Troilus and Cressida

In the seventh year of the siege of Troy, nothing goes as the heroes of legend promised. Achilles refuses to fight. The Greeks scheme and beg. And in the shadow of the great war, a prince and a woman begin a love story the world has no intention of letting survive. Troilus and Cressida burn bright and brief, their affair orchestrated by a world-weary uncle who trades his niece for a prisoner of war. What begins as earnest longing curdles into cynical exchange, and the play refuses the comfort of tragedy or comedy, offering instead a world where honor is theater, love is leverage, and everyone is for sale. This is Shakespeare stripped of redemption, the Trojan War without the glory, the romance without the happy ending. For readers who suspect the great stories about war and love might be cons.