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The dramatic works of William Shakespeare with copious glossarial notes and a biographical notice by Robert Inglis
King Lear. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Romeo and Juliet. Macbeth. Othello, the Moor of Venice. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Merchant of Venice. Lovers of literature will immediately recognize these as signature dramas of William Shakespeare, whose plays still rank as the greatest works ever produced for the stage. More than four centuries after they were written, they have yet to be surpassed for their poetry and their insight into the human condition.
William Shakespeare: Complete Plays collects all thirty-seven of the immortal Bard’s comedies, tragedies, and historical plays. In this volume all of Shakespeare’s memorable characters—star-crossed lovers, majestic monarchs, wise fools, lovable rogues, treacherous villains, conflicted heroes, cagey heroines, and creatures magical and mythic—strut and fret their hour upon the stage. These characters, and the roles they play, have influenced virtually all literature written since. For readers who appreciate the emotional power of the written word, and the heights of humor and the depths of drama that can be encompassed by a single type of literature, William Shakespeare: Complete Plays is an indispensable collection of timeless masterpieces.
William Shakespeare: Complete Plays collects all thirty-seven of the immortal Bard’s comedies, tragedies, and historical plays. In this volume all of Shakespeare’s memorable characters—star-crossed lovers, majestic monarchs, wise fools, lovable rogues, treacherous villains, conflicted heroes, cagey heroines, and creatures magical and mythic—strut and fret their hour upon the stage. These characters, and the roles they play, have influenced virtually all literature written since. For readers who appreciate the emotional power of the written word, and the heights of humor and the depths of drama that can be encompassed by a single type of literature, William Shakespeare: Complete Plays is an indispensable collection of timeless masterpieces.
944 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1595
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About the author
William Shakespeare
27.3k books46.6k followersWilliam Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 17, 2018
I am rating this complete collection of plays as a book and not by each play, for each play serves as an individual work and has been or will be rated individually based on my thought on each. Why am I giving this book five stars? I am giving it five stars, because for someone that is not enthusiastic about Shakespeare like myself or for someone that likes to read and own books, but is on a budget, this is the only Shakespeare book you ever need to purchase. This has every legitimate Shakespeare play (Two Noble Kinsmen was strictly John Fletcher) and features the complete play from details regarding the character and setting to the entire script and its details. I have referred to this for Shakespeare related assignments and for Literary Gladiators discussions. This book is also very affordable and is often $7.98 at Barnes & Noble.
November 27, 2014
This was the challenge I set myself for new years:to read all of Shakespeare's plays. I downloaded them onto my e-reader and started at the beginning and read straight through. I read on break at work, on buses, in waiting rooms, basically any time I would probably have done nothing. At home I read novels and other things. A usually read a few scenes a day. Let me tell you, a little Shakespeare every day is a very good thing. It's been a rough year, and this was wonderful.
Today, I finished. I feel a little at a loss, now. I'm strongly tempted to just start over.
Today, I finished. I feel a little at a loss, now. I'm strongly tempted to just start over.
August 3, 2025
I have finished reading all the plays penned by William Shakespeare.I started this quest in the beginning of this year (January 18,2025) and then finished reading his 38th play today (on August 3,2025).It has been such a beautiful and rewarding journey.Shakespeare teaches one so much as his plays bear a fidelity to the truth of life.
February 8, 2022
I am not fit to review these truly miraculous works. Instead, here are some of my favourites, in no particular order: Hamlet, Richard II, Richard III, King Lear, Macbeth, The Winter's Tale, Troilus and Cressida, Titus Andronicus.
I came very late to Shakespeare, in my mid-thirties, beckoned on by a group of friends who seemed to take the admittedly difficult but beautiful language in their stride. School utterly ruined Shakespeare for me, I had thought for life. Since then I've made my way through them, and finished the last one, Cymbeline, while struck down and in self-isolation.
I feel intensely sorry for anyone who has not discovered this canon, or for those whose potential love for the works was utterly destroyed for them by school. Pick them up again as an adult: all of life is in there, the richness of phrase is paralleled by nothing, whole other works of literature will be partially closed to you without the codes that come from these plays. Do it!
