William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Venus and Adonis William Shakespeare Deseret Alphabet edition

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He is generally considered the greatest dramatist of all time, the greatest English writer, and one of the greatest writers in any language. Shakespeare is best known for his plays, many written for his own acting troupe, which are still regularly staged today.



A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps Shakespeare's most popular comedy. It intertwines multiple stories: young lovers trying to flee parental disapproval, "rude mechanicals" struggling to put on a play, and fairy magic everywhere blurring the line between reality and fantasy.



We also include Venus and Adonis, a narrative poem written and published by Shakespeare at about the same time as A Midsummer Night's Dream.



This book is in the Deseret Alphabet, a phonetic alphabet for writing English developed in the mid-19th century at the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah).