Othello

The tragedy of jealousy — and of the most chilling villain Shakespeare ever wrote.

Othello, a Moorish general in the service of Venice, has married Desdemona against her father's wishes and won the city's highest command. His ensign Iago, passed over for promotion, sets about destroying him — not with a sword, but with suggestion, a mislaid handkerchief, and an unerring instinct for where a man's confidence is thinnest.

Few plays move so swiftly from happiness to catastrophe. Othello is Shakespeare's great study of trust, of how outsiders are made to feel their outsiderness, and of the terrible efficiency of a lie told by someone everyone calls honest.

Ideal for

• School and university syllabus reading
• Readers drawn to Shakespeare's psychological plays
• Theatre-goers preparing for a production