A Midsummer Night's Dream (c.1595-96)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (c.1595-96)

Author: William Shakespeare  |  Page Count: 120

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."

Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a confusing first read for a lot of people; it certainly was for me many years ago. It seems as if there are too many characters to keep track of, but there really isn't.

A common hurdle is that a large portion of the play focuses on two men and two women. The two men are both in love with the same woman, a woman who loves just one of the men. There's a second woman in love with one of the men that loves the first woman. You follow? That, believe it or not, isn't the confusing part.

The real head-fuck comes when the King of Faerie, Oberon, or more precisely his loyal aide, the pernicious fairy Puck, gets involved. There's a mix-up with a love potion and then everything goes tits-up. If you can see it performed on stage do so, because it really helps.

The Tragedy of Macbeth (c.1599-1606)

The Tragedy of Macbeth (c.1599-1606)

Author: William Shakespeare  |  Page Count: 128

"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." 

Often referred to simply as Macbeth (as on the Wordsworth edition pictured), the famous play is one of the easiest of Shakespeare's Tragedies to get to grips with for a newcomer, and of the ones I've read is my personal favourite, but not for the same reason.

It's because despite its short length it packs in a ton of good stuff, including the supernatural, prophecy, blood, murder, guilt, conflict, reversals, paranoia, insanity, metaphor, and bold commentary on gender.

Though given less time than her husband, the real star is arguably Lady Macbeth, a woman for whom ambition is so all-consuming that she willingly steps into a world of terrible consequence while fully aware that what she does is deserving of retribution. For Lady Macbeth failure is a greater sin than murder; 'bitch is crazy' in modern parlance. Her famous soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 5 highlights it.

The Tempest (c.1610-11)

The Tempest (c.1610-11)

Author: William Shakespeare  |  Page Count: 128

"Hell is empty, and all the devils are here."

Reading Shakespeare for pleasure, outside of an academic environment, takes considerable pressure off a reader. You won't be asked to give an opinion or answer difficult questions. Maybe you don't need to know what every little nuance in the text represents, or you care little about sociopolitical context and postcolonial concerns. Sometimes all you ask is a good story be told in a language that's praised for its beauty, and there's nothing wrong with wanting that.

The Tempest isn't a play that gets chosen often by people who just want to dip a toe, but it's one that I return to time and again. Many of the themes within its pages he's used before, but in a different way.

A shipwreck gets the players to where they need to be, as in Twelfth Night (c.1601–02). Someone who's been wronged seeks revenge (too many too mention). The fantastical is there, but it's less comical than his other famous work that uses it, A Midsummer Night's Dream (c.1590–96). There's still a lot of laughs to be had, however, because it does after all have elements of tragicomedy, but there's a lot of weight to it, too. It's also a romance, proving that one thing can be many if the author intends it.

Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

Author: Oscar Wilde  |  Page Count: 152*

"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."

The events in Oscar's play about a 'Good Woman’ occur over a twenty-four hour period in Victorian London. It's a short work, divided into four Acts: the time spent by Lady Windermere and her husband before a coming of age birthday ball hosted by the couple; the party itself; the aftermath; and the resolutions of the following morning/afternoon. That's ample time for drama and scandal to erupt.

The ball is attended by a select gentry, but strip away the mannered social standings and tailored suits and it's like every party everywhere, filled with two-faced gossip, hypocrisy, nonchalance, indignation and unwarranted observations by caustic people who would chide a speaker for doing the same. The self-indulgent concerns of rich-folks could've been a real bore if not for Oscar's piercing wit to spice it up; he made the verbal meanderings of dull people seem exciting. Under attack are the conventions of marriage, among other things.