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Romeo and Juliet

by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

  • Free to read
  • 2 hours to read
  • Reading level: 6th grade

"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare is a tragedy written between 1591 and 1595. Two young lovers from feuding Italian families fall passionately for each other in Verona, defying the bitter hatred between the Montagues and Capulets. Their secret marriage, orchestrated with the help of Friar Laurence, becomes entangled in violence, misunderstanding, and fate. As tensions escalate and blood is shed, the young couple faces impossible choices that will test the boundaries of love and loyalty in this archetypal tale of star-crossed romance.

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  • Vendetta
  • Youth
  • Verona (Italy)
  • Juliet (Fictitious character)
  • Romeo (Fictitious character)
  • Conflict of generations

Read the opening

Executive Director's Notes:

In addition to the notes below, and so you will *NOT* think all the spelling errors introduced by the printers of the time have been corrected, here are the first few lines of Hamlet, as they are presented herein:

Barnardo. Who's there?
Fran. Nay answer me: Stand & vnfold
your selfe

Bar. Long liue the King

As I understand it, the printers often ran out of certain words or letters they had often packed into a "cliche". . .this is the original meaning of the term cliche. . .and thus, being unwilling to unpack the cliches, and thus you will see some substitutions that look very odd. . .such as the exchanges of u for v, v for u, above. . .and you may wonder why they did it this way, presuming Shakespeare did not actually write the play in this manner. . . .

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About this edition

This free edition of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #1112, released 1997-11-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Romance, Plays/Films/Dramas, Classics of Literature, British Literature.

Other editions: eBook #1513 (most read), eBook #1777, eBook #2261, eBook #47960.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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