Venetian merchant, winter fairy tale, storm: plays

Three plays of the great English playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616), which included in this volume, the author himself called comedies, although there are not so many funny in them, in the current sense of the word. The current theater experts attribute them to tragicomedies: in each there is a tragic conflict, but a more or less prosperous finale. "Venetian merchant (1596) is the excellent story about the Venetian merchant. With the extreme cruelty of the Jew of Shelok in relation to the said merchant, from whom he wanted to cut exactly a pound of meat ", as the heading of the first edition of the play reads. In the play "Winter Tale" (1594-1611) Leont, King of Sicily, suspects his pregnant wife Hermione of treason with his friend Polyxen, the king of Bohemia. He orders his close Camillo to poison polyxen ... A complex plot unfolds, full of incredible adventures, transformations, historical and geographical errors (About these mistakes in detail - in the accompanying article to the book) "The storm (1611) - one of the latest creatures of the playwright, he is considered a kind of artistic testament of Shakespeare.

Translation from English. Tatyana Shchepkina-Kupernik
The accompanying article by Mark Berkoliko, the notes of Alexander Smirnov

Bercoliko Mark Zinovievich (born 1945)-doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, teacher, professor. The author of more than 140 scientific works. Prose writer, playwright. Roman "Homer" (2011), entered the long-list of the award named after Pyatigorsky. In 2014, the Roman Farvater was published, in 2016 - the novel "Tools"