In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud. In this death-filled setting, the movement from love at first sight to the lovers’ final union in death seems almost inevitable. And yet, this play set in an extraordinary world has become the quintessential story of young love. In part because...

Joe Curran is the titular everyman and unabashed hippie-hater. Joe, who equates hippies with everything un-American, finds a kindred spirit in Bill Compton, an advertising executive who makes Joe's acquaintance at a neighborhood bar, boasting that he killed a drug-dealing hippie. Bill, pressed for facts by the intrigued Joe, recants saying that he was merely joking. However, when a news report confirms the incident, vigilante justice akin to Taxi...

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with marginal notes and explanations and full descriptions of each character.