I came very late to Shakespeare, in my mid-thirties, beckoned on by a group of friends who seemed to take the admittedly difficult but beautiful language in their stride. School utterly ruined Shakespeare for me, I had thought for life. Since then I've made my way through them, and finished the last one, Cymbeline, while struck down and in self-isolation.
I feel intensely sorry for anyone who has not discovered this canon, or for those whose potential love for the works was utterly destroyed for them by school. Pick them up again as an adult: all of life is in there, the richness of phrase is paralleled by nothing, whole other works of literature will be partially closed to you without the codes that come from these plays. Do it!
October 13, 2025
Hi,
I hope all is progressing well.
William Shakespeare: Complete Plays by William Shakespeare (though one may consider potential authorial collaborations for certain plays beyond William Shakespeare as a sole writer) contains thirty-seven of thirty-nine complete plays (does not contain Edward III and Two Noble Kinsmen) intermingling drama, high comedy, tragedy, and romance (though one may find through the available plays a/ comic response(s) to the use of genre labeling as well as audience guidance seemingly operating to further engage an audience to well-comprehending a play so as to well enjoy a play). I actually buy the text nearly a decade ago for a graduate school course on William Shakespeare’s plays. More recently, of 2025, coming into contact with the book again in my book shelf, I decide to read the entire book as a budgetary measure to stave off buying books for a time and thoroughly begin appreciating each play’s offerings as a far better reader with more awareness, more mindfulness, of which brings me to better observe contexts of the plays to be so relevant in modernity.
I enjoy reading all of the plays, especially as good reading exercise. I benefit greatly from using a dictionary reading the plays. Language varies between each play. One may find many dynamics of writing culturally throughout the plays (considering references of varying cultures). Additionally, the plays offer tinges of areas of the world external to immediate settings of a particular play which offer broadening dynamics to consider culturally with contexts of a play one may be observing. Here are a few of my ponderings reading the text, generally as well as particularly:
What reason does any have for envy—jealousy, and/or hate? The plays (especially the correlative historical pieces) engage well the question of what then? between betrayals/mutinies, swaying of the people, murder—seemingly transcending the audience beyond an action within a play beyond a play. How might health relate between poverty and wealth? What does on do with one’s health? What does one do with one’s health? What might one’s life be between actions, intentions, and words? What may thrive between beauty, brain, and/or brawn? How might one regard misinformation, miscommunication, and/or selective communication? What might be perceptions of veterans in society? What might law be effectually? How might one be operating financially with regard to one’s estate planning? What does one value? How does one structure one’s life with regard to one’s values, beyond a status quo and/or propriety? How does a girl/woman navigate life without suffering a fault of a system which may not empower girls/women? How might one address one’s health well to improve one’s well-being constantly through life regardless of circumstance? What might corruption against honesty be? How might one navigate life beyond fortune telling? How is one’s emotional intelligence?
Titus Andronicus
What does one do in the face of extreme patriotism as well as the rejection of extreme patriotism, when government and employment may at will abandon one regardless of what one may do in service of government and employment?
Twelfth Night
From what may portend from pretend, how might one navigate one’s emotions, in the end, who may be the fool?
Midsummer Night’s Dream
What is a girl/woman beyond her father’s approval?
Romeo & Juliet
What is class to love between a culture with love and a culture with seemingly no love?
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Why deny love for labor? Salient fetishizing and sex, riddles, languages of love’s virtues.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
How might identify qualities of one’s true love true?
King John
How might one navigate beyond prophecy/soothsaying?
The Comedy of Errors
How may one so close, not know what differs between semblances?
Merchant of Venice
What is a father’s whim against a daughter’s will? How does one approach business ethically? How does one define business ethically competitively? What social dynamics might effect parameters of business which may involve risk?
Wives of Windsor
What an ode to loyalty and marriage, wives with male friends, openness of relationships to consider, psyches of any attending misperceptions.
Hamlet
When not dealing with requiting love, what is a life, to a death, the everlasting continuum of human meaning?
