All's Well That Ends Well

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Alls Well That Ends Well (1607) is a comedy by William Shakespeare. Alls Well That Ends Well was likely inspired by the tale of Giletta di Narbona from Boccaccios Decameron. Unpopular during Shakespeares lifetime, the play remains one of his least staged works to this day. Despite this, scholars praise Alls Well That Ends Well for its moral ambiguity. The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherishd by our virtues. For his wit and wordplay alone, William Shakespeare is often considered the greatest writer to ever work in the English language. Where he truly triumphs, however, is in his ability to portray complex human emotions, how these emotions contribute to relationships, and how these relationships interact with politics, culture, and religion. In Alls Well That Ends Well, as in so many of Shakespeares works, love is the center of attention. When Helena heals the King of France, who had been suffering from a persistent illness, he allows her to choose a husband from among his closest advisors. She selects the handsome Bertram, who disdains her for her lowborn social status. Although they marry, he leaves for Italy before consummating their union, failing to suspect the lengths to which Helena will go to get what she desires. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of William Shakespeares Alls Well That Ends Well is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Author Bio

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, he was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and glove-maker, and Mary Arden, a woman from a wealthy family. Likely educated at the Kings New School, he would have studied Latin in his youth. At eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, then twenty-six. Together, they raised three childrenSusanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. By 1892, several of his early plays had appeared on stage in London. These works, including Richard III and Henry VI, show the influence of Elizabethan dramatists Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe. He then found success with a series of comedies, such as A Midsummer Nights Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night. By the late 1590s, Shakespeare wrote two of his finest tragedies, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, proving his talent and thematic versatility. The beginning of the 17th century marked a turn in his work, ushering in an era often considered his darkest and most productive. Between 1600 and 1606, he produced such masterpieces as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear, all of which are undoubtedly some of the finest works ever written in the English language. In addition to his 39 plays, many of which were performed by his own company at the legendary Globe Theatre, Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets and three long poems, many of which continue to be read around the world.