| Macbeth (Folger Shakespeare Library) | 
 enlarge | Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Category: Book
List Price: $5.99
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $5.98 (100%)
New (39) Used (97) Collectible (2) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 11602
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0743477103
Dewey Decimal Number: 822.33
EAN: 9780743477109
ASIN: 0743477103
Publication Date: July 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Some wear on book from reading, some spine creases, wear on binding and pages, we guarantee all purchases and ship all items via USPS mail.
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| Customer Reviews:
Folger is a good series December 31, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It would be ridiculous for someone to come on here and give Bill a bad review. When a person writes a review on a Shakespeare play, Shakespeare is not on trial, the reviewer is. So, I have no comments on the play, just the series. This is the second Shakespeare work I have read out of the Folger Library series. The running commentary and essay at the end of the play are well done and beneficial. If you enjoy reading Shakespeare, but find the archaic language hard to grasp at times, this is a good series for you.
 Yale's may be the best edition of Macbeth December 31, 2005
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
Virtually all editions of Macbeth will have at least some annotations. Rummaging through five different editions, I preferred the Yale University Press version, edited by Burton Raffel, as having the most comprehensive and comprehensible notes, as well as an excellent introduction to Shakespeare's play. Raffel not only explains the meanings of obscure words, but also gives brief notes pertaining to relevant history, geography, stage directions, etc, that are rarely addressed as fully by other editors. In addition, Raffel frequently gives the proper way to stress the syllables in a line when reading it aloud, which can be extremely helpful. (However, in most places these stresses need to be very subtle, so that you don't sound like "taDUM taDUM taDUM".) And Yale's page layout is among the clearest that I've seen.
(To find this edition: at Avanced Search, enter ISBN 0300106548; or, enter Macbeth as title, and either Raffel as author or Yale as publisher.)
As a bonus, this edition includes at the back a long essay on the play by Harold Bloom. This is not an uninteresting commentary, but Bloom desperately needs a good editor. His essay is not only at least three times longer than it should be, but is startlingly repetitious. Yale would have been wise to have asked Bloom for a rewrite.
Macbeth does murder sleep - finish it tonight August 7, 2005
One of the great Shakespearian tragedies. It deals with political avarice in the royal family and the consequences thereof on the personal lives of those involved.
What else can I say that has not already been said. The play has survived so long with such esteem for a reason. It's brilliant.
a wonderful tragedy ... June 5, 2005
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Today, many people desire to see what lies ahead in life but fail to realize the ceaseless consequences that can transpire if premonitions about the future come about prior to its arrival. Macbeth is the victim in this situation, when he receives a foretelling from three supernatural witches that he would become the king of Scotland. From then on, fueled by his greed, Macbeth does anything to reign, and goes far enough as to killing his best friend. As the previous noble knight becomes a malicious evildoer, many people in Scotland yearn for his abdication or someone to put an end to his life. Soon, their wish comes through.
Though it is difficult to understand Shakespeare's style of writing and some of the language he used, this did not keep me from enjoying the book. The story itself was action-packed and had many metaphors that related to human nature.
My suggestion on reading Macbeth is to receive an overview of the story before actually reading the text, as it is extremely convoluted (but meaningful). I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading classic literature.
A Masterpiece "To the last syllable of recorded time." April 10, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
"Macbeth" comes out as one of William Shakespeare's darkest and murkiest plays, most likely as a result of being written during one of Shakespeare's darkest times in his own life. This play strays away from the more common Shakespearean formula that contains a hero and his demise resulting from a specific tragic flaw. In "MacBeth", the title character is not a hero, but rather a villian. MacBeth murders the king of Scotland to bring truth to a prophecy given to him by three witches (the famous "toil and trouble" sisters). After assuming the throne, MacBeth returns to the witches and requests to hear the circumstances of his own death. The witches tell MacBeth he cannot be killed by any "man of woman born." Under a false assumption of near immortality, MacBeth relaxes his gaurd and perhaps displays his own tragic flaw of over confidence.
Focusing on the power corrupt and merciless villain MacBeth and his dastardly and influential wife Lady MacBeth, this play works as a twisted look into a mind poisioned with greed and hate. Though pessimistic and disturbing, this play must not be dismissed. It contains some of the most poetic language and beautiful lines ever to be written. It is no mystery that MacBeth stands as one of the most quoted works in literature. It is however a mystery that Shakespeare could create something so magnificient in a period when he saw life as "...a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
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