Ann Thompson Knihy

A comedy of Petruchio's determination to subdue the irascible Katherine and to make her his wife

The harrowing narrative follows Ann, who, at just two months old, enters a Catholic orphanage in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she endures severe physical and sexual abuse at the hands of both religious and lay staff. Forced into grueling labor on the orphanage farm and in laundries, her story sheds light on the dark realities of abuse within New Zealand's Catholic institutions, making it a groundbreaking account that seeks to expose and confront these painful truths.

The core of the ground-breaking, three text edition, this self-contained, free-standing volume gives readers the Second Quarto text (1604-5) and includes in its Introduction, notes and Appendices all the reader might expect to find in any standard Arden edition. As well as a full, illustrated Introduction to the play?s historical, cultural and performance contexts and a thorough survey of critical approaches to the play, an appendix contains the additional passages found only in the 1623 text. The core of the ground-breaking, three text edition, this self-contained, free-standing volume gives readers the Second Quarto text (1604-5) and includes in its Introduction, notes and Appendices all the reader might expect to find in any standard Arden edition. As well as a full, illustrated Introduction to the play?s historical, cultural and performance contexts and a thorough survey of critical approaches to the play, an appendix contains the additional passages found only in the 1623 text.