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Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare, G.B. Harrison

4.51 of 5 stars 4.51 · rating details · 27,626 ratings · 854 reviews

This tome includes the full list of Shakespeare's plays, poems, and sonnets.

Hardcover, 1675 pages

Published June 28th 1952 by Heinle & Heinle Publishers (first published 1623)

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Jul 23, 2011 Bram rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-bard, favorites

Reflecting on the oeuvre of Shakespeare, I can’t shake a perverse idea: the Bard is underrated. And I think this feeling is tied to the contradictory knowledge that he is enormous, creating the master shadow in which all others dissolve. He’s the Platonic Form that has made possible, via subsequent authorial study and unconscious absorption, so many of the variations of what we consider the best in literature. The introspection and characterization of Woolf. The zaniness in Melville, Pynchon, an...more

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Kelly Thanks for explaining your thoughts so thoroughly, Bram. This is why I have also enjoyed talking Shakespeare with you (wow, it has been years!)- you a...more Thanks for explaining your thoughts so thoroughly, Bram. This is why I have also enjoyed talking Shakespeare with you (wow, it has been years!)- you always have your reasons, not just tossing out opinions because you saw a bad production of it that one time, which I feel like is just the end for a lot of people.

Anyway, re: Winter's Tale, despite the excellent lines that you're quoting from Leontes, I just can't connect with it. I agree with Elizabeth that the themes (jealousy, playing with time) have been done elsewhere, not only in Othello (which I had my own problems with, but), but actually even in the Midsummer tangle in the forest. The only way to deal with this play is as an abstraction. I hate Leontes, and Shakespeare makes no attempt to make us emotionally respond to anyone until perhaps Perdita and Florizel, but I find them pretty generic. But how long can you listen to a series of abstractions and pronouncements on various topics strung together, however individually fine each piece might be. Perhaps if the play had been a book of poems or essays, but in a play format I think it should be judged as such, and his characters don't make sense, nor does the plot, and the end is kiiiinda preachy. I like my Shakespeare to end with stuff like The rest is silence and Man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion- that's my Shakespeare. Anyway, I don't have an argument with you about the individually good stuff, for me I just can't rank it so high as a play.

Re: Twelfth Night- I would say that this is perhaps better in performance. I say this having been in it twice, so perhaps I am a bit biased. But I think in print (and in some productions) it can just be a pile of slapstick, gay undertones and gender-bending fun. And there's nothing wrong with that, and it is ridiculously hilarious that way. (I'll have to tell you the story about how I missed my cue once and left Toby and Andrew stranded on stage for like four minutes and what they did with that sometime.)

But I also think that there is some great stuff in here about layers of performance- especially with Malvolio and Feste. Who is looking, who is watching, and how people behave given those eyes, and how quickly people can change everything about themselves given that shift. I also think that sitting there with Viola and her brother, and their reunion at the end makes that whole thing real. The Malvolio storyline can also get really dark and disturbing as well. I can see why you're saying something is missing because it is a play about facades and making fun of them, but I think that facades mean so so much and it's much harder to watch peoples' perceptions and identities being destroyed in person. If it is played that way, anyway.

I look forward to seeing SOME production of Macbeth, even if I don't get to Sleep No More. The Slings and Arrows season about it almost turned me around on it, but they didn't do as thorough a reading of it as they did with Hamlet and Lear.(less)
Jul 27, 2011 06:33am

Alexander Arsov Underrated indeed! I have the same nagging suspicion. There's so much hype around Shakespeare - and so little substance; am already tired of reading "...more
Nov 11, 2012 12:21pm

Apr 04, 2008 Taka rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: japan_jul07-aug11, english_lit, poetry

I did it.

38 plays, 2 long poems, and 154 sonnets in 2462 onion-paper pages. I read them all. ALL. I think I deserve a self-congratulation for this. Yes. Good job!

It took me more than two months of intense reading that toughened my wrists and arms from reading it on the train standing, hardened my heart with stony indifference against people's perplexed and peering gazes thrown at me even to the point of leaning in from the side to see what the hell I'm reading, and made me utterly fearless again...more

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Sep 01, 2009 Brad rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare

For Harold Bloom*:

Can 35 Thousand Literary Critics and 3 Million Groundlings Be Wrong? Yes.

Taking arms against Shakespeare, at this moment, is to emulate Harry Potter standing up to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Simply opposing Lord V-- won't end him. The Shakespeare epiphenomenon will go on, doubtless for some time, as J. R. R. Tolkien did, and then wane. Or so one can hope.

