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    Romeo and Juliet Complete Text with Extras
    Romeo and Juliet Complete Text with Extras
    Romeo and Juliet Complete Text with Extras
    Ebook280 pages2 hours

    Romeo and Juliet Complete Text with Extras

    By William Shakespeare

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    These violent delights have violent ends
    And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
    Which, as they kiss, consume.

    When Romeo first lays eyes on the bewitching Juliet, it's love at first sight. But though their love runs true and deep, it is also completely forbidden. With family and fate determined to keep them apart, will Romeo and Juliet find a way to be together?

    William Shakespeare's masterpiece is one of the most enduring stories of star-crossed love of all time. Beautifully presented for a modern teen audience with both the original play and a prose retelling of the beloved story, this is the must-have edition of a timeless classic.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 8, 2010
    ISBN9780062023292
    Romeo and Juliet Complete Text with Extras
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare is the world's greatest ever playwright. Born in 1564, he split his time between Stratford-upon-Avon and London, where he worked as a playwright, poet and actor. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway. Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two, leaving three children—Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. The rest is silence.

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    Reviews for Romeo and Juliet Complete Text with Extras

    3.5/5

    8,259 ratings92 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare. Folger Shakespeare Library. 1992. As I said above, this was a book club selection. Cannot remember when I last read this play, but I loved reading it this time. How can I forget how much I love Shakespeare?!! After I read the play, I found a BBC Radio production with Kenneth Branagh playing Romeo and Judie Dench playing Nurse! I really enjoyed reading along as I listened and got more out of the play the second reading. I sort of wanted to listen to it again, but instead decided to watch Zeffierlli’s movie and am so glad I did. A great way to enjoy Shakespeare!
    • 5/5
      O teach me how I should forget to think

      I was prepared to be underwhelmed by a jaded near fifty return to this plethora of love-anchored verse. It was quite the opposite, as I found myself steeled with philosophy "adversity's sweet milk" and my appreciation proved ever enhanced by the Bard's appraisal of the human condition. How adroit to have situated such between two warring tribes, under a merciful deity, an all-too-human church and the wayward agency of hormonal teens. Many complain of this being a classic Greek drama adapted to a contemporary milieu. There is also a disproportionate focus on the frantic pacing in the five acts. I can appreciate both concerns but I think such is beyond the point. The chorus frames matters in terms of destiny, a rumination on Aristotelian tragedy yet the drama unfolds with caprice being the coin of the realm. Well, as much agency as smitten couples can manage. Pacing is a recent phenomenon, 50 episodes for McNulty to walk away from the force, a few less for Little Nell to die.

      Shakespeare offers insights on loyalty and human frailty as well as the Edenic cursing of naming in some relative ontology. Would Heidegger smell as sweet? My mind's eye blurs the poise of Juliet with that of Ophelia; though no misdeeds await the Capulet, unless being disinherited by Plath's Daddy is the road's toll to a watery sleep. The black shoe and the attendant violent delights.
    • 2/5
      I'm not a big Shakespeare fan, so I won't rate any of his works very high
    • 4/5
      Ah, my favorite classic.
    • 3/5
      Beautiful language, classic Shakespeare.
    • 5/5
      great classic
    • 5/5
      As long as you remind yourself that this is teen melodrama and not tragedy the essential vapidity of the central relationship and the frustratingly buried deeper and more complex relationships--actually all Romeo's, with Mercutio but also Benvolio, Tybalt, the priest--don't get in the way of good tawdry enjoyment. Now I think about it, Romeo's like a cryptohomoerotic sixteenth-century Archie.
    • 5/5
      Teenage Proclivity for Conjugation: "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, J.A. Bryant Jr. Published 1998.

      Upon each re-reading I always wonder why Shakespeare does not reveal the reason that the families hate each other. We are told that the households are alike in dignity (social status). We are even provided with a "spoiler alert" when we learn that the "star crossed lovers" will commit suicide, resulting in a halt to the feuding between the two families. In addition, we receive the clue that the feud has gone on for a long time (ancient grudge) However, the omission of the reason for the feud leaves us wondering and imagining a variety of scenarios--just as Shakespeare must have intended. I think it is important for an author to leave a mystery for the reader to explore. In Star Wars there was a sense of mystery about the Force, what was it. Are there any reasons needed, ever? The humankind's history is filled with feuds which are completely pointless... "Ancient grudge", servants' street fight -- and general desire to feel better than someone else. Isn't this very pointlessness that Shakespeare intended the viewers to see?

