Daredevil: Loves Labor Lost TPB

Customer Reviews:

Pretty good..........2003-05-30

This book picks up around the time that Frank Miller wrapped up his first run on the series and around the time right before Frank Miller started his second run on the series. It's caught between greatness, thus overshadowed by the better-known arcs, but it does a good job of holding the inbetween.

Please, don't pass this book up just because it's not Frank Miller. It does have good stories in it (all except for one...surprisingly, it's the Frank Miller issue [Frank only wrote one issue and co-wrote another out of all the issues collected in here, by the way]), and the art is very good. While none of what you read in Love's Labor's Lost will be forever remembered as some of Daredevil's most defining and infamous moments (save, perhaps, Heather Glenn's suicide), all this book does is give more strength to the character of Matt Murdock/Daredevil, thus showing that he doesn't need Frank Miller to be good.

Customer Reviews:

a fun early comedy.......2002-06-16

One of Shakespeare's earlier comedies, "Love's Labour's Lost" does not even hold a candle to some of the Bard's greatest comedic works (A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, The Winter's Tale). Yet, for all its lack of blazing greatness, the play is indeed a joyful diversion.

The plot is that of a philosopher's paradise being invaded by the most nefarious of things...love.

Shakespeare means many things when he speaks of love: often it can be shallow, bawdy lecherous love, sometimes it is an almost Petrachan yearning "courtly" love, once in a while it is a self destructive, clasping, obsessive love. Here it is pretty much straight-up attraction of the "hey, I'd like to marry you" variety.

As the noble, well-meaning but unable to restrain themselves philosopher's fall for the beauties of this tale, many awkward situations occur. Much of the humor here is of this vein. Plays on words and outrageous situations provide most of the laughs.

For fans of Shakespeare, I wholeheartedly endorse this great play. For beginners, I recommend starting with one of the plays mentioned above.

Difficult, But A Worthy Study........2000-04-09

Be forewarned. Even if you have read a lot of Shakespeare's plays, this one is difficult and demands much effort to follow. But, if you can push yourself into reading this, it is well worth the time. Shakespeare himself performed the role of Berowne. While this is a comedy, the humour relies on irony as opposed to funny events. Also, unlike his other comedies, this one does not end in utter happieness. The interaction of the characters, as well as the situation comedy (especially in 4.3) is quite memorable. This comedy differs significantly from most of his others, but it is a wonderful piece of literature.

Love's Labor's Lost (Folger Shakespeare Library)

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Not one of Shakespeare's best.
Love's Labors Lost
A most helpful edition of a riot of words
witty
Funny, but too lovey-dovey

Love's Labor's Lost (Folger Shakespeare Library)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0671722743

Book Description

Love's Labour's Lost, now recognized as one of the most delightful and stageworthy of Shakespeare's comedies, came into its own both on the stage and in critical esteem only during the 1930s and 1940s--after nearly three hundred years of neglect by the theater and misuse by critics. In this
new critical edition, Hibbard pays particular attention to this process of rehabilitation. Based on the quarto of 1598, and drawing on recent scholarly analysis, he proposes that the quarto goes back, probably by way of a "lost" quarto, to an authorial manuscript that represents the play in a state
prior to "fair copy." He offers numerous original readings of difficult and disputed passages, and a helpful commentary to the play's scintillating language.

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

Three Early Comedies: Love's Labor's Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, & The Merry Wives of Windsor (Bantam Classic)

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Three Early Comedies: Love's Labor's Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, & The Merry Wives of Windsor (Bantam Classic)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Bantam Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0553212826
Release Date: 1988-01-01

Book Description

An exciting new edition of the complete works of Shakespeare with these features: Illustrated with photographs from New York Shakespeare Festival productions, vivid readable readable introductions for each play by noted scholar David Bevington, a lively personal foreword by Joseph Papp, an insightful essay on the play in performance, modern spelling and pronunciation, up-to-date annotated bibliographies, and convenient listing of key passages.

Love's Labor's Lost (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare)

Average customer rating:

much better than the film

Love's Labor's Lost (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: The Audio Partners
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 1932219196

Book Description

Young King Ferdinand and his courtiers agree to dedicate three years to ascetic and celibate study. But when the fetching Princess of France and her ladies arrive on a diplomatic mission, the men's resolve is put to an arduous - and witty - test. The tension between their vow and their passion forms the subject of this charming, sparkling early comedy. Performed by Greg Wise, Samantha Bond, and the Arkangel cast.

Customer Reviews:

much better than the film.......2007-03-21

If you love the bard, you must buy this or the whole Arkangel series! I like the recent movie of Love's Labors Lost but it is really a Hollywood extravaganza which includes a little S. On the other hand, you can hear the whole text read by specialists on Arkangel.

I think the choice is easy. This is so much better!

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

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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.

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The Exception To The Rule

Love's Labor's Lost
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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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.

Love's Labor's Lost; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; The Merry Wives of Windsor

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Love's Labor's Lost; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; The Merry Wives of Windsor
William Shakespeare , John Arthos , Bertrand Evans , and William Green
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The merchant of Venice ; Love's labor's lost (The Guild Shakespeare)

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The merchant of Venice ; Love's labor's lost (The Guild Shakespeare)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Doubleday Book & Music Clubs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - VOLUME I - LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

Average customer rating:

Content page, Indexing and paging could be better

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - VOLUME I - LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H46DK0

Customer Reviews:

Content page, Indexing and paging could be better.......2007-02-11

For the most part the plays are complete,
the translation comments more than adequate
and they are presented as well as in most books of plays.
Reading the three parts of Henry VI is just difficult work.
They must have put a lot of theater goers to sleep.
Shakespeare's Joan of Arc is as bad as his treatment of the Jews.
It shows us that he was a man of his own time and far from a perfect poet
as some have nominated him.

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