Book Description
Technological advances and the global marketplace are changing the way we live and work. Doing the work you love is the critical factor to personal fulfillment and economic success. No one understands this more than Laurence G. Boldt, whose Zen and the Art of Making a Living helped many carve out new and rewarding career paths. But how do you find the courage to start the search for a new career? And how do you tap into your own best resources to discover what you want to do and what you're good at? This remarkable guide offers simple yet profound strategies to help you answer those questions by focusing on four key elements to be sought in any life's work: Integrity, Service, Enjoyment, and Excellence. Boldt has reduced the quest for meaningful work to its essence and will lead you to an understanding of what you could and should be doing with your life.
Customer Reviews:
And the lightbulb went off..........2007-02-21
In 2002, I was at an all-time low. My parents had just died, and I was completely unfulfilled in my career. My friend suggested that I look into Taoism. He said things happen for a reason and exactly as they are supposed to. I started reading up on the Tao and realized he was on to something. Then one day, I picked up How To Find The Work You Love -- and the lightbulb went off. Boldt does not recreate the wheel here; he simply helps you to recognize what is right in front of you the whole time. In all sincerity, this book lifted me up, showed me how to change careers, and ultimately fill the void I was feeling in my life. Mr. Boldt, I thank you.
BEST career guidance book out there.......2005-07-30
I am a pre-law advisor and general career counselor advisor at a state university. This is the only career guidance book I recommend to all my students and advisees. Other books all basically try to match up interests and skills. This book basically asks you to discover what you feel most passionate about, and would give your life the most meaning. AMEN! I tell my students I would rather just be performing "okay" in a career that makes me happy and fulfilled, than be outstanding or even the best in a career that makes me unhappy and unfulfilled. What is more important: money and material wealth, or happiness and fulfillment? It depends which way you define "success," and Boldt defines it (correctly in my view!) as the latter. I've seen two many friends and students go into careers for the wrong reason and be miserable. Read this book, and give it to anyone you know who is searching for a career. You just might have helped to steer them down the road to career fulfilment and happiness, rather than career emptiness and depression.
Good but not great.......2005-03-10
I liked this book a lot in the store as I glanced over the pages. I wanted to make sure it was not a poor self help book.
In essence the book is very good and covers areas that we should focus on. Overall it is a little zen. I recommend "Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton for a truly insightful journey into finding and identifying your true talents and therefore heading down the path to finding the work you love.
Great!.......2004-11-01
I want to know if the people who wrote poor reviews are doing work that they really love. This book is good to gain a clear and positive perspective on work and what it really means, but in order to truly benefit from it, you have to read it with *cliche* an open mind.
A spiritually validating read.......2004-06-03
Unfortunately, there's really only one way to know if you're going to like something or not and that's to try it. What's one person's treasure is another person's "waste".
This isn't a book along the lines of "What Color Is Your Parachute". It's not a "step by step" guide per se, though it has some excersizes to help you explore what has meaning for you.
For me, this was a book of validation. I wish more than anything, that I could just resign myself to "any old job" and be satisfied - life would be so much easier that way... but when you spend 1/3 of your life at work and part of the other 2/3's perparing for work (commuting, preparing meals, trying to psyche yourself up to make it through another day) I think it's really important to find more meaning in what you do for a living than "payday".
If you spend a lot of time dreaming of the day you can finally retire and you feel like you're wasting your life doing work that has absolutely no meaning for you (or worse, goes against your grain) and if the money isn't enough to compensate for what you spend so much of your day doing and you feel strongly that "there's got to be more to work than this" this book will validate your feelings beautifully and give you inspiration. But if you're a "realist" ("work's not supposed to be fun - that's why they call it work") you may be disappointed.
It's ironic to me that people complained about the quotes - because I like them - but then I like quotes:
"Blessed is he who has found his work. Let him ask no other blessing" (Thomas Carlyle); "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist" (Emerson); "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat" (Lily Tomlin); "If you are going to let the fear of poverty govern your life...your reward will be that you will eat but you will not live" (George Bernard Shaw); "My employer uses twenty six years of my life for every year I get to keep. And what do I get in return...for my life?" (Michael Ventura).
