Much Ado About Nothing

Absolutely wonderful and adorable. This isn't my favourite Shakespearean comedy, but there's plenty of wit and banter present, and a lot of laughs.

(Confession: I think I've seen a staging of this before, but it was my first time reading, and yes, it was in anticipation of the Whedon adaptation).

Much Ado About Nothing is certainly top 5 Shakespeare ever, even if I haven't read enough of them to have a true ability to rank them. I love it nearly as much as I love Hamlet, if for completely different reasons. I will say, though, that this play is very much advantaged by performance; I don't know that I would like it near so much if I had read it without seeing it first. Being a comedy, the parts that are supposed to be funny can come off worse without the comedic sensibilities of whoever performs them. To read it is amusing, but to see it is hilarious. Even still, I love Much Ado.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this and how well I could actually understand Shakespeare's writing. I remember struggling really hard in high school when we would be assigned to read something by Shakespeare but this time around, I found it so much easier to get through for whatever reason. One thing I really enjoyed about this play were the characters of Beatrice and Benedick, not only because I love a good enemies to lovers trope, but also because they're both hilarious. I did find the story a bit boring and repetitive at times so I only ended up giving it four stars, but I think this would be a good read for somebody who is looking to get out of their comfort zone of reading a little bit. The play is also pretty short so if you're looking for something that you can read through pretty quickly to add another book to your completed list, this could potentially be a good choice for that as well.