Julius Caesar (Folger Shakespeare Library)

The best Shakespeare to get! Effing copious notes for context and comprehension. Fun fact: the Folger's Shakespeare library is located directly behind the Library of Congress and they love visitors!

If you are just starting to read Shakespeare on your own, and want a good starting point, look no further than this Folger Library treatment of his great political drama.It was the Folger edition of "Julius Caesar" that grabbed me back in the ninth grade, when I was failing all my classes and hardly hitting my assigned reading. This has it all: Indelible characters, hard-hitting action scenes, tricky "what-would-you-do" moments, and text that you can grasp readily thanks to the Folger practice of laying out the tricky parts on the opposite page. Guess what: There aren't so many "tricky parts" in "Julius Caesar" as you might expect from reading "Hamlet" or even "Midsummer Night's Dream."There are many, many great lines, some quite famous and instantly recognizable to anyone with a bit of cultural awareness. "Beware the ides of March!' "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,/But in ourselves..." "Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look." "...it was Greek to me." "Cowards die many times before their deaths;/The valiant never taste of death but once..." And that's just in the first two acts.The great speech everyone remembers, the one which begins "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears," is especially powerful when read in context. It is delivered by the play's most fascinating character, Mark Antony. At this point in the play, the title character is [Big Spoiler Coming] terminally indisposed, and most of the people who have been doing the talking are fine with this. Then Mark Antony comes on stage, and with that line, and the next several that follow, he effects a tremendous turnabout in the storyline, among the most memorable ever devised. It's a riveting, passionate, and snarkishly satirical scene, as the cynical-yet-somehow-admirable Mark Antony winds up a crowd of passive Romans into complete bloodlust.The scenes are sharp like that throughout, something that can't always be said of Shakespeare. He's often ambiguous, but seldom as effectively as here. The dilemma of Brutus, who sees a man whose power is going to his head, is one we can relate to, as we see that side of Caesar, too, but is the prescribed cure better than the sickness, or is Brutus just the wrong physician? We get one unalloyed villain in Cassius, whose very name is snakelike and who seems to operate on Brutus like a proto-Iago, but different readers will come away with different perspectives on his plotting.Probably written in 1599, just as Shakespeare was entering his decade of greatest accomplishment, "Julius Caesar" may be with "Romeo & Juliet" and "MacBeth" the safest bet for a high-school or junior-high-school English teacher. I can't think of an easier play of Shakespeare's to read, or maybe even enjoy. Add to that the levels of deception, subtle characterization, and satirical realpolitik to be discovered, and you have a play that satisfies as much as it draws you in.

Goated play.

She read it, and et tu it worked, Brute.

quite tiny. each spread is one page of Julius Caesar and the other explains vocab and fills in gaps. it explains cultural stuff and helps a lot with understanding what’s going on.

We all know the story of Julius Caesar. The tragic event that led to chaos. Though it is a popular television and movie theme, we know it in large part due to Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare's famed play. It includes moving scenes such as Caesar's infamous "Et tu Brute", and Marc Antony's moving "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." This book, put together by Folger Shakespeare Library, helps to bring this story to life.This book, about 239 pages total, features "explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play." While these notes may not answer every question you might come up with, I believe they are very helpful to the average reader (such as myself). These pages also provide plenty of room for anyone who prefers to annotate, or write down thoughts, in their books.Also featured on these pages is a scene summary for every scene. The scene summaries really helped me truly understand the Shakespearian language. I am very grateful I ordered this copy of Julius Caesar, since it has the tools necessary for the average reader to fully grasp what is happening. I picked it up right here on Amazon.com.I can hardly find negative aspects to this edition. The best I can come up with is that the words and phrases noted are not already underlined or marked somehow by the publisher. (I know, not a big deal.) The story is great, a must-read for all history buffs or even the casual reader. All-in-all, if you are looking to read Julius Caesar, or just some Shakespeare to impress your friends or teachers with, check out the Folger Shakespeare Library's edition of Julius Caesar. I highly recommend it.So, what are you waiting on? Get to it!

Great read

I got this in an effort to be better read. So far, it’s working. My family comments on how well I can discuss the topics.