      The rest of this review can be read elsewhere.
    • 2/5
      I love Shakespeare. I simply detest this play.
    • 4/5
      Found this very easy to use and understand. I think my family is tired of me quoting the play then explaining it according to the book. As a theater major I found this book fascinating.
    • 4/5
      Classic story of love and loss. ;) It's Shakespeare, and it's beautiful.
    • 2/5
      Easily one of my least favorite of The Bard's works. Reading this in high school very nearly put me off Shakespeare for good. One of the first books I ever remember reading that made me want to smack both main characters upside the head and ask them "What the heck are you thinking?!"
    • 3/5
      It's a classic, but not really a favorite of mine.
    • 2/5
      overly compressed, beautifully-written play in which two teenagers fall in love, marry, fuck, and die, all in the span of three days. concessions should be made to late 16th century literary convention, but still...
    • 3/5
      Classic... what else is there to say?
    • 1/5
      This is a tragedy in the sense that Shakespeare did so much better with his other plays. This one is weak. The amount of coincidence is down right ridiculous, Shakespeare plays way too much into the "love" for a tale that is supposed to be cautionary(or so I think it might've been senseless fighting between two families led to tragic deaths, never really capitalizes on it til the end). It's also the standard for classic love story although it is nothing of the sort. I despised it.
    • 5/5
      This is a great romantic tragedy, which I had to read for my Intro. to Drama class. This is one of those works of Shakespeare that has been done in a multitude of forms and variations, so it is quite likely that everyone has a rough idea of the story. Still, you really cannot replace the original. There is a lot of unbelievable story to it, which can overdo it to the point of being distracting, but overall the language and story are so supremely memorable that it automatically qualifies as a must-read. As to the edition itself, I found it to be greatly helpful in understanding the action in the play. It has a layout which places each page of the play opposite a page of notes, definitions, explanations, and other things needed to understand that page more thoroughly. While I didn't always need it, I was certainly glad to have it whenever I ran into a turn of language that was unfamiliar, and I definitely appreciated the scene-by-scene summaries. Really, if you want to or need to read Shakespeare, an edition such as this is really the way to go, especially until you get more accustomed to it.
    • 4/5
      Bruce Colville’s retells Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in story form. It includes a narration of the major plot points in a clear and easy to follow language that is appropriate for younger children (as early as third grade or so). The book also contains beautiful pictures that capture the important parts of the story and help to tell the story. What I like most about this book is that it incorporates quotes from the play itself. The way that it is mixed in with the easy-to-follow narration of the book would, I believe, help children develop a basic understanding of Shakesperian language that will be helpful to them as they advance into higher grades. This book could also be useful to students in middle and high school. This book could be helpful to me in my current situation as a high school English tutor: Many of the students I tutor are completely thrown off by the language that Shakespeare uses, which inhibits their understanding of the entire story. Supplementing a lesson on Romeo and Juliet with this book would be a good way to get students to grasp the basics of the play and also to ease them into the complex language of the play. Great Book!
    • 5/5
      I absolutely love this! Romeo can be an idiot sometimes, their families are jerks and the Friar seriously screwed up but you have to love it all.

      Favourite Quote ;

