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    A Midsummer Night's Dream: Timeless Shakespeare
    A Midsummer Night's Dream: Timeless Shakespeare
    A Midsummer Night's Dream: Timeless Shakespeare
    Audiobook (abridged)1 hour

    A Midsummer Night's Dream: Timeless Shakespeare

    Written by William Shakespeare and Emily Hutchinson

    Narrated by Saddleback Educational Publishing

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Some playful fairies decide to make mischief with unsuspecting humans. Can true love overcome all obstacles? Two young Athenian couples are put to the test. Comedy reigns in this enchanting fantasy about the nature of romantic love.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSaddleback Educational Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2011
    ISBN9781612475332
    A Midsummer Night's Dream: Timeless Shakespeare
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright the world has seen. He produced an astonishing amount of work; 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 5 poems. He died on 23rd April 1616, aged 52, and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.

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    Reviews for A Midsummer Night's Dream

    4/5

    31 ratings26 reviews

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    • 4/5
      “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” follows two interwoven stories, one concerning the marriage of Lysander and Hermia, and the other concerning the transformation of Nick Bottom into a donkey by the queen of fairies.This is one of Shakespeare’s more easily accessible plays for younger audiences, although the plot lines can be confusing at times. This play shows the lighter side of Shakespeare’s works and can be very rewarding for students who are unfamiliar with or daunted by Shakespeare’s works.
    • 5/5
      This is my second favorite Shakespeare play, just narrowly being beaten out by "The Tempest" (if you want to know how much I love these books, I'm tempted to name future children Miranda, Lysander, and Demetrius). I love all the subplots that occur throughout the story (the play within a play and the men acting in it are just hilarious!) and I love all the humor throughout. And this play has Puck- what a great character; he's definitely up there as one of my favorite characters written by the Bard.This is just such a fun play that I'll heartily recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it- and if you have, you should go reread it (I must be up to about six or seven rereads by now). ;) Hands down, this gets 5 stars out of 5; if I could give it more, I would!
    • 4/5
      Setting: The play is set in Athens, Greece; its main theme being the fickleness of love.Plot: 2 lovers decide to elope, Helena tells her love where they are going. Meanwhile the fairies cause havoc by mixing up loyalties before restoring order in time for Theseus's wedding at which Bottom & Co. perform.Characters: Hermia- loves Lysander; Lysander (protagonist)- loves Hermia; Helena- loves Demetrius; Demetrius- loves Hermia; Oberon- King of Fairies (antagonist); Puck (antagonist) mischevious; Bottom- weaver, actor; Titania- Queen of FairiesSymbols/Allusions: Helena wants to reverse the story of Daphne & Apollo; Cupid's bower, St. Paul's "eye has not seen, ear has not heard, etc."Characteristics: One of Shakespeare's comedies, includes a play within a play.Response: I thought it was light hearted and funny; a relief from the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
    • 3/5
      Was promted to re-read this by reading Neil Gaiman's eponymous Sandman short story. Learned:That my English has gotten a hell of a lot better in the last 11 years. This was the first Shakespeare play I tried to read, and I read it by myself at the time, so I didn't really get it.That I still don't really get the "brilliance" of this particular Sandman story.That I should probably read more Shakespeare.That some of the notes to this edition are utterly useless, and that Reclam can't quite decide what level of audience they're aiming their notes and translations at.
    • 3/5
      As hard as I've tried, I could never quite get into this one. I've read it once and seen it performed twice. Both productions were classy. Still, I found the play tedious.
    • 4/5
      Having taken a Shakespeare class in college, I've read, studied and analyzed a number of the bard's plays. This was a sleeper as it turned out to be my favorite. If a book this old can make me laugh, that says something, especially when most television shows today can't make me smirk.
    • 5/5
      It's no Twelfth Night (my favorite comedy), but it's still one of Shakespeare's better plays. I especially laughed at the 4 lovers' tendencies to follow each other around like puppydogs. I was interested to notice a difference in the speech between the mechanicals and everyone else (fairies, noblemen/women). In their everyday speech, the mechanicals did not use pentameter, while everyone else did.
    • 4/5
      A comedy by Shakespeare on love and marriage. The way he mixes English culture with ancient mythology is brilliant.
    • 5/5
      How do you review Shakespeare? I guess I can say this Play is my favorite of Shakespeare’s plays. This has been reviewed by much better reviewers than me so I will just review the audio.I listened to the full cast audiobook with musical interludes and it was really good. Narration is by 20 wonderful cast members from Naxos Audiobooks. I have always said Shakespeare is meant to be read out-loud so this was a treat like listening to a play of it with songs and sound effects.If you get the chance to listen to this on audio you should do it!
    • 5/5
      It's Shakespeare, so I'm naturally biased as to its excellence. The play is short, sweet, funny, endearing and my daughter is going to perform in it so I wanted to know the story line prior to watching her on stage. The King of the Fairies and Puck causes all sorts of mischief amongst the humans Lysander, Demetrius, Helen, and Hermia, not to mention the trouble he causes for his wife Titania and Botton, the merchant actor.
