#29 in Drama & theatre
A Midsummer Night's Dream
- 102
- Pages
- about 2 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is Shakespeare at his lightest: four lovers at cross purposes, a troupe of amateurs preparing a play, and quarrelling fairies who meddle with both. The pleasure lies in how deftly the confusion is spun and how quickly it is set right again, so readers hoping for lasting conflict will not find it. Short and playful, it is one of the more approachable ways into his comedies.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare between the years 1594 to 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers. Another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. Both groups find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans. The fairies themselves are also in conflict, as the King and Queen of Fairies argue over an Indian changeling boy. A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most popular and widely performed plays.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.6 across 864 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 85% of the weight and the score stays at 7.6 — the Drama & theatre average of 7.6 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.8 | 107 | 12% |
| Hardcover | 7.6 | 757 | 88% |
Frequently asked
How long is A Midsummer Night's Dream?
It has 102 pages — shorter than 84% of the ranked books in Drama & theatre.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Drama & theatre — with scores between 7.5 and 8.2, closest to this book.