As You Like It
What may one do with love’s guises between fatherly feuds, vendettas, aptitudes and perceptions from feuds, familiar relations?
Julius Caesar
What is one to do with lack of appropriate information through turbulent times with no vision of the future beyond present emotions?
Othello
How might a knave, slave, and/or an individual of good character differ? What may be effects of mind and personality beyond stereotyping? What does one mean to oneself?
Macbeth
How might one proceed to obtain the future one wants? How might one’s health progress with one’s decision making to obtain that which one may want?
King Lear
How might the love of daughter from father evolve? What does family mean with regard to inheritance? What might one’s retirement look like?
Antony & Cleopatra
Why might any seek an excuse for war, especially away from peace?
Troillus & Cressida
How might one determine the commoditizing of a human being?
All’s Well That Ends Well
How might a woman be in society, and how might a man navigate between all the different realities of that which a woman may be?
Measure For Measure
What operates internally/intrinsically may operate with factors that rely on not only uniqueness of personality though disposition of perception connecting with proprietary factors of one’s perception(s) within a particular society.
Coriolanus
How does one navigate minds considering what is, what must be, and/or what might be?
Timon of Athens
How might one’s social intelligence with regard to wealth be in one’s life?
Pericles
Why might any one boast to commit evil?
Cymbeline
Why not tend the virtuous route of fair competition?
The Winter’s Tale
What is a world of which false accusation and lies deter equanimous justice through law to cause irreparable harm?
The Tempest
How does one structure one’s life through a mysterious seemingly lawless land?
King Henry IV, V, VI, & VIII (all parts)
Does religiosity really justify war? How might ambition reflect differently through different leaders/styles of leadership? How might one mature into leadership?
King Richard the Second & King Richard the Third
How might one maintain peace and sanity strengthening a kingdom, a society, through establishments of trustworthy networks with worthy visions of no harm?
The Taming of the Shrew
How might one know if a relationship is really suitable long-term?
Much Ado About Nothing
Why interfere with a progression of good-healthful love that may progress well?
Onward and Upward,
Kevin Dufresne
www.Piatures.com
IG: @Dufreshest
I hope all is progressing well.
William Shakespeare: Complete Plays by William Shakespeare (though one may consider potential authorial collaborations for certain plays beyond William Shakespeare as a sole writer) contains thirty-seven of thirty-nine complete plays (does not contain Edward III and Two Noble Kinsmen) intermingling drama, high comedy, tragedy, and romance (though one may find through the available plays a/ comic response(s) to the use of genre labeling as well as audience guidance seemingly operating to further engage an audience to well-comprehending a play so as to well enjoy a play). I actually buy the text nearly a decade ago for a graduate school course on William Shakespeare’s plays. More recently, of 2025, coming into contact with the book again in my book shelf, I decide to read the entire book as a budgetary measure to stave off buying books for a time and thoroughly begin appreciating each play’s offerings as a far better reader with more awareness, more mindfulness, of which brings me to better observe contexts of the plays to be so relevant in modernity.
I enjoy reading all of the plays, especially as good reading exercise. I benefit greatly from using a dictionary reading the plays. Language varies between each play. One may find many dynamics of writing culturally throughout the plays (considering references of varying cultures). Additionally, the plays offer tinges of areas of the world external to immediate settings of a particular play which offer broadening dynamics to consider culturally with contexts of a play one may be observing. Here are a few of my ponderings reading the text, generally as well as particularly:
What reason does any have for envy—jealousy, and/or hate? The plays (especially the correlative historical pieces) engage well the question of what then? between betrayals/mutinies, swaying of the people, murder—seemingly transcending the audience beyond an action within a play beyond a play. How might health relate between poverty and wealth? What does on do with one’s health? What does one do with one’s health? What might one’s life be between actions, intentions, and words? What may thrive between beauty, brain, and/or brawn? How might one regard misinformation, miscommunication, and/or selective communication? What might be perceptions of veterans in society? What might law be effectually? How might one be operating financially with regard to one’s estate planning? What does one value? How does one structure one’s life with regard to one’s values, beyond a status quo and/or propriety? How does a girl/woman navigate life without suffering a fault of a system which may not empower girls/women? How might one address one’s health well to improve one’s well-being constantly through life regardless of circumstance? What might corruption against honesty be? How might one navigate life beyond fortune telling? How is one’s emotional intelligence?
