Rating: 
Summary: A classic
Review: "A sad tale's best for winter." And this tale is full of misperceived motives, anger, absurdities, seeming tragedy, and hysterical comedy. The Winter's tale is one of my all-time favorite Shakespearean stories. The story revolves upon tragicomic figure of Leontes, King of Sicilia. Essentially a good King, Leontes buys himself a heepin' spoonful o' trouble and grief because of his suspicion, envy, and foolish rashness. I won't spoil the story here so I will end by saying that The Winter's Tale is a wonderfully entertaining story of romance, loss, redemption and restoration. It is of course superbly written; with Shakespeare tossing in one of his great comic rogues: Autolycus. This book gets my highest recommendation
Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare's Matriarchal Fantasy
Review: "The Winter's Tale" marks Shakespeare's entrance into a prescient world of High Romantic ideals, where the stagnancy of a courtly world dominated by emotionally afflicted males is subverted by a vernal world of female power. Leontes, King of Sicilia, is one of Shakespeare's most convincingly self-tortured characters, while Hermione is an icon of long-suffering patience, incarnated in the famous statue of the play's conclusion. Her daugher Perdita is the subject of potentially blasphemous adoration, not only for her suitor Florizel but for the entire world; she glows in the suggested light of pagan mystery cult, the Eleusinian mysteries of mothers and daughters in secret collusion with nature and against the withering forces of jealousy and death. In this light, the critical essay included with this edition is sadly tone-deaf to Shakespeare's potent poetic raptures in this play, hearkening instead to a dogmatic, albeit at least clearly presented, rehearsal of Renaissance attitudes about "patriarchy" which deadens Hermione and her faithful advocate Paulina into mere totems for self-exculpating males of the sort whom Shakespear embodies, with withering criticism, in Leontes and the judgmental Polixenes.
Rating: 
Summary: A king's jealousy.
Review: Recently, I read 'THE WINTER'S TALE' written by Shakespeare. Basically, I like Shakespeare' works, and I like this story too. I think it is a comedy although a little prince died.
I think this story shows one part of human's ugliness. It is jealousy. You can know how a person become crazy because of jealousy.
I thought how complicated the context is. So, I can't say the whole outline in this book report. Many people have connection with each other in the small world. And this is the reason many incidents happen one after another and that this story is interesting, I think.
As I wrote in the first paragraph, I think this story is comedy. This story comes to a happy ending. I believe that you can enjoy the story. So please read it if you like.
Rating: 
Summary: the winters tale
Review: a good read, but can be confusing for kids. It takes a while to comprehend all of the Shakespearian langauge, but is very interesting. It is boring at parts.
Rating:
Summary: Time heals and reveals...
Review: A sad romantic play about human behavior and emotions ...a merciless decision issued by the king Leontes against his wife Hermione and his boyhood friend Polixenes is the shocking beginning of a real tragedy ....immaturity,mistrust and devastating jealousy that completely blinds Leontes of seeing the truth and the consequences of his actions..
Just like a real life story ... call it destiny or Shakesperean justice ... everything evolves to bring those apart back together ... but it takes time to learn and change. The wittiness of Autolycus lightens the severity of the play and shows the opposite side of human nature and growth... I loved the country scenes where the new love of Perdita and Florizel flourishes, they are truly the most romantic and so pure.. beautiful images of blooming emotions reflecting the nature of life and relationships! I think the surprise ending is the climatic picture of remorseful emotions,transformed personalities and new love ... an amazing twist that gives the play a new definition! A magical romantic poetry of love, loss and new beginnings!