      Oh she doth teach the torches to burn bright, it seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
      As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear, beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.
    • 3/5
      I'm giving Romeo and Juliet 3 stars because the writing was brilliant. I must admit, Shakespeare was a master in this aspect; in others, not so much. Oh how much I loathe the characters of Romeo and Juliet. But Mercutio was pretty awesome.
    • 4/5
      I listened to an audiobook version by the BBC. It was very well done and a pleasure to listen to. It was also very short, only about 3 hours long. I enjoyed the story and am glad that I have finally experienced it. Would like to see the play performed live some day.
    • 5/5
      I give this book 5 stars because it uses creative and expresses a true form of writing that makes you want to read more until you've read the whole book!!
    • 4/5
      It makes for a more interesting read if you choose to interpret it as a Trainwreck, instead of a love story against which all others should be measured. If ~anyone~ in the entire play had enough sense to tell them "Hey, slow down, you knew each other for under a day when you decided to get married, let's just be rational," things wouldn't have turned out as they did. Shakespeare's very very impressive in how lifelike his characters are, and how engaging his plays are (compared to many other dull dull plays of the time), but...Romeo and Juliet really pushes the boundaries of credibility for me
    • 3/5
      Thanks to TV and movies, I knew the basic premise of this book before even reading it. Thus, when I read it I was not really impressed. To be fair, I skimmed through it, but nothing stood out that made me want to read it. Damn Hollywood.
    • 3/5
      Romeo and Juliet is a huge tragedy. It is a good romance novel though. I liked reading it because I was able to understand all of those classic lines used in the novel. like romeo oh romeo where for out thou romeo.
    • 4/5
      Brilliant. I am not a fan of love stories or romances or even stories of betrayal and family dynamics. However, this is a stunning book, one of the best ever written I suppose. (I also liked the movie with Leonardo di Caprio and John Leguizamo by this name. It seemed to have all the original writing or a good chunk of it in a modern movie which I've never seen done well before -- I liked it much better than the Liam Neeson ones). The story is basic compared to many of his other books but the writing's as good or better.
    • 3/5
      I'm a big Romeo & Juliet fan. I've memorized the book, that's how much I've read it. I read along to Leonardo di Caprio and Claire Danes as they said their lines in that movie.
    • 5/5
      I believed this play to be seriously overrated-- and then I read it. LOL. A beautiful piece of literature that truly encaptures what it is to be a "star-crossed lover."
    • 4/5
      4.25 StarsA fanciful retelling of Romeo and Juliet in Manga format. Emotive artwork and much of the dialogue is in true Shakespeare form. A nice addition to the Manga Classics series. Keep up the good work! For classics and adaptation fans.Net Galley Feedback
    • 4/5
      I just love this play it is so romantic and yet it is very sad at the same time. i had to read it for school and i was saddened when i got my copy and it was an abriged version but one of these days i will read an unabriged version adn cry my eyes out when Romeo and Juliet die because they are in love.

    Book preview

    Romeo and Juliet Complete Text with Extras - William Shakespeare

    Juliet’s Story: A Retelling of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet

    by Jacqueline Ritten

    For my father and my mother,

    You will have come for me this morning, expecting to find a bride. The guests will be gathered, the food prepared, the groom waiting. The house will be busy, expectant. The call will go up, Juliet! Where is the girl? What, Juliet…? I have always come before. But this morning I will not.

    Because I am dead.

    Do not grieve. It is what I wanted.

    I once had a dream that I lay with the dead. I embraced a gentleman in his shroud, laid kisses upon his cracked and yellowed skull, felt his sharp and brittle fingers at my breast. All bone, he covered me. And I was happy.

    So do not grieve.

    Mother, you once wished me married to my grave. That was in your rage when I said I would not marry Paris. Perhaps in some small way, then, you will be pleased by this.

    That is always what I have tried to do, please you. To do your will in all things. When you called, did I not always run? Madame, what is your will?

    Until now. Now there is another I must yield to.

    Mother, Father. You who gave me life will want to know why I choose to leave it. I must try to think of you as you were, and not as I have known you for the past few days. And so you must try and remember me the same way. In our last hours together, I have told you many lies. We have said terrible things. For that I am sorry.

    But even before now, you have not known my heart. Because I did not know it.

    I do now. I will try to tell you what is in my heart. And I will pray that you can forgive me.

    Where to begin? It has all happened so fast. A short week has been long enough to take me from maidenhood to grave.

    What was my life before now? I can barely remember. Did I speak? Did you listen? All I can recall is Yes, Father, No, Mother, and prayers.

    Nurse? I hope someone reads this letter to you. Because you will remember. You remember everything and tell the stories afterward. When I was a little girl, you told me about your childhood in the countryside, the animals and the funny people you had known. You did make me laugh.

    But the stories I loved best were the ones you made up. The stories you told me of the man I would some day marry were the ones I begged to hear over and over.

    Oh, my lady shall marry a prince, who will travel far from some distant land because he heard how fair and good you are. And he shall have dark hair and blue eyes… Sometimes he was blond with gray eyes. Sometimes green eyed, sometimes dark. Always tall. Always rich. He draped me in jewels and gave me palaces. And he loved me as no man had ever loved a wife.

    Perhaps, Nurse, you should not have told me such love stories. Because I listened very closely.

