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A Midsummer Night's Dream

From Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by E. Nesbit (1907) and William Shakespeare

E. Nesbit retold Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, first published in 1907, to bring the plays to younger readers without losing their essential character. Shakespeare wrote the play around 1595, and it remains one of his most beloved comedies. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. The play is worth reading because it explores the irrational, transformative power of love with wit and imagination, and because it shows how easily human judgement can be clouded by desire, jealousy, and enchantment. Shakespeare treats love not as a noble virtue but as a kind of madness—comic, dangerous, and beyond our control—and that insight has not aged.

Band

Red · Complex language and analysisTypical starting range: ages 15–17

Length

long · about 1381 words in 5 sections · 2 pictures

Source

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, E. Nesbit and William Shakespeare

First published

1907

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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