Shakespeare! - By: Miss.S.R.A, 26 Jul 2006 its written by one of the greatest writers of all time...so its bound to be good...and is it? YES INDEED! I studied this play for a-level, i must say its beautifully written, it had an interesting plot...a very good read!
Another Classic - By: Mr. J. Featherstone, 19 Jan 2006 Oxford World's Classics have once again proved themselves to best one of the best, if not the best, scholarly editions of famous works. Little needs to be said about such an extremely famous play, I must therefore concentrate on this version. A highly impressive introduction is offered by editor Stephen Orgel, which covers all of the main themes & issues raised by the playin extensive detail. Editorial Procedures are listed, as are a number of Appendixes. Yet the most useful feature of this edition is the indispensable notes offered at the bottom of each page, as they offer analytical information as well as help with the language & vocabulary of Shakespeare. A finely illustrated cover is the icing on the cake. Highly recommended for both teachers & students of this timeless classic.