    I remember yearning for brothers and sisters, a great romping group of children I could play with. Brothers to protect me, sisters to keep my secrets. Our house seemed too large for one small child. Once, I asked for brothers and sisters. Do you remember that, Mother? But when I did, you said it was not God’s will, and something in your voice made me never ask again.

    But being the only child can mean you get more. My fond, foolish, loving father, you gave me all your love, calling me your great hope in this world. Oh, you might pretend to scold and bluster. But none feared you.

    I can remember crying one day because I was not a boy. You came upon me, scooped me onto your lap, and demanded to know the reason for my tears. Finally, I confessed that I was sad that you had no heir—only me. You paused a moment, then hugged me hard, saying you would want no other child but me. You were certain, you said, that I would one day marry a fine man and he would inherit all you had. But you could give him nothing more valuable than myself. Then you kissed me and said you hoped I would not marry too soon, but stay with you a bit. At this, I threw my arms around your neck and promised I would stay as long as you wanted.

    Mother, you were too distant for kissing. When I think of running to you, I recall your hands held out, not to meet with mine, but to halt, hold off. As if feelings were too sharp. Kisses might scratch, hugs bruise. I can remember gazing up at you as I gazed on saints in church, anxious, hoping for favor—but uncertain that I deserved it.

    Does everyone close to death think about what people will say of them afterward? It feels sinful, as if reveling in the pain we are about to cause. But I cannot turn away from such thoughts.

    Nurse, you will cry loudest. I smile as I say this, because your sorrow will be noisy but sincere. Your skirt and sleeves will grow stiff from mopping up your tears. I shall leave you my handkerchiefs. And a fine new story to tell about me. Most of your stories end with laughing. But this one shall leave you sighing and weeping. Such a fine, fair lady to be undone so! And—confess it now—you will enjoy the tears almost as much as the laughter.

    Mother—you shall be angry. Rage will be your answer to death; it always is. You and my cousin Tybalt were much alike in this. No wonder this feud between us and the Montagues has gone on for so long. Rage follows death and death follows rage and there is no end but a pile of mossy bones in a vault.

    Father, I do not like to think of what you will say. Part of me prays that you remember our terrible quarrel and think, It is no bad thing to lose a child who was so ungrateful and disobedient.

    When we fought, you said you did not care if I lived or died. For your sake, I hope you meant it.

    In the morning, they will send you, Nurse, to wake me. You will come in, chattering as you always do. You may not even notice at first how quiet I am.

    You will pull aside the bed-curtains, give my arm a shake. Juliet, lamb! Awake now, it is your wedding day. But I will not wake. Nor move.

    Your screams will draw Mother and Father. I imagine you all crowding into my chamber. Mother, Father, I can almost hear your cries: Dead! Dead before she was married. A maiden and dead!

    But, my parents, you will be wrong. Because I am no longer a maiden. And I am already married.

    Why? You will demand to know. How did this begin?

    Like all the tragedies in our lives, it began with a fight. A fight that was part of this feud our family has with the Montagues. When you can tell me how this feud began, then you will have answer to why and how.

    I will start with the morning of the feast.

    It has been so hot this summer. The sun is cruel, beating upon the senses until you are dull witted and openmouthed. The air does not move. Some—like you, Nurse—become slow in the heat, caring for nothing but shade and a cool cloth to press against your sweating face. For me, the sun puts me into a trance, sets me dreaming at my window.

    But it is not so for everyone. For some, sunlight sets fire to their smoldering tempers. Turns peevishness to passion. Bad humor to murderous rage. Already this summer, members of our house have twice brawled with men of the house of Montague. Yet some felt the thirst for still more blood.

    That morning, I saw two men from our house, Sampson and Gregory, go out into the streets. Gregory is pleasant, but Sampson is one of those people who will tell anyone who listens what a great fighter he is—even if only he believes it.

    They were not yet on the street, but Sampson was boasting that if he saw anyone of the house of Montague he would draw his sword. He said he was quick to strike, when moved. Gregory, the more mild and sensible of them, tried to tease Sampson out of his violent mood, saying as far as he had seen, Sampson was not quickly moved to do anything. I laughed at the joke because it’s true, Sampson is lazy.

    But jokes only seemed to spur Sampson on to darker threats. Not only would he attack any man of Montague’s house, he would attack the women as well.

