The Comedy of Errors
"I feel that I have spent half my career with one or another Pelican Shakespeare in my back pocket. Convenience, however, is the least important aspect of the new Pelican Shakespeare series. Here is an elegant and clear text for either the study or the rehearsal room, notes where you need them and the distinguished scholarship of the general editors, Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller who understand that these are plays for performance as well as great texts for contemplation." (Patrick Stewart)The distinguished Pelican Shakespeare series, which has sold more than four million copies, is now completely revised and repackaged.Each volume features:* Authoritative, reliable texts* High quality introductions and notes* New, more readable trade trim size* An essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare and essays on Shakespeare's life and the selection of texts
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What Hacker News says
- There can be only one answer to that - the Bible. Twenty years ago, I was convinced the content alone justified the claims of a divine origin, which opinion has only grown stronger in the years since. Even if you don't believe in it, it is worth reading as literature - an extraordinarily epic story, and a lot of stuff to say about humanity and divinity along the way. Everything else, comparatively, seems to me like it was written by children.
But that's a useless answer, as the purpose of such a question is to generate recommendations, and that's unlikely to be a new one to anybody.
One of the books that's impacted me the most in the last few years is Homer's Illiad. I used to wonder why we read The Odyssey in high school and never talked about The Illiad, but I don't wonder now! I think all the violence in Illiad would warrant more than a PG-13 rating. ;) But it is a great story about men and gods and struggle and war, with a lot to say about what mankind is and what it can be, and a lot of heroes to want to grow up to be someday. The introduction to my copy includes the quote, "It is a good thing that war is so terrible, otherwise we would grow to love it too much." That quote will make no sense to most people; if it resonates with you, this book is your kind of book.
I am currently reading through Heidegger's The Question Concerning Technology, as I am looking for wisdom on how to navigate the highly technological time I find myself in. I haven't finished it, but I find the insights profound, and I see the ideas everywhere. I think it may prove to be the best thing I've ever read on the topic of what it means to interact with technology and remain human.
Shakespeare is legendary for a reason. I haven't read one of his plays yet that that I didn't deeply enjoy. They never hit right in high school, but as an adult I find them profound. I giggled my way through A Comedy of Errors recently and it still makes me smile.
A Christian recommendation - I've very much enjoyed Jeremy Taylor's 1650 Holy Living and Dying. Probably the best book on Christian life I've read, and I've read quite a few - and it's a book that rarely makes people's short lists. It's long and I haven't finished it, but as much as I've read so far continues to impact me.
Edit: I almost forgot! I read The Princess and the Goblin several years ago. It is a fairy tale intended for children, and is yet one of the best books I have ever read on the subject of girlhood, and I have spent a lifetime searching for them. If you have (or are, or find yourself in an occasion to love) a girl, I can't recommend it highly enough.
- I know this is Heathen Heresy but I never enjoyed Shakespeare. As part of my English studies I have read the following ones - Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Winter’s Tale.
Average grades on them were between A+ to B's but dayamn! that olde timee englishee is hard to parse (even with the crib notes) and made me question the validity of them as an example of 'good English writing'
'Get Thee to a Nunnery!' Indeed.
And don't even get me started on Chaucer <shudder>.
- > The "X" suffix is an attempt by younger Spanish speakers to introduce a neuter gender to their native language.
Did it really come from native Spanish speakers or is it an exonym? It is not the preferred term for the vast majority of Hispanic people even in the US.[1]
> Today, young English speakers are trying to popularize "they" as an English neuter pronoun
A Comedy of Errors (William Shakespeare, c.1594), Act 4, Scene 3:
> There's not a man I meet but doth salute me. As if I were their well-acquainted friend
Singular 'they' even when the gender is known has been popular in the English language for hundreds of years. Even longer than singular 'you'.
1. https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in...
- > As recently as 15 years ago, using "they" to refer to a single individual was derided by many as grammatically incorrect.
> The recent acceptance comes down to two factors
Here is a couplet from Shakespeare's "A Comedy of Errors" (1623):
> There's not a man I meet but doth salute me
> As if I were their well-acquainted friend
And the King James Version (1611) of the Bible has this for Deuteronomy 17:5:
> Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
And these are not fringe publications, but some of the most widely-distributed texts in the English language. That makes singular "they" even older than singular "you"! I find it hard to understand the justification for opposing singular "they" even from a prescriptive perspective.
- "There’s not a man I meet but doth salute me As if I were their well-acquainted friend" - Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors
If it's good enough for Shakespeare it's good enough for me.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-specific_and_gender-neu... for some examples of times avoiding singular they makes the sentence sound silly or ungrammatical.
"The average American needs the small routines of getting ready for work. As he shaves or blow-dries his hair or pulls on his panty-hose, he is easing himself by small stages into the demands of the day."
"... everyone will be able to decide for himself whether or not to have an abortion."
- Essays and aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer
John A. MacDonald: The young politician by Donald Creighton
Comedy of errors by Wm. Shakespeare
Paradise Lost by John Milton