If these quotes resonate with you, I think chances are good the book will resonate with you. If you think they're nonsense then you might not want to read this one. You might prefer something like Po Bronson's "What Should I Do With My Life?" - which I personally found depressing - but I think it might appeal to the "realists" (note: it's title is deceiving. It's not a book about how to figure out what to do with your life - rather, it's an abbreviated chronicle of other people's lives who've struggled with this question - many of whom continue the struggle).
Book Description
This book takes an in-depth look at the relationships exotic dancers have with their regular customers, and explores the limits of using feminist theory to discuss sex work. Incorporating interviews, personal accounts, and field notes, Egan sheds light on the feminist debates on sex work and women's power. She focuses in on the dynamics of desire and fantasy in exotic dance clubs to illustrate the complexity of gendered relations in everyday life. This is an accessible, revealing, and new look at a perennially intriguing and divisive subject--ideal teaching material for undergraduate courses in a variety of fields.
Customer Reviews:
Dancing for Dollars..........2007-05-23
Dancing for Dollars and Paying for Love, an inspired title in both its simplicity and its illumination of a larger truth. This book is concerned with the relationships between exotic dancers and their regulars.
As a guy who at times has woven casual relationships around the idea of being `a regular' and always working toward becoming more than `just a customer' I devoured this book with both great curiosity as to the truths that would be revealed and with a certain reluctance to have those truths iconoclastically shatter my treasured fantasies.
Danielle Egan, undertook to write the book as both scholar and dancer. The organization of the volume is one that brings into focus five basic aspects of club dynamics from the `kaleidoscopic vision of the interactions between dancers and regulars'. The foci are space, subjectivity, feminism, the psyche and affect. Egan lists in excess of 140 references to support her own observation, experience and original thinking.
I must admit, not being a scholar and being unfamiliar with some of the `intersections of gender, sexuality, class, and capitalism' in academic thinking, that I resorted to reading the book twice.
Professor Egan hastens to add that the lens of academic constructs can only take one so far in needed analysis and that the previous factors `are always more complex than they originally seem'.
If a student of any topic brought to life in this remarkable book, then this is a must read. If a general reader, especially if a `regular' take heart and read this book. It not only explores the ethnographic and the theoretical but is powerfully autobiographical.
R. Danielle Egan had the curiosity, drive, intentionally and above intelligence and courage to put her mind and body in the same place, that place being the exotic dance club. A place at once erotic, emotional, and above all complexly human. A space where men and women negotiate their roles in overt and subtle ways to get what they want, at least some of the time!!
George Albright, Esq.
Book Description
Luxton presents a vigorous analysis of house work in the twentieth century.
Book Description
'With the publication of Woudhuysen's Arden 3 edition, the magisterial study of the play that will energise a new generation of readers and directors has now arrived.' Eric Rasmussen, University of Nevada at Reno, Shakespeare Survey
Customer Reviews:
Not one of Shakespeare's best........2005-07-09
The three star rating is rating this book as compared to other Shakespearean plays; if rated against the general run of material out there, it would doubtless rate at least four stars. This is reputed to be one of his earliest works, and it shows. It's still quite good, of course; it's Shakespeare. But compared to his other plays, the language isn't quite as lovely as a fan of Shakespeare tends to expect. Also, the plot is rather trivial and silly (which isn't necessarily unreasonable, given that it's a comedy, but in his later works, even his comedies have more meat to them than this). One thing that this play DOES have going for it is that in the end, love does not automatically conquer all, as it usually does in Shakespearean comedies. It is forced to prove itself, rather than being taken at face value, a novel and much preferred concept to what became his usual take on the matter.
Love's Labors Lost.......2005-02-17
Love's Labors Lost is one of my absolute favorite Shakespeare plays. It's completely hilarious, but still has Shakespeare's amazing way with words. In Love's Labors Lost, the Bard has created a highly amusing tale of men and their problems keeping oaths--especially when women get on the scene.
Four men, the King Navarre, Berowne, Dumaine, and Longaville, take an oath to study in solitude for three years--which means that any of them caught associating with a woman will be guilty of treason. But there's a slight problem with this oath--the Princess of France and her three ladies, Rosaline, Katherine, and Maria, are coming to Navarre's kingdom. Instead of letting them come into the palace, Navarre hosts the Princess in tents outside his walls. When the four men reconvene, they find that they are all in love with one of the four ladies, and, breaking the oath, set out to win the women's hearts.
