The Sonnets and a Lover's Complaint (Penguin Classics)
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Product Description
Product Description
When this volume of Shakespeare's poems first appeared in 1609, he had already written most of the great plays that made him famous. The 154 sonnets - all but two of which are addressed to a beautiful young man or a treacherous 'dark lady' - contain some of the most exquisite and haunting poetry ever written, and deal with eternal subjects such as love and infidelity, memory and mortality, and the destruction wreaked by Time. Also included is A Lover's Complaint, originally published with the sonnets, in which a young woman is overheard lamenting her betrayal by a heartless seducer.
About the Author
William Shakespeare is the most revered English playright. His plays include Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet and King Lear.
John Kerrigan is a lecturer in English at Cambridge University.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory; But thou, contracted to mine own bright eyes, Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance lies, Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory; But thou, contracted to mine own bright eyes, Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance lies, Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I already had the sonnets in another volume but I couldn't resist this copy. The quality of the paper and ink are impressively high, making this a beautiful book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Beautiful
2 Feb 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This review is not about the text itself, but the presentation done by Penguin and Bickford-Smith. As with each of her designs in this series it is beautiful. A timeless presentation of a literary classic.
John du Prey - Classical Review
17 Mar 2012
Format:Hardcover
To speak in Shakespeare's language, one must understand the playwright and poet developing and honing his precise skills all the while writing strict, disciplined 14-line sonnets. How does one infuse a sonnet with a lip (the 14th line) with love, passion, intimacy, tenderness, and dramatic flair. Does one invent romantic drama out of thin air? I think not. You experience the kiss or touch, and you write about it. Yes, you observe couples kissing or holding each other, and create emotive poetry.
Where does one start when writing highly romantic sonnets? A sonneteer starts with his or a sonneteress with her Prologue, the title to their sonnet: the dove flutters her wings with delicate motion. Yes, unsubtle passion may find her way into Act Two. The sonneteer now becomes the playwright, and accepts the challenge; although the lady in waiting may be writing her Mirrored Sonnet in the feminine to his masculine words. This is all done in a genteel manner.
To wit, their crescendo must rise immediately from Line 1 to 4 (Act I), then rise with power from Lines 5 to 10 (Act II), then rise within the ascending mode to a denouement from Lines 11 to 15 (Act III). One writes to the sacred crescendo, decrescendo, diminuendo, denouement and climactic points (two mini-climaxes ending Lines 4 and 10; a major climax or lip ending Line 14) or one does not write a exquisite romantic sonnet (I shudder at the thought).
Does anyone enjoy a flat or linear sonnet? Of course not. The emotion, beauty, balance, artistic parallelisms and patterns (1-2, 1-2-3, and 1-2-3 & 4, based on Italian musical theory) must adhere to the refined crescendo line, weaving in and out of commas (1/4-stops), semi-colons (hard 1/2-stops), colons (soft 1/2-stops), ellipses (middle break or ending break; a pause in intricate passionate wording), dashes (rise in pitch & speech), and the period (full stop).
Rhythmical writing has now come into play with rhymed patterns that either elevate the sonnet, equal the passion & grandeur of it, or downplay it through missed rhythms or patterns. The transcendent qualities of pure romance can be missed in Lines 7 to 9; indirectness at play may require directness in words to achieve good power.
The silken weave of any superb romantic sonnet is in the blush, the purr, the hush, the murmur, the genteel aside, the flurry of dove feathers when so much subtle intimacy has played out so well under the covers. O' Passion, spend more time with me in Lines 9 to 12. I will not leave you in the rain. This poetic voice, like a lover's echo, resonates in the best of Shakespeare's romantic sonnets.
Shakespeare speaks directly to the intended lover; he voices his depth of feeling and emotion in words that poetically work in the sonnet 3-act structure - that quell the storm by the end of Act III (Line 14). All is accomplished by that denouement line; all urgency, hastened speech, the romantic pitch of waves flows like silk into those final words; as if a 3-act play, reduced down to miniature size, has completed its kiss upon the brow or lips of the intended.
