Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, is part of the Barnes & Noble Shakespeare series.  This unique series features newly edited texts prepared by leading scholars from America and Great Britain, in collaboration with one of the world’s foremost Shakespeare authorities, David Scott Kastan of Columbia University. Together they have produced texts as faithful as possible to those that Shakespeare wrote. Each volume in the Barnes & Noble Shakespeare includes:When Romeo and Juliet was first performed, its two title characters would have seemed like very unlikely tragic heroes, since they possess no historical importance or political status. The editor, Mario DiGangi, restores the play to its original context, demonstrating in detail how Shakespeare elevated his teenage characters’ plight to make them the most famous tragic couple in literature.