    • 5/5
      I consider this my first Shakespeare: this is the play that made me fall in love with the master. It's a supremely delightful work that never wears thin with time. It's that immortal "O lord, what fools these mortals be" that does me in every time. Humorous and splendidly human despite the fairies dancing across the words.
    • 4/5
      ** spoiler alert ** This is a very dramatic lovestory about two men, one named Demetrius, one named Lysander, and two girls, one named Helena, and one named Hermia. Hermia loves Lysander, and wants to marry him, even though her father doesn't like him and wants her to marry Demetrius. Helena loves Demetrus, but is jealous of Hermia because he loves her and not Helena. The fairies cast chaotic love spells that cause much trouble, as well as trouble for the fairies, not just Lysander and Demetrius and Helena and Hermia.
    • 4/5
      Some decades ago we couldn't marry fleely.Sometimes we forced to marry who didn't want to marry.I think it is very sad.This book has many characters.So it's story is little complicated.But I felt happy to be all the people became happy at the end of the story.
    • 4/5
      A Midsummer Night's Dream starts off with 4 stoies, but at the end they all come together. There was one with 4 people who were in love. The love got all switched around by fairies. Some of the fairies were fighting over a child. At the end the love got all staightened. They all got married and Oberon a fairy got the child. Everything was good at the end. I liked this book. The book really got my attention. The book was diferent, but reall interesting. i hope to read the book. I encourage most people to read this. If you like different but interesting books you should read this book.
    • 5/5
      This is a more narrative version of Shakepeare's play. The story is told like any other story not in play form. Shakespeare's stories are meant to be seen not read, so the illustrations in this book help the story come alive. This is one of Shakespeare's most lighthearted tales, and I think the illustrations do it justice.
    • 4/5
      One of my favourite Shakespeare plays, very witty and funny.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite comedies. Significant to me because I've actually been in a love rhombus, as it were; therefore, I can relate some of the characters.
    • 3/5
      Studied it for A Level. I wasn't really fond, though there were some good/clever bits in the writing.
    • 5/5
      Bottom stands just a couple of steps below Iago, Othello, and Falstaff among the beings created by Shakespeare. Not a "rutting" donkey, but an innocent, good-natured, modern man who knows that the world has gone made, but who is too gentle and nice to tell that to the characters that surround him. His is the play's true story, the rest is a comic masque designed to delight some of the most powerful in England - including the Queen. Obregon's speech in the Queen's honor is some of Shakespeare's best writing.
    • 5/5
      A hilarious masterpiece. A great romp in the woods. Having the characters stage a play seems unique to me.
    • 4/5
      While I am not a huge Shakespeare fan I did find this particular play to be pretty darn good. I enjoyed the fact that there was this mix of fantasy with ideas that we can all relate to with unrequited love. It was fascinating to see how Shakespeare made fun of his own play "Romeo and Juliet" within the story as well. There is such a great woven story here that anyone that enjoys reading plays should read this. This was another book that I had to read for my Theatre course.
    • 4/5
      I like teaching A Midsummer Night's Dream to the 8th graders because a lot of it is written in prose (plain language instead of poetry) so it's easy to read. It also keeps the students' attention because it is full of love spells and people falling in love with the wrong people. It's kind of like a soap opera... and it's FUNNY!!
    • 3/5
      I know as an educator and librarian, it is assumed by most that I am a lover of Shakespeare. However, I must come clean. I am not. I actually truly dislike reading the 16th century language and I have trouble getting past that to try and enjoy the story. That being said however, I chose to read this because the majority of English teachers at my school teach this classic and I wanted to be able to have conversations with the students about it. I will say, A Midsummer Night's Dream is my favorite Shakespeare play so far and I feel like I accomplished something by reading it.
    • 4/5
      *gasp* Can I put Shakespeare in my fantasy shelf? :)

      This is just such a delicious treat to read. Do yourself a favor and read it outloud - at least parts of it. It's just so fun.
    • 4/5
      A Midsummer Night's Deam is the story of four couples. Theseus and Hippolyta are about to get married, after Theseus captures the Queen of the Amazons (and presumably some sort of courtship, since she seems to be amenable to getting married). Hermia wants to marry Lysander, despite her father's objections. Helena wants to marry Demetrius, if only he weren't in love with Hermia. And Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies, are having a tiff about household help. After an evening wandering around the woods, with a little enchantment, humor and chaos, they get it all sorted out.The only happy ending I dislike is Oberon and Titania. Oberon gets his way by making his wife ridiculous, about which she doesn't seem the slightest bit upset. I doubt Queen Elizabeth would have put up with that kind of treatment.
    • 5/5
      This will always be my favorite Shakespeare play. I love all the fairies, Puck especially, and I'll never get over the four lovers' quarrels when half of them are under spells. Plus, how can anyone not enjoy Pyramus and Thisby?