    Women are weak, he said. I shall thrust them against the wall. He made a gesture with his hips.

    Looking around in case someone had overheard this obnoxious remark, Gregory reminded him that the quarrel was between the masters and men. But Sampson did not care.

    Listening to him, I felt a stab of fear, as if this feud had grown so hot, it would soon run out of control and we would all be consumed by it, man, woman, and child.

    But then, Nurse, you came in and asked what I would wear to the feast that night and I forgot all about Gregory and Sampson.

    Mother, Father, you think I do not know the world. What happens in the streets. You think I do not hear the shouting, the oaths. You think I do not see the blood upon the stones. But I do. And when I heard the shouting later that morning, I knew another brawl was upon us.

    I was in my room, trying to choose a gown when I heard you, Father, shouting for a sword. Going out onto my balcony, I saw you run out to the garden in your dressing gown. Mother, you followed him, saying that a crutch would serve him better than a sword.

    Both of you rushed out onto the square near our house, and disappeared from sight. More shouting, more swords clashing. People running from all corners to join the fight. Who knows what might have happened had the prince not come and put a stop to it?

    Fearful, I waited by the door for you to return. A servant who had been in the square when the prince arrived told me that he was so enraged, he promised death to anyone who broke the peace again.

    Who began the quarrel? I asked.

    As I had thought, Sampson had yapped his way into a fight with two other men from the house of Montague. It was barely under way when Benvolio, a gentle youth related to the Montagues, had tried to stop it. But then Tybalt came….

    Tybalt, Tybalt. When I was little, I adored my darkly handsome cousin. I can remember us in the garden: Tybalt, a gallant six-year-old, striding forth to strike at the roses with a reed sword as I toddled after him. Later he snapped a bud off a rosebush and presented it to me with a bow. I still have that flower pressed in a book.

    When I grew older and Nurse’s powers of invention failed to conjure my fantasy prince to my satisfaction, I imagined him as Tybalt. Charming and elegant, ever gallant with ladies; Nurse, no gentleman made you blush like Tybalt did, do you remember?

    I loved him so much that it was hard to believe the other stories I heard. People said that no one hated the Montagues as ferociously as Tybalt. That his hatred was almost too great. That he practiced daily with his sword, and when he was finished, he drove the blade into the target and cried, Death to Montague!

    This summer, even I noticed a change in him. It seemed Tybalt talked of nothing but wrongs and righteousness. And he was not content to hate alone; everyone must hate and fight with him. Or we would become his enemies, too. Once I innocently ventured that there must be some honorable Montagues. He turned on me and hissed, To think well of Montague is a betrayal of your own family. Shocked by his anger, I began to cry. He was immediately contrite and begged my pardon.

    So I was not surprised to hear that Tybalt had been at the fight.

    Where are my parents? I asked the servant. Why aren’t they home?

    He told me that the prince had demanded your presence. Child that I was, I worried the prince would keep you at his palace and our feast would be postponed.

    How strange the ways of fate. If you had not been called to the prince’s palace, you might not have encountered his kinsman, Count Paris. And this story might not be as sad as it is.

    That afternoon, Mother, as I looked from one gown to the next and wondered if I should choose the third, you came to my chamber. At first, I thought you wanted to instruct me on how I should behave that night. For this was the first time I was allowed to attend the whole feast, from dancing to banquet. As you sat me on the bed, I expected reminders that I should not dance too long with any one gentleman, that I should keep my conversation brief and modest, and that I should remember in all things, I was a daughter of Capulet.

    Instead you asked, Juliet, what do you think of marriage?

    At first the word barely made sense. Marriage? I was only thirteen. Father had always said he did not wish me married too young. He said those married young are often unhappy.

    I did not know what to say, so I replied, I do not think about marriage. Which was true. I dreamed of love, my handsome prince coming from a faraway land—but not marriage.

    Impatient, you said, Well, start thinking about it. Because the valiant Paris, kinsman to the prince himself, loves you and wishes to marry you.

    Nurse, as always, you had something to say. Paris was so good looking, you exclaimed, the very model of a man. Mother, you also gave him lavish praise. I sat there and repeated your words in my head.

    Marriage. Count Paris wanted to marry me.

    Because he loved me. A man I had never even seen.

    I thought of him and

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