Titus Andronicus
What does one do in the face of extreme patriotism as well as the rejection of extreme patriotism, when government and employment may at will abandon one regardless of what one may do in service of government and employment?
Twelfth Night
From what may portend from pretend, how might one navigate one’s emotions, in the end, who may be the fool?
Midsummer Night’s Dream
What is a girl/woman beyond her father’s approval?
Romeo & Juliet
What is class to love between a culture with love and a culture with seemingly no love?
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Why deny love for labor? Salient fetishizing and sex, riddles, languages of love’s virtues.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
How might identify qualities of one’s true love true?
King John
How might one navigate beyond prophecy/soothsaying?
The Comedy of Errors
How may one so close, not know what differs between semblances?
Merchant of Venice
What is a father’s whim against a daughter’s will? How does one approach business ethically? How does one define business ethically competitively? What social dynamics might effect parameters of business which may involve risk?
Wives of Windsor
What an ode to loyalty and marriage, wives with male friends, openness of relationships to consider, psyches of any attending misperceptions.
Hamlet
When not dealing with requiting love, what is a life, to a death, the everlasting continuum of human meaning?
As You Like It
What may one do with love’s guises between fatherly feuds, vendettas, aptitudes and perceptions from feuds, familiar relations?
Julius Caesar
What is one to do with lack of appropriate information through turbulent times with no vision of the future beyond present emotions?
Othello
How might a knave, slave, and/or an individual of good character differ? What may be effects of mind and personality beyond stereotyping? What does one mean to oneself?
Macbeth
How might one proceed to obtain the future one wants? How might one’s health progress with one’s decision making to obtain that which one may want?
King Lear
How might the love of daughter from father evolve? What does family mean with regard to inheritance? What might one’s retirement look like?
Antony & Cleopatra
Why might any seek an excuse for war, especially away from peace?
Troillus & Cressida
How might one determine the commoditizing of a human being?
All’s Well That Ends Well
How might a woman be in society, and how might a man navigate between all the different realities of that which a woman may be?
Measure For Measure
What operates internally/intrinsically may operate with factors that rely on not only uniqueness of personality though disposition of perception connecting with proprietary factors of one’s perception(s) within a particular society.
Coriolanus
How does one navigate minds considering what is, what must be, and/or what might be?
Timon of Athens
How might one’s social intelligence with regard to wealth be in one’s life?
Pericles
Why might any one boast to commit evil?
Cymbeline
Why not tend the virtuous route of fair competition?
The Winter’s Tale
What is a world of which false accusation and lies deter equanimous justice through law to cause irreparable harm?
The Tempest
How does one structure one’s life through a mysterious seemingly lawless land?
King Henry IV, V, VI, & VIII (all parts)
Does religiosity really justify war? How might ambition reflect differently through different leaders/styles of leadership? How might one mature into leadership?
King Richard the Second & King Richard the Third
How might one maintain peace and sanity strengthening a kingdom, a society, through establishments of trustworthy networks with worthy visions of no harm?
The Taming of the Shrew
How might one know if a relationship is really suitable long-term?
Much Ado About Nothing
Why interfere with a progression of good-healthful love that may progress well?
Onward and Upward,
Kevin Dufresne
www.Piatures.com
IG: @Dufreshest
Read
May 21, 2014This book is the collection of all of Shakespeare's plays (that he wrote solo) and is taken from an edition published in 1904 and edited by Arthur Henry Bullen. This collection was published by Barnes & Noble and is basically Bullen's combining of the First Folio mostly with the Second Quarto parts inserted. It is a decent anthology although it does not include the original notes or supplement commentary that Bullen originally included (thou you can check all of that out on-line). If you just want a simple collection of all of Shakespeare's plays for a cheap price, this is the book. If you want a much more comprehensive reading of the plays, there are much better collections and publishers out there. Though I have individual plays by the Bard already, this is a nice collection of 36 plays-the majority which I would not spend money on individually.
