Cymbeline

William ShakespeareProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.7

Word count: 158K words
Chapters: 16

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Cymbeline by William ShakespeareAuthor: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jul 1, 2000

Editor's review

Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare's late romances. It combines court intrigue, separated kin, tested fidelity, and oracular prophecy, with frequent plot reversals and a style poised between tragedy and comedy. The play sets political and military conflict between Rome and Britain alongside a narrative of female constancy centered on Imogen, and interweaves the wager episode between Posthumus and Iachimo, displaying the forgiveness and reconciliation themes common to Shakespeare's late plays. As a public-domain ebook, this edition offers readers low-cost access to the original text and is suitable for close reading, course preparation, or special study of Shakespearean drama. Readers may attend to the narrative patterns of romance and the possibilities of staging, and may read it alongside late works such as The Winter's Tale and The Tempest to appreciate Shakespeare's complex attitudes toward fate, chastity, and kingship at the end of his career.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Shakespeare enthusiasts who want to read through the late romances
English literature students who need the original text for course study
Scholarly readers researching forgiveness and reconciliation in Shakespeare
Readers who want low-cost access to English originals through public-domain ebooks

Not a good fit for

General readers who prefer tightly plotted, structurally simple modern novels
Beginners with limited English reading ability who need detailed annotations
Shakespeare newcomers expecting a pure comedy or a pure tragedy

Reading tips

Read through once for the overall plot, then return to the oracle and the reconciliation scene at the end to see how they echo each other.
Read it alongside The Winter's Tale and compare how the two romances handle separation and reunion.
Pay attention to Imogen's lines and actions, and consider the place of female figures in Shakespeare's late plays.
For course use, chart the characters' relationships first, then discuss act by act the narrative function of intrigue and mistaken identity.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What kind of play is Cymbeline in Shakespeare's canon?

It is usually classified as one of Shakespeare's late romances, alongside The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. Such works often include separation, mistaken identity, oracles, and final reconciliation, and in style they combine tragic weight with comic resolution, so they do not fit neatly into the traditional categories of tragedy or comedy.

Is this electronic edition suitable for direct scholarly citation?

This edition is the public-domain English original provided by Project Gutenberg and can be used for general reading and course study. For scholarly citation, however, attention should be paid to edition information, page numbers, and annotation conventions; it is advisable to consult authoritative scholarly editions or complete works of Shakespeare to ensure accurate quotation.

Do I need to read other Shakespeare plays before Cymbeline?

No. The plot is relatively self-contained and can be read directly. Still, knowing the general features of Shakespeare's late romances beforehand, or having read The Winter's Tale, will make it easier to grasp the play's patterns of forgiveness and reconciliation.

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About the author

William Shakespeare Author · English · 1564–1616

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was the greatest playwright, poet and actor of the English Renaissance. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, he is known as the "Bard of Avon." He wrote roughly thirty-seven to thirty-nine plays, one hundred and fifty-four sonnets and narrative poems. His representative works include Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. His works span tragedy, comedy and history play, distinguished by rich, poetic language and profound characterization. His explorations of human nature, power, love and fate have had a lasting influence, and his works have been translated into many languages and circulated widely around the world.