Art and Illusion in the Winter’s Tale

An investigation of some of the more obvious and some of the time-occluded aspects of a much-studied play in terms of what was aesthetically “readable” to Jacobean culture. The study places present-day notions of The Winter’s Tale as an ill-made play in the context of what might have been exciting or intriguing to an original audience. A pervasive theme of the play, the author finds, is the necessity for the dark side of human creativity. Extensive (23-page) bibliography. Distributed by St. Martin’s Press. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.