The official newspaper of our dominant counter-culture, The New York Times, has been startled by Shakespeare's plays into est...more

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Nov 05, 2010 Sammy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: theatre, favourites

What an exquisite edition of one of the greatest works in the Western canon. Armed with an authoritative editorial team, Professor Jonathan Bate has reworked all of Shakespeare's plays, as well as his poems. The footnotes are extensive and cover all meanings of words (including the more salacious ones that many school texts leave out), while also providing informative historical and contextual information.

This edition seeks to give us every word attributed to Shakespeare (although, as it points...more What an exquisite edition of one of the greatest works in the Western canon. Armed with an authoritative editorial team, Professor Jonathan Bate has reworked all of Shakespeare's plays, as well as his poems. The footnotes are extensive and cover all meanings of words (including the more salacious ones that many school texts leave out), while also providing informative historical and contextual information.

This edition seeks to give us every word attributed to Shakespeare (although, as it points out at length, we can't really know what he wrote: all of our current versions come from a variety of sources typeset in his later years, and primarily from the First Folio printed after his death. Any work of the Bard's is distorted in some way). With appendices and footnotes, notable textual errors or areas of debate are highlighted.

There is so much to love here. Epic tragedies - Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, King Lear - joined by their lesser, but poetically affecting counterparts like Othello, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Titus Andronicus. Shakespeare plays with and shuffles around comic tropes in his wide variety of comedies: peaks include The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing.

In his more subdued romances, Shakespeare often seems reduced to more typical characters yet imbues than with layer upon layer of subtlety: Measure for Measure and The Winter's Tale are particularly splendid examples. Some of the tragedies and comedies aren't as startling, and some are challenging - such as his part-satire Troilus and Cressida - but every work brims with characters whose opinions, beliefs and motives are individual, and not simply echoing those of an author. Beyond these plays lies a staggering cycle of love poems in The Sonnets, as well as his other various poetry which always makes fascinating, lyrical reading.

Capping all this is Shakespeare's incredible cycle of English history, which details the country's fate from 1199 to 1533, through the stories of the English monarchs: their battles, their loves, their lives and the effect their squabbles have over countless citizens. The cycle begins with the somewhat talky King John (far from my favourite work, but well presented in the BBC Complete Works cycle) and ends with the autumnal King Henry VIII. In between are eight plays (two tetraologies) which encompass the Wars of the Roses, and they are astonishing. From the private thoughts of the monarch to the most unimportant peasant, Shakespeare captures an age.

The introductions on each play detail cultural successes over the centuries, as well as basic historical information. I've seen people suggest other aspects that could improve this - such as a suggestion of ways to double parts (this is defined as the "actor's edition"). Certainly, I can accept that, but as it stands this is already beyond a 5-star piece of work. A place of honour on my shelf, that's for sure.(less)

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Feb 05, 2012 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: drama, poetry

Edward III

For anyone saying, "Huh?" right now, let me say that EIII is one of the "Apocryphal Plays" that have been credited wholly or in part to Shakespeare at one time or another but that do not have conclusive proof of authorship by Big Bill Rattlepike. In the Second Edition of the Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works, the whole text of all plays the editors are convinced Shakespeare had a hand in is printed. This means that they have made the brave decision to include Edward III, convinced as t...more Edward III

For anyone saying, "Huh?" right now, let me say that EIII is one of the "Apocryphal Plays" that have been credited wholly or in part to Shakespeare at one time or another but that do not have conclusive proof of authorship by Big Bill Rattlepike. In the Second Edition of the Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works, the whole text of all plays the editors are convinced Shakespeare had a hand in is printed. This means that they have made the brave decision to include Edward III, convinced as they are that Shakepeare wrote up to four scenes in the play. The text has undergone every stylistic and vocubulary test known to scholarship and there is a growing consensus that Shakespeare wrote some, at least, of this play. Now, I don't know anything about these tests, but if you'd asked me which scenes stood out as the best, I'd have picked the four that the present editors claim were by Big Bill the Bard.

The play is a straightforward history, showing Edward the III first having trouble with the Scots then invading France, where his son gets caught, massively outnumbered, in a valley surrounded by hills...Cue ridiculous triumph-against-the-odds...