July 27, 2020
good
it was my new year's resolution to finish this w/in a year and ,'o)
here are my rankings
1. King Richard II (the prison soliloquy is what made me fall in love w/ Shakespeare)
2. Hamlet (about as good as people say lol)
3. Macbeth (exciting and intense, ambition and paranoia themes)
4. Julius Caesar (best speeches, v thought provoking)
5. Much Ado About Nothing (platonic ideal of a comedy. Beatrice and Benedick are my faves)
6. The Tempest (lovely magical time, good setting and fun plot)
7. Romeo and Juliet (quite beautiful, some of Bill's best writing on Love)
8. King Lear (sad and upsetting but in a good way)
9. Cymbeline (VERY underrated, so much going on, subverts all expectations)
10. Othello (JEALOUSY!!! +not as racist as I thought it would be)
11. All's Well That Ends Well (easily the funniest comedy. Helena is great)
12. Merchant of Venice (one of the better problem plays. lots of things you can take from it)
13. King Henry V (nice nice finish for the Henriad. Fun and interesting char developmt)
14. As You Like It (i'm a sucker for the pastoral plays. very cute)
15. Antony and Cleopatra (good combo of engaging political plot and tragic romance)
16. A Midsummer Night's Dream (square crossed lovers. fun and magic)
17. King Richard III (hilariously evil Richard. great catharsis at end)
18. Pericles (very solid romance. latter half of the play is best)
19. Twelfth Night (crossdressing love triangles, lots of confusion. cool)
20. Titus Andronicus (lots of action, v little subtlety, but that can be good)
21. King Henry IV part 1 (hal-hotspur contrast is neat)
22. Measure for Measure (not the best not the worst. very horny play)
23. Love's Labour's Lost (last scene drags on but otherwise perfectly fine)
24. King Henry IV part 2 (love Henry IV's last speeches, hate Falstaff he's stupid)
25. King Henry VI part 3 (this series wasn't my fave but this one clearly the quality went up)
26. Troilus and Cressida (pessimistic commentary on heroism)
27. Coriolanus (what do men deserve? sort of interesting in some spots)
28. King John (pretty much a descriptive history in play form. Arthur is good tho)
29. Winter's Tale (doesn't suck, but attempts what Pericles/Cymbeline already did better)
30. Timon of Athens (moody and not much plot, but tbf Shakespeare did abandon this one)
31. King Henry VI part 1 (Shax still getting his grips but kind of interesting war play)
32. The Two Noble Kinsmen (not the worst but pretty basic)
33. Comedy of Errors (not v subtle, not the best, but i didn't hate it)
34. King Henry VI part 2 (Shakespeare hates women and Irish people)
35. Taming of the Shrew (sorta witty but the smugness w/ the horrifying plot is. not likeable)
36. Two Gentlemen of Verona (kind of a proto-Merchant of Venice but less developed)
37. Merry Wives of Windsor (insufferable. I hate Falstaff)
38. Henry VIII (incredibly boring, clearly just trying to please King James)
WAHOOOOOOO
it was my new year's resolution to finish this w/in a year and ,'o)
here are my rankings
1. King Richard II (the prison soliloquy is what made me fall in love w/ Shakespeare)
2. Hamlet (about as good as people say lol)
3. Macbeth (exciting and intense, ambition and paranoia themes)
4. Julius Caesar (best speeches, v thought provoking)
5. Much Ado About Nothing (platonic ideal of a comedy. Beatrice and Benedick are my faves)
6. The Tempest (lovely magical time, good setting and fun plot)
7. Romeo and Juliet (quite beautiful, some of Bill's best writing on Love)
8. King Lear (sad and upsetting but in a good way)
9. Cymbeline (VERY underrated, so much going on, subverts all expectations)
10. Othello (JEALOUSY!!! +not as racist as I thought it would be)
11. All's Well That Ends Well (easily the funniest comedy. Helena is great)
12. Merchant of Venice (one of the better problem plays. lots of things you can take from it)
13. King Henry V (nice nice finish for the Henriad. Fun and interesting char developmt)
14. As You Like It (i'm a sucker for the pastoral plays. very cute)
15. Antony and Cleopatra (good combo of engaging political plot and tragic romance)
16. A Midsummer Night's Dream (square crossed lovers. fun and magic)
