Book #14 - The Taming of the Shrew

[janetlin]

All right, so it's a play instead of a book, but as a bound volume, I think it counts.

This is the first of the plays for my Shakespeare class this semester, most of which I am quite pleased to discover are ones I have not read before, despite all my years in theatre. Though I _have_ performed Kate's speech at the end of this one. Didn't remember having done so until I read it and was like, "this is familiar..."

So, yes, classic Shakespeare. Disguises and mistaken identity (with the requisite upset when the _real_ Vincentio shows up and no one believes he's really himself), raunchy humor, witty banter that was probably off the _hook_ in its day and has sadly lost some of its spark as the language has changed.

Oh, and apparently it's a play-within-a-play. Yeah. The whole story with Katherine and Petruchio and everyone is a play performed for some random nobleman playing a trick on drunkard/beggar Christopher Sly. But Shakespeare/his editors apparently forgot about it, as there's no close to this frame. The play ends and we never hear from the random nobleman or Christopher Sly. Very odd, and surprisingly sloppy. For the Bard's sake, I surmise it was the folks putting together the Folio, not him.

Title: The Taming of the Shrew
Author: William Shakespeare
Pages: 221 (paperback)

14 / 50 books. 28% done!