Reviews

All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare

andrew_j_r's review against another edition

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4.0

I have decided to read all of the Shakespeare plays. There are several orders in which you can read them, I did consider the order in which they were written, but decided in the end to go for alphabetical order, as presented in the recent Folio Society folio edition of the complete plays.
My method is this: I watch the relevant BBC Shakespeare adaptation (they recorded every play between 1978 and 1985, this has been released as a large box set) and read along with my folio edition. Once I know the story, I will read the Oxford Shakespeare version of the play, which is the version I will review.
All’s Well That Ends Well is not a story that I was familiar with before this. The Oxford Shakespeare gives a huge amount of fascinating detail about its background, for example, contextual information about when it was written, and the sources material of the play. I did not know that this was based on a story published in 1575 (which is included in the book.) The research that has gone into this is incredible. As an example, there are two characters that are listed by different names in different acts, and it is not known if this is due to bad labelling or that they were actually several different characters. This book explains how the editors came to draw certain conclusions about who was who.
There is also a line that appears to be in the wrong place (with explanations of why that might be, where it maybe should have been, and what it may mean if the line is actually in the right place after all!) The book even talks about where straight lines and poetic lines seem to have become jumbled in the edit (the text is the same just how they are presented on the page) and it appears it was to make the page fill up more space (poems take up more room) to ensure it matched where the next page started (often being put together by a different typesetter!)
So the play is interesting (I ended up watching two versions on DVD) and the background material is fascinating. 36 (or 37!!) to go.

hinabooks's review against another edition

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challenging funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Helena, please raise your standards. FUCK BERTRAM! 
The gibberish scene was funny tho.

anthonyk's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

zanm's review against another edition

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4.75

4.9⭐ 
Well written and accessible (one of Shakespeare's faster-paced, easy-to-understand plays, like most of his comedies) but incredibly non-consensual. Weird. 

yak_attak's review against another edition

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2.5

It may be that this just wasn't the time for more Shakespeare, and I needed something a little more straightforward. Even if it were not, All's Well that Ends Well wouldn't be my first choice of Will's work - its plot is just a little too obscured and messy, full of meandering scenes that set up action that doesn't really happen until the end. It's got some good ideas, some great characters, and yeah, some fun scenes (Parolles being tricked is too fun not to love) but on the whole it feels unfinished, like the sketch of another comedy Shakespeare succeeded at.

mary00's review against another edition

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4.0

Enertaining, although much darker than most of Shakespeare's other comedies.

In reading most of the reviews I'm just a little surprised on how one-sided the views of Betram are. Obviously, Bertram has many character flaws. However, I think that a case can be made that he is not as big of a jerk as the play is set up to portray him as. He is young, and as a result of his youth makes some serious mistakes. But can we truly fault him for not loving Helena? It may seem incomprehensible that he would not love such an intelligent, sweet, and beautiful woman - but we don't choose who we fall in love with. I for one cannot fault him for not loving Helena and for not being happy about being forced to marry her. Anyone would be upset at being pushed into a marriage that they don't desire, however desirable it appears to everyone else. Although Bertram is not a character that I admire or love, he is a character who I can feel some sympathy for.
Likewise, Helena is not as innocent as she may appear at first reading. She trapped Bertram into marrying her, knowing full well that he did not care for her in the way that she cared for him. She is a perfect example of the classic sterotype that good girls fall for the bad boys.
A little part of me wishes that Shakespeare would have let the audience see the other side of the story a bit more, instead of manuipulating them into viewing Bertram as a complete cad. He is a cad, but not as completely as most readers will conclude.

_m_sarai's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

ellienorshellstrop's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Not a huge fan of the Bard *gasp* shock horror and why the hell did dude just do a 180, 2 minutes before the end, there was practically 0 build or explanation for that tbh. But  Helena is cool and the Countess and the clown were freaking icons

ebutton11's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

erboe501's review against another edition

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4.0

Classified as one of Shakespeare's "problem plays," AWTEW is different because the woman is strong-willed and able to go after what she wants. She might be a "problem" for some of the men in the play, but she understands how to play to female stereotypes while also manipulating the situation. Even if her object of desire is not really worthy of her sharp wit, she is definitely a woman to be admired.