17. King Richard III (hilariously evil Richard. great catharsis at end)
18. Pericles (very solid romance. latter half of the play is best)
19. Twelfth Night (crossdressing love triangles, lots of confusion. cool)
20. Titus Andronicus (lots of action, v little subtlety, but that can be good)
21. King Henry IV part 1 (hal-hotspur contrast is neat)
22. Measure for Measure (not the best not the worst. very horny play)
23. Love's Labour's Lost (last scene drags on but otherwise perfectly fine)
24. King Henry IV part 2 (love Henry IV's last speeches, hate Falstaff he's stupid)
25. King Henry VI part 3 (this series wasn't my fave but this one clearly the quality went up)
26. Troilus and Cressida (pessimistic commentary on heroism)
27. Coriolanus (what do men deserve? sort of interesting in some spots)
28. King John (pretty much a descriptive history in play form. Arthur is good tho)
29. Winter's Tale (doesn't suck, but attempts what Pericles/Cymbeline already did better)
30. Timon of Athens (moody and not much plot, but tbf Shakespeare did abandon this one)
31. King Henry VI part 1 (Shax still getting his grips but kind of interesting war play)
32. The Two Noble Kinsmen (not the worst but pretty basic)
33. Comedy of Errors (not v subtle, not the best, but i didn't hate it)
34. King Henry VI part 2 (Shakespeare hates women and Irish people)
35. Taming of the Shrew (sorta witty but the smugness w/ the horrifying plot is. not likeable)
36. Two Gentlemen of Verona (kind of a proto-Merchant of Venice but less developed)
37. Merry Wives of Windsor (insufferable. I hate Falstaff)
38. Henry VIII (incredibly boring, clearly just trying to please King James)
WAHOOOOOOO
June 22, 2024
I did not read this whole book. I only read "The Tempest." I got this edition because it doesn't separate the plays into comedies and tragedies. It places them in chronological order as he wrote them.
I also like the typeface and text from the 1904 Stratford town edition.
The drawback is that there are no notes to accompany anything. No forward, afterward, anything at all. It's straight text from the plays.
I plan on revisiting each play here, as I study each play.
I also like the typeface and text from the 1904 Stratford town edition.
The drawback is that there are no notes to accompany anything. No forward, afterward, anything at all. It's straight text from the plays.
I plan on revisiting each play here, as I study each play.
Read
September 29, 2019He really likes Italy and people named Henry
Top 6
6-Julius Cesare
5-King Othello
4-Cominius
3-Hamlet
2-King Richard
1-Macbeth
Notes: Titus Andronicus is insane, as well as Midsummer’s Night Dream (though the Jiří Trnka adaptation is masterful)
The King Henry trilogy is awesome but a bit overly long
Top 6
6-Julius Cesare
5-King Othello
4-Cominius
3-Hamlet
2-King Richard
1-Macbeth
Notes: Titus Andronicus is insane, as well as Midsummer’s Night Dream (though the Jiří Trnka adaptation is masterful)
The King Henry trilogy is awesome but a bit overly long
October 14, 2023
After three months of re-wiring my brain behind Shakespeare's pomp and verse, I have finished his oeuvre. At least, I think. It is challenging at first, but once you get into the rhythm of the verse and the plot points, you can really appreciate the foremost dramatist of his era. I'm glad I read it; I will return to this later.
September 11, 2018
I’ve read several of these and enjoyed more than half of them for all different reasons. Only a few that I was disinterested in.
May 2, 2021
This was my quarantine project. This and Unus Annus and the end of Supernatural defined my year.
November 24, 2021
Better watched than read obviously 🥰
January 19, 2022
The great advantage of this collected plays of Shakespeare on Kindle is that it is virtually free (49p), easily accessible and can be personally annotated. It also comes with 14 essays covering Shakespeare's life, the development of drama pre-Renaissance, a discussion of Elizabethan theatre and London, a brief overview of the non-dramatic works, the sequencing of the writing of the plays, and their grouping into four periods.
