Rating: 
Summary: Best for your class...
Review: (This review applies only to the Folger Shakespeare Library Edition) Most curriculum guides (e.g., State of Massachusetts, McREL) say that Romeo & Juliet is an upper middle-school play. It can be treated as a short tragedy (3,159 lines overall) and involves a number of strands from both the Theater and English/Language Arts guidelines. This is the best book for individual students to purchase, because it is inexpensive and well organized. I found another version more helpful for teachers--the Cambridge School Series edition of R&J. This costs more, but has a number of excellent activities and discussions that teachers can use. Also, don't forget some video versions of the play, available through Amazon's video store. The 1964 Zefirrelli R&J features a comely lass but also reflects an Italian director's ideas about a young girl sobbing. The 1996 Dicaprio/Danes "moderne" version, set in "Verona Beach," is excellent, but you will see that major sections of dialogue have been cut, in favor of music and the visual expressiveness inherent in film. The 1992 HBO/Thames Films version is the most accurate in terms of dialogue, but also runs 3 hours. Also, there is Prokofiev's ballet, which, as you can imagine, reflects the Russian composer's genius--who else could do the ballet scene of the death vault, where all movement stops?
Rating:
Summary: Great for Students
Review: I am a student who had to read this book and I couldn't understand most of the stuff Shakespeare was writing. We first started to read some other books with the Old English type writing and I got a C- in this class because I couldnt understand it. We just started reading Romeo and Juliet and I had the same problem so I bought this book. Boy, did it help me! I got an A in my class! Another feature which I liked was how the layout is put side-by-side so if you have to read during class, you'll be able to know where everyone is and if you dont understand it, just go to the other side.
Rating:
Summary: !READ me first!
Review: This is a timeless classic that really tells a love story that could really happen. Romeo and Juliet are hopelessly in love and can only think of each other and no longer are they concerned with their families brawls. Lots of sword fighting and sublte comments that made this one of Shakespeares best writes. One that I will read over and over again, and always get new information out of it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fine Work
Review: Romeo and Juliet is the first Shakespearean play I have read. I thought it was very good. It didn't have a complicated plot like other Shakespearean plays allegedly have. The language, of course, is great. I would also recommend buying this edition of the book if any, because old and archaic words and phrases are translated on every other page (this is a huge help). Shakespeare offers some good comic relief (watch for several double entendres) throughout the play which moderated the level of lament. This play shows the chaos that can result when people let their emotions overcome reason, and also what can result when you only look short term and move with so much "haste". After finishing the play, I realized that there were indeed only a couple of totally reasonable characters, but I'll leave that to you. I look foward to reading more of Shakespeare's plays in the near future.
Rating:
Summary: This is the only one tragedy that I enjoyed so much
Review: The language of the book is really hard to read. I spent a lot of time before I finished the first Scene. But it is also enjoyable to read. Shakespeare did not write Romeo and Juliet. He just told story from Italian literature in his own words.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, But Not His Best!
Review: This is a good play, but I can not understand why it is Shakespeare's most popular play. To be sure, the play contains some powerful drama, irony, well placed comic relief, and an interesting situation. But the main characters are way to shallow. Friar Laurence (the most intelligent character in the play) in my opinion carries the bulk of this play. 3.3, where he rebules Romeo for his uncontrollable emotions is probably the most memorable in the play.
Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare Made Easy is great!
Review: This book would be great for anyone who wants to read Shakespeare in their own free time or for someone who needs to read it for class! The modern English translation makes it easy to keep up with the story if you're ever lost in the Old English text (although sometimes their interpretation is a bit off, it's pretty accurate). If you're having doubts on which book to buy, buy this one!
Rating: 
Summary: that book that you throw out
Review: this is a really bad, boreing book that i couldn't wait to throw out
Rating:
Summary: romeo and juliet
Review: The language is very poetic and the story interesting. However, the main characters are extremely shallow, they know each other less than a week before they commit suicide for each other, and their love. They are also extremely young, Juliet is twelve or thirteen and Romeo is fifteen or sixteen, to my best recollection. It strikes me as quite ironic that schools nationally have many high school freshmen read this play, at least that is when I read it. A good play, but not one of Shakespeare's best.
Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare's best!
Review: I love this play. The words are so beautiful, and the story never fails to draw me in. And I must admit that the language is hard to understand - but the New Folger Library is the way to go. I love them! They make it so easy and understandable for all of us who don't say "wherefore" for why. So if the language is intimidating you get the New Folger Library. But getting back to the play itself, it is fantastic, and something that everyone should read.
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