A great story with a surprising end--not your typical love story. Quite funny, with a few strange twists and turns in the plot, and leaving you to your own devices with the abrupt ending--what does happen next? Completely great all around.
A most helpful edition of a riot of words.......2004-08-03
This merry play is a delight for its language. It has more a situation than a plot. The King has sworn himself and three attendants to three years of fasting, abstinence from women, study, and little sleep. Immediately a princess arrives with her attendants that cause the men to regret their oaths. Letters are written, delivered incorrectly, and a huge final scene with disguises, masks, and a wonderfully strange presentation of some of the nine worthies. All of this provides a structure for a rich play of language that is full of wit and bawdy.
This edition has a lengthy introductory essay that helps understand the issues of the text, the historical context, and performance practice issues. The notes are wonderfully helpful in understanding the text and what choices the editors had to make in presenting it. After the play is an essay just on the text of the play, appendix 2 has additional lines that this edition leaves out of the play, appendix 3 discusses Moth's name.
The issue around Moth is that in Elizabethan times Moth would likely have been pronounced more like Mott than our soft th. And the word mote and moth were roughly interchangeable. The name of the insect and the word for a small particle meant roughly the same thing. It is a nice issue to be aware of and the essay is helpful.
Appendix 4 lists words that are rhymed in this play - often a revelation to the way words were pronounced 400 years ago. Appendix 5 lists the compound words, many of them minted in this play.
All in all, this edition is a happy experience of a very fun play.
witty.......2003-05-05
this is witty play about four guys who vow to sequester themselves for three years in serious study, but who are forced to forswear their vows when four attractive women show up and upset their plans. the humor is mainly in the form of wordplay, as only shakespeare can do, and the verbal jousting between berowne and his lady is especially entertaining, and anticipates the tete-a-tetes between petruchio and katherina in "taming of a shrew" and benedick and beatrice in "much ado about nothing". definitely worth a read, and if you can get it, the bbc television production of LLL is also worth seeing. last of all, i disagree with the other poster who complained of the ending. i thought it was pretty clear that the couples would get together in a year's time. so the ending was implicitly happy. only someone who is accustomed to instant gratification could find fault with it.
Funny, but too lovey-dovey.......1997-07-26
Like most of Shakespeare's comidies, LLL involved a couple of very independent women falling in love with a couple of guys who were in love with them too. It also brought mistaken identities into play and, like A Midsummer Night's Dream, it had a play within the play. The humor was mostly in the form of puns, most of which were hard to understand the first time through. The ending was really bad, though, because the girls didn't get together with the guys like they should have if Shakespeare had planned a happy ending. All-in-all, I would only recommend this play for really serious Shakespearean scholars, as it is almost too dense for us laypeople
Average customer rating:
- Encouraging and Motivational
- The best of 100 or so self-help books I have read.
- One of the best I have read.
- Trendy Career Cheerleading ... but No Substance
- Work with Passion
|
Work With Passion: How to Do What You Love for a Living
Nancy Anderson
Manufacturer: New World Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Guides
| Job Hunting & Careers
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Labor & Industrial Relations
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
| Business Ethics
| Consolidation & Merger
| Decision-Making & Problem Solving
| Distribution & Warehouse Management
| Industrial
| Information Management
| Leadership
| Management
| Management Science
| Motivational
| Negotiating
| Operations Research
| Planning & Forecasting
| Pricing
| Production & Operations
| Project Management
| Quality Control
| Risk Assessment
| Statistics
| Strategy & Competition
| Systems & Planning
| Systems Analysis
| Teams
| Total Quality Management
| Training
Similar Items:
-
Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood
-
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
ASIN: 1880032546 |
Customer Reviews:
Encouraging and Motivational.......2004-02-05
This book helps you to discover your passion, build upon your strength, and take the necessary action that leads to fulfillment. It clearly delineates the "ten passion secrets" advocated by the author. It begins with knowing what you want, i.e., defining your goal and ends with arriving at your destination. In between those two steps are the other eight which comprise the process entailed.
The insightful reflection she offers encourages you to enjoy the process of achievement, not just focus on the result. On commitment, she reminds us, "We develop a commitment to whatever we have spent time on: the more time, the stronger the commitment." She reinforces the importance of putting goals down on paper, noting that words in print are more permanent, they remind us of what we were thinking at a give time.
She has some creative things to say about creativity. "The artist, like the entrepreneur, is primarily a solo type. Their values are generally not those of the majority of the population," she writes. In terms of like attracting like, she adds, "The only mind that can understand a creative mind is one that is also creative!" This is an insightful book. It's major drawback is it limits things to "looking in" for guidance, when God offers so much more for Christians.
The best of 100 or so self-help books I have read........2001-09-02
In my early 20's I was an avid reader of self-help and psychology books. I took seminars, workshops, and volunteered in self-help groups for 2 years. I read books literally by the dozen.
I read "Work with Passion" about 5 years ago. It is the only book I can honestly recommend, as it is the only book which ever caused me to change my behavior. Assuming that such a change is the goal of reading a book geared towards helping one's self, then it alone was successful with me.
In reading it I became particularly in touch with the interests I had as a child. Upon reading it, I proceeded to fine-tune my college studies, and two years later had a job in the specialized field I had re-discovered through reading this book.
One thing I hadn't been aware of is that the author offers counseling in Marin County (call 411 for her number). Due to the recession, I am now in a state of career flux once again, and intend on using her personal services for the first time.
Though it helped me, this book may not resolve another person's lengthy (in my case 7 years) search for the "true" profession. However, if you intend on buying a book to help you out, do include this one.
One of the best I have read........2001-06-19
I highly recommend this book for those individuals that are self motivated and ready for a job change. For ten years now, I have read many, many books about careers and career counseling. This is truely the first book on careers that I read cover-to-cover in two days. I can't say that about any other career book, and that includes Richard Bolles' books. Of the 20-plus books I've read, this book gave me the information about changing careers in a way that felt comfortable, interesting, and most importantly empowering.
Trendy Career Cheerleading ... but No Substance.......2000-08-07
I just don't understand the 5 star ratings this book has received so far.
This book offers just a very general motivational approach ... with good luck stories and such. There is no problem-solving, practicality, or real vocational guidance.
I didn't even find it inspirational because it sounded too ... too much like (metaphorically): "throw yourself off the cliff if you've always dreamed of doing so, because the river will carry you" ... even though you still don't know "which cliff" you want to "leap off" of ... much less how to find OUT which one ... and to what PURPOSE it may even serve ... forget it!! I don't THINK so!! This book has a pop new-agish appeal to it that's overly idealistic, glossy ... with a light, superficial, nebulous, happy-happy-joy-joy feel to it. I finished it feeling depressed. It was like going on and on, praising EXCITEDLY some great present for a child, but leaving the innocent with no clue has to WHAT it is or how s/he can get to it. Taunting.
If one is lucky enough to already know EXACTLY what one wants and just needs a little rallying to go out and DO it, who knows: this book might help such a person. Otherwise, forget it. For myself, this book was a huge disappointment and (another) waste of my money and time.
(You might like to read my other reviews if you're interested in the few career books I HAVE found helpful.)
Work with Passion.......2000-01-24
I would give this book my highest recommendation. It was extremely interesting to work through and the size of it is not daunting whatsoever. It gives the reader a structure and a well-thought out process to work through to define what one's passion actually is - not an easy thing for many of us! In fact, it's a wonderful book to help you define yourself - especially if you have had life changes or feel stale and in need of a change.
It's rather hard to find the perfect job until you define what lights you up on every level. When you have worked through the process, it's amazing how opportunity presents itself in just the right way!
Book Description
In this fast-paced farce, the plot and characters become tangled up in confusion until the grand unraveling in the last scene. Mistaken identities and misfortunes end on a note of joy, as wrongly condemned prisoners are freed and lovers are paired off.
