Love's Labour's Lost

Widely considered Shakespeare's most intellectually challenging comedy,Love's Labour's Lostnevertheless offers a feast of broad, farcical humor, plot twists, Elizabethan cultural allusions, and irrepressibly clever turns-of-phrase. Under the editorial supervision of Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, two of today's most accomplished Shakespearean scholars, this Modern Library series incorporates definitive texts and authoritative notes fromWilliam Shakespeare: Complete Works. Each play includes an Introduction as well as an overview of Shakespeare's theatrical career; commentary on past and current productions based on interviews with leading directors, actors, and designers; scene-by-scene analysis; key facts about the work; a chronology of Shakespeare's life and times; and black-and-white illustrations. Ideal for students, theater professionals, and general readers, these modern and accessible editions set a new standard in Shakespearean literature for the twenty-first century. Praise forWilliam Shakespeare: Complete Works "A remarkable edition, one that makes Shakespeare's extraordinary accomplishment more vivid than ever." James Shapiro, professor, Columbia University, bestselling author ofA Year in the Life of Shakespeare: 1599 "Two eminent Shakespeareans . . . have applied modern editing techniques and recent scholarship to correct and update the First Folio. . . . Superb." The New York Times "A feast of literary and historical information." The Wall Street Journal "I look forward to using it over many years, enjoying Bate's perceptive comments, trusting Rasmussen's textual scholarship." Peter Holland, president of the Shakespeare Association of America and editor ofShakespeare Survey

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616) is today's most widely known and loved playwright.

THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY (RSC) is a world-renowned ensemble theater company in Stratford and London dedicated to bringing the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries to a modern audience.

JONATHAN BATE is a professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at the University of Warwick. A prominent critic, award-winning biographer and broadcaster, Bate's books on Shakespeare include Soul of the Age.

ERIC RASMUSSEN, professor of English at the University of Nevada, is one of today's leading textual experts on Shakespeare.