#28 in Drama & theatre
The Comedy of Errors
- 101
- Pages
- about 2 h
- Reading time
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Our view
Mistaken identity, slapstick and wordplay drive “The Comedy of Errors”, Shakespeare’s shortest play and a brisk farce. The confusions pile up at speed, and the muddle is the source of the fun. Some readers are put off by the constant beating of enslaved servants played for laughs, and tire of the farce well before the end.
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
The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. It has been adapted for opera, stage, screen and musical theatre numerous times worldwide. In the centuries following its premiere, the play's title has entered the popular English lexicon as an idiom for "an event or series of events made ridiculous by the number of errors that were made throughout".
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.4 across 93 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 39% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Drama & theatre average of 7.6. That is how 7.6 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.5 | 11 | 12% |
| Hardcover | 7.4 | 82 | 88% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Comedy of Errors?
It has 101 pages — shorter than 99% 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 7.3 and 8.2, closest to this book.
