A Midsummer Nights Dream, William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Nights Dream, William Shakespeare
6 Rating(s)
List: $14.99 | Sale: $10.50
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A Midsummer Night's Dream

Author: William Shakespeare, Ian McKellen, Prunella Scales, Frank Duncan, Julian Curry, Terrence Hardiman, full cast

Narrator: Ian McKellen, Prunella Scales, Frank Duncan, Julian Curry, Terrence Hardiman, full cast

Unabridged: 2 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/26/2020


Synopsis

William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present ARGO Classics, a historic catalogue of classic prose and verse read by some of the world’s most renowned voices. Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly remastered stories are now available to download for the first time. ‘Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.’ Shakespeare's most popular comedy, set in an enchanted forest with fairies, sparring lovers and a group of amateur actors who are putting on a play. Four Athenians run away to the forest only to have Puck the fairy make both of the boys fall in love with the same girl. The four run through the forest pursuing each other while Puck helps his master play a trick on the fairy queen. In the end, Puck reverses the magic, and the two couples reconcile and marry. All of the Shakespeare plays within the ARGO Classics catalogue are performed by the Marlowe Dramatic Society and Professional Players. The Marlowe was founded in 1907 with a mission to focus on effective delivery of verse, respect the integrity of texts, and rescue neglected plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and the less performed plays of Shakespeare himself. The Marlowe has performed annually at Cambridge Arts Theatre since its opening in 1936 and continues to produce some of the finest actors of their generations. Thurston Dart, Professor of Music at London University and a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge, directed the music for this production. The full cast includes: Frank Duncan; Joan Hart; Julian Curry; John Tracy-Phillips; Ian McKellen; Terrence Hardiman; Jeannette Sterke; Prunella Scales; Miles Malleson; Peter Woodthorpe; John Sharp; John Wood; Trevor Nunn; Christopher Kelly; Anthony White; Jill Balcon; Richard Goolden; Elizabeth Proud; George Rylands; John Sharp; Richard Kay.

About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Anne on May 07, 2025

That Helena is a bitch. I know the big draw for this play is all the fairy goings-on, but upon re-reading/re-listening to it for the umpteenth time, I was more interested in the insane inner workings of Helena's mind. Ok. Get this. Hermia and Lysander are in love. But Hermia's dad wants her to marry D......more

Goodreads review by jessica on April 25, 2020

how to flirt, shakespeare style, a midsummer nights dream edition:- elope with your love in a fairy wood - follow your friends into the fairy wood with your ex-fiancé, who you still pine over even though he loves another woman - become entranced by magic flower juice and chase after the wrong girl unt......more

Goodreads review by Bill on July 21, 2021

Re-reading the play this time, I couldn't stop thinking about The Magic Flute. Like Mozart's opera, Shakespeare's play may have a silly plot composed of fanciful, seemingly arbitrary elements, yet, through the power of absolute artistic mastery, the framework of what might otherwise be nothing but a......more

Goodreads review by Emma on August 13, 2020

"And with her height, forsooth, she hath prevailed with him. How low am I? I am not yet so low But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes." i felt that Hermia......more

Goodreads review by Henry on February 06, 2021

One of Shakespeare's most popular comic plays though a figment of the imagination an illusion, a delusion in actuality that's the pity... such a delectable world to inhabit. Essentially a love story between two couples, a thin plot device in a mythical Athens which never was . Lysander loves his gir......more