The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

by William Shakespeare

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Genres: Classics, Plays, Fiction, Poetry

1263 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

William 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".

Reviews

[caterspotaters · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the digital omnibus arranges the plays in alphabetical order, I read them in (close to) chronological order. It is nice to have all the plays and poems in a format that is easy to carry and keep highlighted quotes in one place. There are several errors related to giving lines to the wrong character and misspellings. Hopefully, that will be corrected in future.

I have included my ratings for each title below, as well as the order in which I read them. It was interesting to see how Shakespeare evolved as a writer during his career.

Reading Order and Ratings
Plays
1. The Two Gentlemen of Verona ⭐️
2. The Taming of the Shrew ⭐️⭐️
3. Henry VI, Part 1 ⭐️⭐️
4. Henry VI, Part 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
5. Henry VI, Part 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
6. Richard III ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
7. Titus Andronicus ⭐️⭐️⭐️
8. The Comedy of Errors⭐️⭐️
9. Love’s Labour’s Lost⭐️⭐️⭐️
10. Richard II⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
11. Romeo and Juliet⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
12. A Midsummer Night’s Dream⭐️⭐️⭐️
13. King John⭐️
14. The Merchant of Venice⭐️⭐️⭐️
15. Henry IV, Part 1⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
16. Henry IV, Part 2⭐️⭐️⭐️
17. The Merry Wives of Windsor⭐️⭐️
18. Much Ado About Nothing⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
19. Henry V⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
20. Julius Caesar⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
21. As You Like It⭐️⭐️⭐️
22. Hamlet⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
23. Twelfth Night⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
24. Troilus and Cressida⭐️⭐️⭐️
25. Measure for Measure⭐️⭐️⭐️
26. All's Well That Ends Well⭐️⭐️
27. Othello⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
28. King Lear⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
29. Timon of Athens⭐️⭐️
30. Macbeth⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
31. Antony and Cleopatra⭐️⭐️⭐️
32. Pericles, Prince of Tyre⭐️⭐️
33. Coriolanus⭐️⭐️⭐️
34. The Winter's Tale⭐️⭐️
35. Cymbeline⭐️⭐️⭐️
36. The Tempest⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
37. Henry VIII⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sonnets and Poems
“Venus and Adonis”⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“The Rape of Lucrece”⭐️⭐️⭐️
“The Passionate Pilgrim”⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“The Phoenix and the Turtle”⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“A Lover's Complaint”⭐️⭐️
The Sonnets⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall Star Rating: 3.28 (141/43)

[Jim Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly formatted. Fix table of contents.

Poorly formatted. Fix table of contents and then it is with it. Fix and upload another copy. Use calibre to auto generate it.