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mariettula's review
4.0
Well, it's the quintessential love story right? Just don't think about how Romeo and Juliet are 13-years-olds and that Romeo starts the play desperately in love with another woman .
Look, it may not be my favorite Shakespeare play, but the writing in it is exquisitely lyrical.
Look, it may not be my favorite Shakespeare play, but the writing in it is exquisitely lyrical.
kmparsons's review
5.0
I didn't think that I would like Romeo and Juliet because other people said that it was "too cheesy". I loved it!!!!!!!!!! I cried, I laughed, I cried more.
thebrookeworm_'s review
5.0
When I read this in high school I didn’t really get what the big deal was with this book. Now reading it almost 10 years later and I understand it totally differently.
rheren's review
2.0
Okay, perhaps this isn't fair, because this was a play, not a novel, but this just didn't work for me. My rating is subjective, not meant to be an objective criticism of the play itself. In other words, it's probably me, not Shakespeare: I think I can understand why it's famous as a romance, and I can tell that it would be different seeing it on a stage compared to reading it dryly on a page, and I can also tell that a lot of the references that are probably hilarious double-entendres or inside jokes or plays on words went whoosh over my 21st century head, but still... I thought the story was absurd. Romeo is portrayed as a rake, fresh off another relationship, meets Juliet (who's 13 years old) and the two of them fall so passionately in love in one night that they are married the next night and then prepared to commit suicide over each other right after that? Was her dying really the best way to take care of this bizarre situation they found themselves in? Does nobody talk to each other about things in this world? None of the characters in the story really have any character development or depth: they're just wild, one-dimensional characters careening around stabbing each other. I was rather unimpressed, but again, I realize that it's probably just not my type of story.
rosieloudonson's review
4.0
Another wonderful Shakespeare! The beauty of the language and the heart breaking story together create a scene of elegance. I was hooked from "two households" to " never has a story had this much woe than this of Juliet and Romeo". I recommend it for all readers 13 and over and I'm certain you will find it as enjoyable as I did!
aurrai's review
A sample of the text:
CHORUS.
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;
The which, if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
CHORUS.
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;
The which, if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
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