Life Is a Dream (Penguin Classics)
by Pedro Calderon de la Barca
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Book Summary Information
Author: Pedro Calderon de la BarcaEditor: Gregary Racz
Translator: Gregary Racz
Introduction: Gregary Racz
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-12-26
ISBN: 0143104829
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Book Reviews of Life Is a Dream (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: A Superbly Faithful and Show-Worthy Version
Summary: 5 Stars
Pedro Calderon de la Barca is one of the great playwrights of the Renaissance, and his La Vida es Sueño, or Life is a Dream, is at the top of nearly everyone's list of Calderon's "Greatest Hits." Depicting the revolt of a Polish prince imprisoned by his father because of a prophecy that the boy would one day endanger the realm, this three act play has been translated into English more than a dozen times in the last century alone, but this is the first version I have seen that is not only faithful to the letter of the text but to the form and feeling of the play in the pleasure of the reading moment. In a monumental act of poetic ventriloquy, the translator Gregary Racz has miraculously managed to reproduce the exact rhyme scheme of this "Golden Age" masterpiece in an elegantly metrical English that echoes the original Spanish line for line, all 3319 of them. Vide this snippet from the closing soliloquy of ACT II.
What's life? Not anything it seems.
A shadow. Fiction filling reams.
All we possess on earth means nil,
for life's a dream, think what you will,
and even all our dreams are dreams.
I predict Racz's Life is a Dream will have an immensely long shelf-life and a brilliant career on the Anglo-American stage.
Summary of Life Is a Dream (Penguin Classics)
The masterwork of Spain?s preeminent dramatist?now in a new verse translationLife Is a Dream is a work many hold to be the supreme example of Spanish Golden Age drama. Imbued with highly poetic language and humanist ideals, it is an allegory that considers contending themes of free will and predestination, illusion and reality, played out against the backdrop of court intrigue and the restoration of personal honor.
In the mountainous barrens of Poland, the rightful heir to the kingdom has been imprisoned since birth in an attempt by his father to thwart fate. Meanwhile, a noblewoman arrives to seek revenge against the man who deceived and forsook her love for the prospect of becoming king of Poland. Richly symbolic and metaphorical, Life Is a Dream explores the deepest mysteries of human experience.
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