Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: A Facsimile Edition of The First Folio

by William Shakespeare, Helge Kökeritz (Preparer)

The 1623 Folio of Shakespeare's plays was the first collected edition of the Bard's work. Many of Shakespeare's plays appeared in print there for the first time. This photographic facsimile offers the actor, the director, and every lover of Shakespeare an opportunity to read a First Folio version of the plays, unaltered by modern scholarly editors. Doug Moston's introduction and glossary provide modern actors and readers with an understanding of how the Folio text can work today. His original line-numbering system, printed on each page of the facsimile, allows actors to move through the text with ease.

Genres: Shakespeare, Drama, Classics

889 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1623

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

[Raymond Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This edition will burn a less bigger hole in your pocket than an original 17th century edition of the First Folio of Shakespeare. However, this is a photographic facsimile and does not even look like the original First Folios in the vault of the Folger library.

[Raymond Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a graduate with a degree in literature, a professional journalist and published author of several New York Times Best Sellers I know good literature and I mean real literature.
Shakespeare, you said, William Shakespeare, and you are claiming, that you are not kidding.
If Shakespeare is not out of your depth you mean Shakespeare's Plays or Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies by William Shakespeare but the First Folio is definitely out of the depth of your pocket.
If you are not familiar with what the First Folio is, the First Folio is considered to be the very first published collection of Shakespeare's plays.
It was compiled by William Shakespeare's colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell back in 1623, the actors that performed his plays on stage during his lifetime.
It is believed that 750 copies of the First Folio were published in the 17th century of which only 235 copies still exist and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. holds only 82 of them.
I have many prestigious editions of Shakespeare and while I enjoy them all, I am particularly fond of this volume ISBN 9789464437539 and that is now the pride of my bookshelf.
It is first and foremost a paragon of scholarship, though I admit that it is perhaps of limited interest to many because of Shakespeare's style of writing that is currently unusual, but in reality this book is a true work of art.
It has the true look and feel of a 17th century First Folio and the closest you will ever get to owning your own First Folio, perhaps the Best Folio ever.
I enjoy reading and owning finely made books and this volume is about as fine as a First Folio of Shakespeare is likely to get.
This valuable, collectible hardcover is beautifully bound with titles in gilt and the book in its entirety is a pleasure to own and use.
For the real collectors of literature who care for such aspects of their home library this edition will be the very impressive pride of your bookshelf.

[John Xavier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tolstoy was wrong.

[Dan]

Permanent 'currently-reading' item...
once you get past the long S, this ain't that hard to read... Fuffering f.... uh, succotash!

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

dj,

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is the King James Version of the Bible, and there is this. The English language has no third.

[Khalidabbas]

best word growing to a nice preson

[KK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy reading Shakespeare. I was searching to read Hamlet...then I found this old book in my shelf & devoured it
I love Shakespeare My favorite playwright