Romeo and Juliet Staged: the origins of YA’s greatest tropes Synopsis
‘For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo’ A bloody feud. A tangled love. A senseless tragedy that brings two families to their knees. After a chance meeting at a ball, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall desperately in love. But their families are locked in a bitter rivalry, their love forbidden. Worse still, Juliet’s family already expect her to marry her suitor, Count Paris. Determined to save their love, Romeo and Juliet wed in secret. But when a fight erupts that leaves Montagues and Capulets dead, Romeo is banished from Verona, forcing Juliet to take desperate measures that spell tragedy for the star-crossed lovers. Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare’s masterclass in tales of love and loss, and the origin of the lovestruck, star-crossed lovers.
Discover STAGED, a limited collection of Shakespeare’s unabridged plays that celebrates the genius of the Bard and the tropes that continue to delight YA readers to this day.
Explore the rest of the STAGED collection: As You Like It – With a foreword by Talia Hibbert Hamlet – With a foreword by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé Macbeth – With a foreword by Kat Delacorte A Midsummer Night’s Dream – With a foreword by Becky Albertalli Much Ado About Nothing – With a foreword by Holly Bourne
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later.
