The works listed will allow your students to further explore the theme of Love and Magic and other themes related to A Midsummer Night's Dream:


Fiction
Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. Like A Midsummer Night's Dream, this comedy portrays young lovers and conflict that gets resolved in a forest; it also includes statements on the relation between theater and life.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Knight's Tale." The Canterbury Tales. The Poetical Works of Chaucer. Ed. F. N. Robinson. Boston: Houghton, 1933. Chaucer's tale, set in Theseus's court in Athens, is about conflict between rival lovers. One of the main sources for A Midsummer Night's Dream. (challenge)

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton, 1991. An epic trilogy set in a remote, legendary past where dwarfs, elves, trolls and other fantastic creatures live. (average)


Nonfiction
Epstein, Norrie. The Friendly Shakespeare. New York: Viking-Penguin, 1993. An accessible guide to Shakespeare's life and work. (average)

Lace, William. Elizabethan England. San Diego: Lucent, 1995. An introduction to life in Elizabethan England. (easy)

Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic. New York: Scribner's, 1971. A comprehensive discussion of beliefs about the supernatural world in Renaissance England. (challenge)