Between the two are some scenes where the King meets an exceptionally attractive member of the Nobility and woos her, despite being already married himself. These scenes raise the bar in terms of the language used and feeling expressed and are reminiscent of numerous similar scenes by Shakespeare - I could easily believe he wrote them. Later, the Prince of Wales, pensive before apparently insurmountable odds of battle, finds courage whilst meditating on the inevitability of death. Once again these passages are reminiscent of other famous Shakespeare scenes.

The plot is reminiscent of Henry V and I can easily imagine that Shakespeare took this play and used it as the model for that later, greater and entirely solo effort.

What Edward III lacks are depth of characterisation, depth of feeling conveyed by the language (outside the four scenes mentioned above) and a unity in the whole. The early part with Edward's attempted adultery seems disconnected from the subsequent invasion of France.

Even taken alone, Henry V eliminates all these problems.

This play illustrates to me the genius of Shakespeare: he was able to take a populist form that demanded a continuous supply of fresh material that allowed little time for rehearsal and create work that showed such psychological and dramatic insight in such glorious language that it transcended his era to the extent of him being widely considered the best Britsh playwright ever to have lived, 400 years later.(less)

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Mar 15, 2008 Stephen Jannetts rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: English speaking world

A wonderful collection of the complete works of Shakespeare. It differs from most other collections in that it presents his works chronologically (as accurately as possible, but scholars will never be satisfied completely) whilst most others categorise them into histories, tragedies, romances, and comedies.

The poems are presented well, but the plays aren't formatted in the most user-friendly way: the font is tiny, close together, in articles going vertically down the page with several colums on...more

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Jan 20, 2010 Polly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: polly-s-best-books

I have not finished this yet, although David gave it to me for Christmas about 15 years ago (clearly not the Kindle edition, but I can't seem to change that). Some of my favorites are Henry V, Hamlet and King Lear. I don't care so much for the comedies. I think everyone should read Shakespeare to know what good writing is, and to get an idea of the impact of human behavior for better and for worse. There are so many wonderful and relevant lines that I wish I could commit more to memory. During t...more

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May 16, 2013 Martin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

05-16-13

Much Ado About Nothing

03-28-13

Henry IV, Part Two

10-26-12

Henry IV, Part One

09-16-12

The Merchant of Venice

06-12-12

The Life and Death of King John

02-07-12

A Midsummer Night's Dream

12-20-11

Romeo & Julliet

06-25-11

Richard II

03-20-11

Love's Labour Lost

02-16-11

Two Gentlemen of Verona

05-07-10

The Taming of the Shrew - I love this play. Maybe that makes me a bad person, I don't know. I love the problems of it, I love watching directors and actors try to solve the problems of it, I love the wordpl...more

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Feb 09, 2008 Katherine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: awesome

Duh.

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Oct 03, 2009 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: did-not-finish, brit-lit, shakespeare, 1500-1700

Update: Seven plays into my current spree, I'm going to have to put this on hold due to a lack of time. I've now read 17 total- my most severe weakness is the histories (have only read Richard III and Henry IV). When I come back to this project, I think that I will be reading those in order.

1st: Macbeth (finished-review posted)
2nd: Two Gentlemen of Verona (finished-review posted)
3rd: King Lear (finished-review posted)
4th: Merchant of Venice (finished-review posted)
5th: Othello (finished-review p...more

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Aug 09, 2007 Miriam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: drama

I have a very old (1943) edition of this book, which I use mostly for reference. My edition has very little in the way of footnotes or annotation, although there is a very useful glossary of Elizabethan terms in the back. Additionally, there are indices of characters and of first lines of songs and soliloquys.

This book (at least the 1943 edition) is not for those who have to read just a play or two for class-- go pick up a Folger edition if that is the case-- or for those who are performing a pl...more

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Jan 09, 2009 Baff rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have a hypothesis about Shakespeare that may be untestable in this life. My hypothesis is that, in order to understand Shakespeare, you must enjoy him. Backward, huh? Yet, it seems that this reality comes out when you speak with people who like to read this stuff. In any case, the Norton is a very good resource/doorstop to have in your library. Although my scholarship is exceeding feeble, I sometimes disagree with the editor's commentary on certain words. His definitions just don't seem to fit...more

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Dec 14, 2012 James Weisbach rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The following is a review of two different editions, not Shakespeare himself.

THE RSC COMPLETE WORKS

There were some things I really loved about this edition, and some I didn't.