The distinct disadvantages are that none of the plays is annotated, Two Noble Kinsmen is omitted (therefore not 'complete'), and those essays are both rudimentary (at O Level standard), hardly and poorly referenced, and seem to belong to the 1910s, occasionally referencing works of the 1900s, and so, despite their basic analyses, are not in the main current of modern scholarship benefiting from a hundred years plus since. They are also raddled with superlatives like 'superb' and 'gorgeous' and denigrations such as 'riffraff', and the terms 'masterly' and 'genius' are grafted onto most statements about the 'supreme heights' of Shakespeare's art (loc. 69824), peaking sonorously in 'the welding fire of genius' (loc. 69747). That said, they do give a feel of what Renaissance theatre was like, and teach enough of the basics of the development of the medieval miracle and morality plays and the interludes of the 14th century which led to the Renaissance plays born of Senecan (~65 AD) tragedy and Plautine (~184 BC) comedy, as well as the early modern history genre - plays which Marlow, Kyd, Shakespeare, Jonson and Beaumont and Fletcher et al inherited - and the rise of the romance (tragicomedy) from 1608, indebted to the latter two.
While this is a cheap and highly self-reliant introductory way to read Shakespeare, the best collection for non-scholarship reading is the RSC Complete Works edition of 2007, which provides more comprehensive and up-to-date introductory materials, good brief introductions to each play, and non-invasive annotations in footnotes in situ (whereas the Penguin individual series, for example, has the annotation/commentary at the end), replicating much of their individual works, and including the two larger poems and all the sonnets (154), and still is only £20. It also includes The Two Noble Kinsman, still not yet available in their individual series, but more readable from a lay perspective than the degree-level scholarly version in the excellent Arden third series.
Consequently, with such a serious list of disadvantages, shortfalls and omissions, I would, to use the parlance of the essays attached to this collection, direct the 'general student' (I presume the 1910s version of the GCSE student) to the RSC Complete Works, and skip cheap compilations such as this. Four of these essays, numbered the four periods of Shakespeare's plays, should not be read before the actual plays, since their summaries tell all the plots, but they are the most enjoyable, and make you re-think the plays with affection (R&J, MND, RII, MOV, 1HIV, HV, MA, AYL, TN, MFM, KL, CYM, WT, TEM...). Finally, I would also say, that while the summation of Richard II's character is remarkably accurate, as are most of the synopses, some of the analysis presented in these essays should be taken with a deal of healthy scepticism, since, for example, the same essay criticises Richard III, in neighbouring paragraphs, both as 'lack of development of character' and 'the character which the dramatist powerfully developed' (loc. 69637). The best of them are the four on periods.
My mark is based upon detailed appreciation of the plays (in other editions), rounded down according to the demerits of the outdated essays.
The distinct disadvantages are that none of the plays is annotated, Two Noble Kinsmen is omitted (therefore not 'complete'), and those essays are both rudimentary (at O Level standard), hardly and poorly referenced, and seem to belong to the 1910s, occasionally referencing works of the 1900s, and so, despite their basic analyses, are not in the main current of modern scholarship benefiting from a hundred years plus since. They are also raddled with superlatives like 'superb' and 'gorgeous' and denigrations such as 'riffraff', and the terms 'masterly' and 'genius' are grafted onto most statements about the 'supreme heights' of Shakespeare's art (loc. 69824), peaking sonorously in 'the welding fire of genius' (loc. 69747). That said, they do give a feel of what Renaissance theatre was like, and teach enough of the basics of the development of the medieval miracle and morality plays and the interludes of the 14th century which led to the Renaissance plays born of Senecan (~65 AD) tragedy and Plautine (~184 BC) comedy, as well as the early modern history genre - plays which Marlow, Kyd, Shakespeare, Jonson and Beaumont and Fletcher et al inherited - and the rise of the romance (tragicomedy) from 1608, indebted to the latter two.
