Books with title Othello

Edited, Introduced and Annotated by Cedric Watts, Professor of English Literature, University of Sussex This is an intense drama of love, deception, jealousy and destruction. Desdemona's love for Othello, the Moor, transcends racial prejudice; but the envious Iago conspires to devastate their lives. In its vivid rendering of racism, sexism, contested identities, and the savagery lurking within civilisation, Othello is arguably the most topical and accessible tragedy from Shakespeare's major phase as a dramatist.

This edition of "Othello" aims to shed light on the text of the play as we have come to know it, and on our knowledge of its early history. The professional malpractices of the publisher of the Quarto, as described in documents in the Public Record Office, and the professional zeal of the Folio scribe, who wished to tidy and correct Shakespeare's manuscript, introduced many plausible but post-Shakespearean readings into the text, which call into question a number of our assumptions about the play. As well as investigating the implications of these findings about the early texts, the editor offers a wider background to the play, discussing major critical issues, the play in performance and the relationship between reading and seeing it, and topics such as its date, sources, the famous conundrum of "double time", and its "greatness" compared with "Hamlet" and "King Lear". Commentary notes assist the reader's understanding of the text in detail; many are concerned with the contemporary resonances of its language.

Othello is the definitive play on the theme of jealousy. In this remorseless tragedy, first performed in 1604, William Shakespeare's most malevolent villain, Iago, aide to Othello, plants the seed of the green-eyed monster in the mind of his master, incubating it with vile insinuations until it devours the great man and the lives of those he loves. Iago believes he has been unfairly treated by the Moor, who is completely unaware of it, so both are carried through the drama on tides of delusion. This is what places Othello among Shakespeare's masterpieces-driven by the spiteful impulses to which all of us are at some time susceptible, the course of life can go horribly awry.

Shakespeare's Othello is one of his finest and most famous tragedies. This highly acclaimed production directed by Michael Grandage, features Chiwetel Ejiofor as the Moor Othello, Ewan McGregor as the scheming Iago, and Kelly Reilly as the gentle Desdemona. Each performance was a sell-out during its November 2007 and February 2008 run. This recording features music written specifically for the stage production and a DVD of interviews with the cast and creative team.

Othello, The Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare based on the short story "Moor of Venice" by Cinthio, believed to have been written in approximately 1603. The work revolves around four central characters: Othello, his wife Desdemona, his lieutenant Cassio, and his trusted advisor Iago. Attesting to its enduring popularity, the play appeared in 7 editions between 1622 and 1705. Because of its varied themes — racism, love, jealousy and betrayal — it remains relevant to the present day and is often performed in professional and community theatres alike. The play has also been the basis for numerous operatic, film and literary adaptations. Othello is an adaptation of the Italian writer Cinthio's tale "Un Capitano Moro" ("A Moorish Captain") from his Gli Hecatommithi (1565), a collection of one hundred tales in the style of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. No English translation of Cinthio was available in Shakespeare's lifetime, and verbal echoes in Othello are closer to the Italian original than to Gabriel Chappuy's 1584 French translation. Cinthio's tale may have been based on an actual incident occurring in Venice about 1508.