Othello, a Black general at the height of Venetian success, marries Desdemona; his ensign Iago, passed over and implacable, sets out to destroy them with nothing but insinuation and a handkerchief. It is nearly unbearable to watch work.
Iago speaks more lines than Othello, and the play’s enduring horror is how thin his stated motives are next to the scale of the harm. Tightly plotted, painfully intimate, and the tragedy that plays best of all in a small room.
Which edition?
1Arden Shakespeare, Third Series (revised)
Ed. E. A. J. Honigmann, introduction by Ayanna Thompson · Bloomsbury, 2016
Honigmann’s definitive text, reframed by Thompson’s essential new introduction.
2Oxford World’s Classics
Ed. Michael Neill · Oxford University Press, 2006
Neill’s long introduction is a masterclass — unflinching about what the play asks of us.
3The New Cambridge Shakespeare
Ed. Norman Sanders · Cambridge University Press
A clear reading text with sensible, uncluttered notes.
4Folger Shakespeare LibraryFirst read? Start here
Ed. Barbara Mowat & Paul Werstine · Simon & Schuster
Facing-page glosses keep the temptation scenes at full speed.
Othello on screen
1Othello (1951)
Film · dir. Orson Welles
2Othello (1965)
Film · dir. Stuart Burge
3Othello (1995)
Film · dir. Oliver Parker
4O (2001)
Film · dir. Tim Blake Nelson · inspired by Othello
5Omkara (2006)
Film · dir. Vishal Bhardwaj · inspired by Othello
Othello in rural Uttar Pradesh
Reading Othello this year?
Mark it in your record when you finish — one seat, kept for decades.