It is pure romance; its refinement levels are off the charts. I bow in humility to the master playwright, poet, and sonneteer, William Shakespeare and his artistic work.
Where does one start when writing highly romantic sonnets? A sonneteer starts with his or a sonneteress with her Prologue, the title to their sonnet: the dove flutters her wings with delicate motion. Yes, unsubtle passion may find her way into Act Two. The sonneteer now becomes the playwright, and accepts the challenge; although the lady in waiting may be writing her Mirrored Sonnet in the feminine to his masculine words. This is all done in a genteel manner.
To wit, their crescendo must rise immediately from Line 1 to 4 (Act I), then rise with power from Lines 5 to 10 (Act II), then rise within the ascending mode to a denouement from Lines 11 to 15 (Act III). One writes to the sacred crescendo, decrescendo, diminuendo, denouement and climactic points (two mini-climaxes ending Lines 4 and 10; a major climax or lip ending Line 14) or one does not write a exquisite romantic sonnet (I shudder at the thought).
Does anyone enjoy a flat or linear sonnet? Of course not. The emotion, beauty, balance, artistic parallelisms and patterns (1-2, 1-2-3, and 1-2-3 & 4, based on Italian musical theory) must adhere to the refined crescendo line, weaving in and out of commas (1/4-stops), semi-colons (hard 1/2-stops), colons (soft 1/2-stops), ellipses (middle break or ending break; a pause in intricate passionate wording), dashes (rise in pitch & speech), and the period (full stop).
Rhythmical writing has now come into play with rhymed patterns that either elevate the sonnet, equal the passion & grandeur of it, or downplay it through missed rhythms or patterns. The transcendent qualities of pure romance can be missed in Lines 7 to 9; indirectness at play may require directness in words to achieve good power.
The silken weave of any superb romantic sonnet is in the blush, the purr, the hush, the murmur, the genteel aside, the flurry of dove feathers when so much subtle intimacy has played out so well under the covers. O' Passion, spend more time with me in Lines 9 to 12. I will not leave you in the rain. This poetic voice, like a lover's echo, resonates in the best of Shakespeare's romantic sonnets.
Shakespeare speaks directly to the intended lover; he voices his depth of feeling and emotion in words that poetically work in the sonnet 3-act structure - that quell the storm by the end of Act III (Line 14). All is accomplished by that denouement line; all urgency, hastened speech, the romantic pitch of waves flows like silk into those final words; as if a 3-act play, reduced down to miniature size, has completed its kiss upon the brow or lips of the intended.
It is pure romance; its refinement levels are off the charts. I bow in humility to the master playwright, poet, and sonneteer, William Shakespeare and his artistic work.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Kindle Edition Disappointing
9 Sep 2011
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Alas, Penguin has not chosen to make a useful version of this book for the Kindle. Navigation is very poorly set up. There is an active table of contents, but it does not list the individual sonnets, nor does it break the annotations section out by sonnet. Much worse is that there is no linkage between a sonnet and the annotations for that sonnet. It would have been very easy to set up such links (forwards and backwards); the result would have been a really useful book. Surely they realize that the typical user will want to consult the annotations for a sonnet when reading that sonnet. What a pity they've not done a better job!
Edited to Add: In the end, I returned this Kindle book. It was full of very bad scan errors. In some cases, I couldn't even figure out what the nonsense word was meant to be. In addition, the annotations section was formatted in such a way that one couldn't use the cursor to select a word to look up in the dictionary or a group of words to highlight.
What a pity Penguin takes so little care with its ebooks!
Edited to Add: In the end, I returned this Kindle book. It was full of very bad scan errors. In some cases, I couldn't even figure out what the nonsense word was meant to be. In addition, the annotations section was formatted in such a way that one couldn't use the cursor to select a word to look up in the dictionary or a group of words to highlight.
What a pity Penguin takes so little care with its ebooks!
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