Average customer rating:
- A Light Comedy; A Timely Message; A Heavy Hand
|
Love's Labor's Lost (Folger Shakespeare Library)
William Shakespeare , and
Paul Werstine
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
General
| Theater
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Shakespeare
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Shakespeare, William
| ( S )
| Playwrights, A-Z
| Drama
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Drama
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Shakespeare, William
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Paperback
| Shakespeare, William
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Art
| Arts & Photography
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Theater
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Shakespeare, William
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Paperback
| Shakespeare, William
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Drama
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Shakespeare, William
| ( S )
| Playwrights, A-Z
| Drama
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Shakespeare
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Comedy of Errors (Folger Shakespeare Library)
-
The Winter's Tale (Folger Shakespeare Library)
-
The Merchant of Venice (Folger Shakespeare Library)
-
Antony and Cleopatra (Folger Shakespeare Library)
-
As You Like It (Folger Shakespeare Library)
ASIN: 0743484924 |
Book Description
Folger Shakespeare Library
The world's leading center for Shakespeare studies
• Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
• Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
• Scene-by-scene plot summaries
• A key to famous lines and phrases
• An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language
• An essay by leading Shakespeare scholar, William C. Carroll, providing a modern perspective on the play
• Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs.
Customer Reviews:
A Light Comedy; A Timely Message; A Heavy Hand.......2006-08-03
The Folger Library editions are absolutely the best for scholarship, due to their extensive notation. My preference for Love's Labor's Lost is for the Pelican Books version, with sufficient but abreviated notation. The lighter notation gives wings to Shakespeare's most ponderous romantic comedy.
This is the story of three gentlemen who pledge themselves to three years of intellectual rigor in the court of the King of Navarre, who joins them in their sober enterprise. When the four of them determine that their scholarship must not be interupted by vice, the reader readily understands that their ill-considered commitments can only end in ribald hippocracy. Temptation arrives immediately in the form of the Princess of France and her three ladies in waiting.
The story moves along more or less predictably, though in a style that is almost a parody of Shakespeare. There are scores of allusions, silly, bawdy, and sharp, which apparently would have been recognized by the audience of the time, but which have not travelled well through the intervening four centuries. The result is five acts of mostly turgid iambic pentameter, interrupted by some lilting, if not particularly memorable lines. Such as when Dumaine and Berone start and finish one another's thoughts:
Dumaine: In reason nothing.
Berone: Something then in rhyme.
Dumaine: How follows that?
Berone: Fit in his place and time.
And here are some usages and allusions which you might need to pause to look up:
"misprision" = error
"woodcock" = stupidity
"festinately" = quickly
"dig you den" = give you good evening
"intellect" = purport
"jerks of invention" = strokes of wit
"in print" = to the letter
One of the few lines for which the book is known is, "Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow," meaning that compliments cannot make an unattractive person less so.
All in all, Love's Labor's Lost is unlikely to become anyone's favorite Shakespearean comedy. It is for the advanced reader who is willing to take the time to penetrate the subliminal and archaic humor. For that dedicated reader, however, it is worth the effort.
Average customer rating:
- The Exception To The Rule
|
Love's Labor's Lost
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Shakespeare
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Shakespeare, William
| ( S )
| Playwrights, A-Z
| Drama
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Shakespeare, William
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Paperback
| Shakespeare, William
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Shakespeare, William
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Paperback
| Shakespeare, William
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Shakespeare, William
| ( S )
| Playwrights, A-Z
| Drama
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Shakespeare
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Merry Wives of Windsor (Signet Classics)
-
The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico
-
Heritage of World Civilizations, TLC edition, Combined Volume (3rd Edition)
-
Perrine's Story and Structure
-
The Merchant of Venice (The Pelican Shakespeare)
ASIN: 0451529502
Release Date: 2004-09-07 |
Book Description
Known as a "feast of language," this is one of the bard's earliest comedies, in which four bachelors who have dedicated themselves to chastity and scholarly pursuits soon encounter the women of their dreams.
Customer Reviews:
The Exception To The Rule.......2006-07-22
Generally speaking, I don't like romances. The reason is that romantic tales generally have absurd elements. If you read them carefully, you will probably notice scenes that don't make sense. ("Pericles" is full of annoying flaws. "Winter's Tale" will make a moderately sharp observer say 'What?' a few times.) But "Love's Labors Lost" seems to be the exception. It basically starts with the King of Navarre and 3 scholars (Berowne, Longaville, and Dumaine) making an oath. For 3 years, they will engage in scholarship and pay no note to any women. And this is not exactly unheard of. Well, a complication comes into play. The princess of France has come to talk to the King of Navarre on matters of diplomacy, and the king (with some understandable humiliation) realizes that he has to break his own rules. (He can't rightly tell a princess on a matter of diplomacy to come back in 3 years!) They negotiate a treaty, and on the surface it seems legitimate, but the king is at least somewhat affected by love. And of course, there are 3 women with her. (Rosaline, who likes Berowne, Maria, who likes Longaville, and Katherine who likes Dumaine.) Berowne seems to be the smart (or at least honest one) who knows that the three year oath is not going to last. These 4 men try to conceal their attraction to these women. There is an especially comical scene where the King, Dumaine, and Longaville come on stage one at a time (wrongly thinking no one is listening) and read letters to the woman they are attracted to. Berowne comes on stage and rebukes them all for breaking the oath. But after the 3 are ashamed of themselves, an even greater comical moment comes when Berowne receives a letter that is all to incriminating. After some degree of humiliation, Berowne saves face by speaking of the wonders of love. And the 4 men agree that love is more important than the oath. You'll probably notice that the long final scene (5.2) is just under half of the whole story. It would seem the first 4 acts and 1st scene of the 5th act were just quick preperations for the final scene. It's somewhat unusual, but in this one case, it DOES work. (To be sure, all plays to some extent have a build up to the final scenes, but this is Shakespeare's only play where the final scene is almost half of the whole play.) A party begins where the ladies play a joke on the men. They are all wearing masks and the ladies dance with different partners. After some confusion on the part of the men, Berowne (who seems to be the smartest man) realizes what has happened. But it was just a joke, and no one was really hurt. After the dancing, comes a humorous play. But sadly, this merry play comes to an end. The princess learns that her father has died. And like a good daughter, she feels her primary duty is to mourn her father. (Generally, romantics like Romeo from "Romeo and Juliet," Imogen from "Cymbeline," and Florizel from "Winter's Tale," are not overly respectful to their parents.) But this French Princess is the exception. While the 4 men are understandably sad, they agree that now just isn't the time. The play ends with the women leaving and the men dejected. But even in their dejection, there is still hope. A year may pass, and quite possibly they will be reunited with the women they love. I think this romance works because it BREAKS the standard formula. Events are plausible, and instead of an artificially happy ending, we have sadness. But in the sadness there is hope. And often, hope is what pulls us through our times of great sadness. As I said, I really don't like romances, but this one does seem to work.
Books:
- If I Knew Then What I Know Now ... So What
- In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind
- Indigo Dreams: Relaxation and Stress Management Bedtime Stories for Children, Improve Sleep, Manage Stress and Anxiety (Indigo Dreams)
- International Business: A Managerial Perspective (4th Edition)
- Jeremy: The Tale of an Honest Bunny
- Journeys from Childhood to Midlife: Risk, Resilience, and Recovery
- Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief
- Let Every Nation Know: John F. Kennedy in His Own Words
- Living Through the Meantime : Learning to Break the Patterns of the Past and Begin the Healing Process
- Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 Hands-On Training
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Unofficial Guide to Central Italy: Florence, Rome, Tuscany, and Umbria
- Rich Dad's Advisors: How to Attract Other People's Money for Your Investments--The Ultimate Leverage
- Lift Every Voice and Sing II: An African American Hymnal
- How People Negotiate: Resolving Disputes in Different Cultures
- Neural Networks in Finance: Gaining Predictive Edge in the Market
- Sadako and the thousand paper cranes
- Michelin the Green Guide Paris
- Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way
- Law and Globalization from Below: Towards a Cosmopolitan Legality
- One Hand Clapping: A Novel
Zen and the Art of Making a Living: A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design (Arkana)
The Tao of Abundance: Eight Ancient Principles for Living Abundantly in the 21st Century (Arkana)
How to Be, Do, or Have Anything: A Practical Guide to Creative Empowerment
Whistle While You Work: Heeding Your Life's Calling
Creating a Life Worth Living