Rating:
Summary: The high price of Jealousy
Review: Ask anyone to name a play by Shakespeare and it most likely will be Romeo and Juliet, or Hamlet, or Macbeth or even Othello. Rarely will you ever hear anyone say The Winter's tale, but is its lack of popularity due to it being any lesser than Shakespeare's other works? Unfortunately I would have to say yes. The play is taken from Greene's Pandosto and follows it quite closely in most parts. The plot is fairly simple, Leontes, the King of Sicilia gets into a jealous rage over his what he believes is his wife's infidelity with his friend. This causes him to break off a close relationship with his childhood friend the King of Bohemia and his servant Camillo. He also banishes his daughter, and kills his wife and son by flouting Apollo's judgement that Hermione, his wife, is innocent. The second part of the play is concerned with the reunion of his banished daughter and her newly acquired husband with Leontes. There is a surprise at the ending which I will not spoil for those who have not yet had the opportunity to read the play. If you've read Othello, you will find similarities between Othello and Leontes and also between Desdemona and Hermione. The only major difference is that there is no Iago in this play; Leontes is his own Iago. Shakespeare in Othello develops the reasons for Othello's suspicion of Desdemona, unfortunately this is lacking in The Winter's Tale. There is not much of a motive and the reader (or audience) is asked to believe that Leontes develops his jealous rage over one minor incident and almost immediately. Another problem I have with this play is with the surprise ending. Here again, there is not much of a clue as to how this happens, it is just assumed that we will accept it unquestioningly as fact. Apart from these minor 'faults' the play is still an interesting read, and as always the inclusion of the clowns and Autolycus give it some lightness which balances the tragedies. If you'd like to dive deeper into the play, I'd suggest the commentary by Fitzroy Pyle (1969) which I found to be quite helpful.
Rating:
Summary: My personal favorite of Shakespeare's plays
Review: For me The Winter's Tale is the most satisfying of Shakespeare's plays. And why? It may not be Hamlet for tragedy, it may not be Twelfth Night for comedy -- indeed, perhaps in the great objective sense this is not nearly his best; but as a coherent work this has them all beat. Here we find all sides of Shakespeare's genius on display: Leontes shares his intense sexual jealousy with Othello, and Florizel and Perdita take their light-hearted romantic comedy interplay (complete with disguises and recogntions) from the best of Shakespeare's comedies, before his sense of the romantic soured into the bitter genius of the problem plays. Add that to the eerily lyrical poetry of Act IV, and you've got a masterpiece. The Winter's Tale is laugh-out-loud funny at times; it's ribald; it's profoundly tragic; and in the end, it's a look at the craft of theater, the craft of literature and ultimately the craft of living. Unjustly ignored, The Winter's Tale is easily as good as its immediate successor, The Tempest -- and that's high praise indeed.
Rating:
Summary: My personal favorite of Shakespeare's plays
Review: For me The Winter's Tale is the most satisfying of Shakespeare's plays. And why? It may not be Hamlet for tragedy, it may not be Twelfth Night for comedy -- indeed, perhaps in the great objective sense this is not nearly his best; but as a coherent work this has them all beat. Here we find all sides of Shakespeare's genius on display: Leontes shares his intense sexual jealousy with Othello, and Florizel and Perdita take their light-hearted romantic comedy interplay (complete with disguises and recogntions) from the best of Shakespeare's comedies, before his sense of the romantic soured into the bitter genius of the problem plays. Add that to the eerily lyrical poetry of Act IV, and you've got a masterpiece. The Winter's Tale is laugh-out-loud funny at times; it's ribald; it's profoundly tragic; and in the end, it's a look at the craft of theater, the craft of literature and ultimately the craft of living. Unjustly ignored, The Winter's Tale is easily as good as its immediate successor, The Tempest -- and that's high praise indeed.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful play!
Review: I enjoyed this play a great deal. After the theatre at my college performed it, I became interested in the story and decided to read it. Reading it only added to my appreciate of the work. A tragicomedy, it has both melancholy and jouful events. I think this combination works beautifully to create an entertaining, dynamic tale. I particularly liked Paulina's line to King Leontes, "It's an heretic that makes the fire, not she which burns in't."
Rating:
Summary: Leontes' Jealousy turns him into a nightmare.
Review: I read shakespear a lot. I specifically enjoyed this book. Though there is the death of a prince (Mamillius) the book remains good. The first half of it is a tragedy and the second half a hilarioous comedy. How shakespear did this i don't know. I recommend this book to all the nerds in the world. (I HAD TO READ THIS BOOK FOR SCHOOL)
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