Othello
William Shakespeare (1564–1616), 1604
★ 3.89 from 451.1k ratings on Goodreads
A general, a senator's daughter, and an ensign who knows exactly which words will undo them: Shakespeare's tightest study of how love is talked out of existence. A tight, tense tragedy that moves from love to dread, with lyrical speeches and a society always watching.
Feels like dread, grief and serenity. About love, society and freedom.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy Shakespeare's verse, close studies of jealousy, and drama where language does the damage. The 1604 language is demanding, though, and some speeches reward patience more than speed.
Why read it
It shows how quickly trust can be poisoned by talk, and gives you some of Shakespeare's most charged, grieving verse.
Pages from the book
What a soldier loses when a rumour costs him his peace of mind.
I had been happy, if the general camp,Pioners and all, had tasted her sweet body,So I had nothing known. O, now, for everFarewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars,That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,The royal banner, and all quality,Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throatsThe immortal Jove’s dead clamours counterfeit,Farewell! Othello’s occupation’s gone! A happiness so complete it already sounds like a warning.
It gives me wonder great as my contentTo see you here before me. O my soul’s joy!If after every tempest come such calms,May the winds blow till they have waken’d death!And let the labouring bark climb hills of seasOlympus-high and duck again as lowAs hell’s from heaven! If it were now to die,’Twere now to be most happy; for, I fear,My soul hath her content so absoluteThat not another comfort like to thisSucceeds in unknown fate. Some warnings are more dangerous than the thing they warn about.
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;It is the green-eyed monster which doth mockThe meat it feeds on; that cuckold lives in blissWho, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;But, O, what damned minutes tells he o’erWho dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves! William Shakespeare.The play was acted at King James's court on 1 November 1604. Its plot comes from Giraldi Cinthio's Hecatommithi (1565), a collection of a hundred Italian tales.
Books that feel like this
More by William Shakespeare
Hamlet
William Shakespeare, 1603
A prince in mourning delays, dissembles, and thinks too much, while a court watches every move. Read for the language, stay for the recognitions.
Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare, 1597
Two teenagers from feuding families fall in love over three days, and the adults around them keep choosing sides.
Macbeth
William Shakespeare, 1606
A soldier is greeted by three strangers who promise him a crown, and we watch, line by line, how quickly a decent man can argue himself into murder.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Othello for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy Shakespeare's verse, close studies of jealousy, and drama where language does the damage. The 1604 language is demanding, though, and some speeches reward patience more than speed.
- What is Othello like?
- A tight, tense tragedy that moves from love to dread, with lyrical speeches and a society always watching. Feels like dread, grief and serenity. About love, society and freedom.
- What should I read after Othello?
- If you liked Othello, try Oedipus Rex (Sophocles), The Odyssey (Homer) and The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald).
A taste of the feed
What stays unforgiven when a crime becomes the price of peace?
My lot be still to lead The life of innocence and fly Irreverence in word or deed, To follow still those laws ordained on high Whose birthplace is the bright ethereal sky. No mortal birth they own, Olympus their progenitor alone: Ne’er shall they slumber in oblivion cold, The god in them is strong and grows not old.
Oedipus Rex · Sophocles
What the greatest of the Greek heroes would trade for a day of paid labour.
“I spake; Achilles quickly answered me:— ‘Noble Ulysses, speak not thus of death, As if thou couldst console me. I would be A laborer on earth, and serve for hire Some man of mean estate, who makes scant cheer, Rather than reign o’er all who have gone down To death. Speak rather of my noble son, Whether or not he yet has joined the wars To fight among the foremost of the host.
The Odyssey · Homer
How the upper classes turn a bereavement into a background check.
To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. Who was your father? He was evidently a man of some wealth. Was he born in what the Radical papers call the purple of commerce, or did he rise from the ranks of the aristocracy?
The Importance of Being Earnest · Oscar Wilde
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