While this is a cheap and highly self-reliant introductory way to read Shakespeare, the best collection for non-scholarship reading is the RSC Complete Works edition of 2007, which provides more comprehensive and up-to-date introductory materials, good brief introductions to each play, and non-invasive annotations in footnotes in situ (whereas the Penguin individual series, for example, has the annotation/commentary at the end), replicating much of their individual works, and including the two larger poems and all the sonnets (154), and still is only £20. It also includes The Two Noble Kinsman, still not yet available in their individual series, but more readable from a lay perspective than the degree-level scholarly version in the excellent Arden third series.
Consequently, with such a serious list of disadvantages, shortfalls and omissions, I would, to use the parlance of the essays attached to this collection, direct the 'general student' (I presume the 1910s version of the GCSE student) to the RSC Complete Works, and skip cheap compilations such as this. Four of these essays, numbered the four periods of Shakespeare's plays, should not be read before the actual plays, since their summaries tell all the plots, but they are the most enjoyable, and make you re-think the plays with affection (R&J, MND, RII, MOV, 1HIV, HV, MA, AYL, TN, MFM, KL, CYM, WT, TEM...). Finally, I would also say, that while the summation of Richard II's character is remarkably accurate, as are most of the synopses, some of the analysis presented in these essays should be taken with a deal of healthy scepticism, since, for example, the same essay criticises Richard III, in neighbouring paragraphs, both as 'lack of development of character' and 'the character which the dramatist powerfully developed' (loc. 69637). The best of them are the four on periods.
My mark is based upon detailed appreciation of the plays (in other editions), rounded down according to the demerits of the outdated essays.
October 18, 2014
Vaikea antaa kokonaisarvosanaa, kun tässä on neljä toisistaan täysin eriävää näytelmää. Hamletista pidin paljon, Romeo ja Julia oli kiva lukea kun tarina on niin tuttu, Venetian kauppias oli porukan yllättäjä, pidin valtavasti ja kuningas Lear hiukan blaah. Lear kärsi kyllä myös huonosta lukijasta, olin tänään todella väsynyt ja kahlasin tätä silmät puoliummessa kotimatkalla. Kokonaisuutena kuitenkin reippaasti positiivisen puolella, Shakespeare vain vaatii tietynlaisen mielentilan.
May 27, 2013
1. Oxford Bookworms Library; Level 2
2. 5/27 = 60 minutes
3. friend - London - theatre - actor - poet - playwright - read
4. What kind of books do you like?
- I like nobel.
5. It is good to know about Shakespeare. I am interested in reading or watching a movie of his things, such as Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.
2. 5/27 = 60 minutes
3. friend - London - theatre - actor - poet - playwright - read
4. What kind of books do you like?
- I like nobel.
5. It is good to know about Shakespeare. I am interested in reading or watching a movie of his things, such as Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.
May 29, 2015
Not Helpful for Students
I'm currently writing my dissertation and I just needed to know what lines referenced Sycorax. Imagine my frustration when I realized that this edition did not have line numbers. This edition was very inexpensive, but if I had known about this short-coming, I would have paid more for a better copy.
I'm currently writing my dissertation and I just needed to know what lines referenced Sycorax. Imagine my frustration when I realized that this edition did not have line numbers. This edition was very inexpensive, but if I had known about this short-coming, I would have paid more for a better copy.
July 21, 2019
In Juneau we are reading all of the First Folio plays. One of our local theaters, Theater in the Rough, has talented actors reading parts (with a few non-actors reading non-lead parts). It is great to read in the original language with the original spelling. Having a wonderful time.
Want to read
July 28, 2012Lovely edition. I am excited to use it!
April 17, 2015
Does this even need a recommendation?!
May 18, 2015
The dazzles even God.
July 27, 2015
Will, always Will !!!
Read
October 8, 2016Li só Hamlet, não terminei o livro inteiro (mas esse nunca foi a pretensão). (Hamlet is a little bitch)
January 21, 2022
Most comprehensive
January 21, 2022
Comprehensive
February 23, 2024
It was good, really enjoyable tbh, especially Romeo and Juliet!!
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews