As You Like It

Description

As You Like It is a comedy by William Shakespeare that was written in the early 17th century. The play tells the story of Rosalind, the daughter of a banished duke, who is forced to flee the court and take on a male disguise in order to survive. With her cousin Celia, and Touchstone, the court fool, they travel to the Forest of Arden, where Rosalind meets Orlando who has also escaped to the forest after fleeing his brother. Rosalind falls in love with him, however, as a man, she must coach him on how to woo her female identity. Along the way, a range of characters populate the forest, including a melancholic philosopher named Jaques, who is fond of delivering pessimistic soliloquies. While there is no definitive agreement on its position within his literary canon through stylistic analysis, it was likely finished by August 1600 and appeared in the First Folio in 1623. There is no concrete evidence of its staging until the 17th century, although it could have been performed in 1599 or 1603. The play features several of Shakespeare's most well-known speeches, including Jaques' 'All the world's a stage' soliloquy.

Part of the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s Great Books of the Western World set.

This book has 22,896 words, and 74 pages in the PDF version. This edition by William George Clark and William Aldis Wright was first published in 1887.

Production notes: This ebook of As You Like It was published by Global Grey in 2018, and updated on the 4th April 2023. The artwork used for the cover is 'The Wrestling Scene in 'As You Like It'' by Daniel Maclise.