AUDIOBOOK

Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare
4.5
(146)
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Duration
2h 8m
Year
2006
Language
English
Publisher
Blackstone Publishing

About

Young Claudio has fallen for the lovely heiress Hero, who also loves him. Their path to the altar looks smooth, until the evil Don John intervenes.
All ends happily, thanks to his incompetent assassins and the lucky discoveries of the bungling constable Dogberry. Central to the play, one of Shakespeare's best-loved comedies, are Beatrice and Benedick, masters of wit and sworn foes to marriage-until a plot is hatched to bring them together.

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Reviews

"The play takes an ancient them-that of a woman falsely accused of unfaithfulness-to brilliant comedic heights. In this play, Shakespeare eschewed devices of obvious magic or disguise of sex, which he employed in other comedies; the wit and ambiguity of the dialogue and the exquisite pacing of the action sustain the play, which remains popular in repertory."
Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature
"Much Ado about Nothing focuses on two love affairs, the rivalry between the reluctant Beatrice and the confirmed bachelor Benedick, and the more serious courtship between Hero and Claudio. The former is one of the wittiest romantic conflicts in dramatic literature; the latter narrowly avoids catastrophe by means of a necessary, if contrived, manipulation of the plot to achieve a happy ending."
Masterpieces of World Literature
"The influence of Beatrice and Benedick was felt in the Restoration comedy of manners, whose competitive loving couples similarly disguise their true affection by verbal combat."
The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English

Artists

William Shakespeareauthor
Various Readersreader

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