The binding is somewhat flimsy, and on a book this size (admittedly, one that I lug around everywhere), it started to wear pretty quickly. The pages are also tissue-paper thin, to the extent that they rip if you turn them even a litte to enthusiastically.
The annotations are at the bottom, of the page, and there's no clea...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Taylewd rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Greenblatt does a freaking amazing job of putting this together. The intros provide a fantastic historical perspective going into reading each play, especially for the histories. You'll know the families of the play and why they're beefing on each other before you go in. You'll know the real conversation Prince Hal and Bolingbroke had that formed the basis of Bolingbroke's death scene in 2 Henry IV. You'll know what Queen Elizabeth thought of Richard II ("I am Richard, know you not that?"), and...more

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Oct 16, 2009 Steven Taylor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Seeing this when voting on the book list has inspired me to gush: Maybe I should put this under "currently reading" because I'll be reading and re-reading these my whole life. What can I say that hasn't been said already? The funniest comedies, the most passionate love stories, the most heart-wrenching tragedies. And of course, all of it in the most beautiful language ever written in English.

Tragically, so many start reading a play, get frustrated by the language and give up. I think that'...more

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Apr 28, 2009 Charles Martin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Okay, I admit that I've only read about 40-50% of this, but its a handy way of covering Shakespeare without going all the way through.
Just like any prolific writer, even the great Shakespeare is hit and miss. For every Julius Ceasar, Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing, there are painfully dry and boring plays so dreadful that making students read it violates the Geneva Convention somehow.
Shakespeare's true genius comes in his characters, which I think is exactly what makes his plays live on. Ye...more

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Jun 17, 2010 Rowena rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read Romeo and Juliet in high school. We had this big book, a compilation of William Shakespeare's works (not sure how my family got hold of it and I don't think this is the exact book because ours is a really old one) which I remember reading until my head hurt. Old English can be difficult for a small brain.

I loved the classic theme: star-crossed lovers from different backgrounds falling in love (well, duh, I was a teenager when I read it). The main plot is still relevant today, there are st...more

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Sep 14, 2007 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

Wonderful presentation of Shakespeare's complete body of work. What I like best about this volume is that the plays are not mixed up together like the last volume I owned. The comedies and tragedies are in separate sections, which is great, because I much prefer Shakespeare's comedies. His comedies always remind me of Woody Allen movies. He just cracks me up!

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Mar 27, 2013 Erika Johansen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Let's get this out here first: I don't think Shakespeare is a god. I think he was quite clever with language and some good insights into humanity. But, as often as not, I feel that his plays are ponderous, the comedies just as much as the tragedies. I also have to be in the right mood to read Shakespeare; I can't just pick this volume up and sink into it. That said, I will mention the plays I love dearly: above all of them, Othello. In the pantheon of villainy, I can think of only a couple to ri...more

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May 02, 2007 Tessa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sogoodyoureadthemagain

Ok, so I haven't read EVERY play, but I'm working on it. Much Ado, Winter's Tale, R & J, and Hamlet all stand out as favorites. If you want to read Shakespeare, Riverside is a great way to do it--most of the discussions of the plays are quite good and you can brush up on the history of his life and theatre in the time period as well.

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Dec 25, 2009 Sommer Ann rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, plays-beyond-the-stage, denison-lit

It's Shakespeare, what more need I say? Over my first semester I read, in brilliant British accents with Ashley, the following plays from the anthology:

Hamlet
King Lear
romeo and Juliet
Midsummer Night's Dream
Twelfth Night
Taming of the Shrew
Richard III
Henry IV (part 1 and 2)
Othello
Much Ado About Nothing

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Jan 28, 2012 David added it · review of another edition

One of those books that will never finish because its depths of tenderness are inexhaustible. You can stick it forever on a shelf but its own secret life goes on even without you ever picking it up again after a brief dip into it. It's just there for you whenever you want to read it, that's all.

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Mar 04, 2012 J.D. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, own

This is a great volume. I especially love that it includes his sonnets, and that his plays are sorted by genre (tragedies, comedies, and histories). Only drawback is that the small printing, character name abbreviations, and line breaks continuing on the half space above sometimes makes the text a little tricky to read. That being said, I love that everything is here, and in a handsome, inexpensive edition. Truly a most-own! Personal favorites of mine, by the way, are comedies Twelfth Night, A M...more

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Sep 15, 2010 Hana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 17, 2011 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Need a comprehensive volume of all of Shakespeare's works? This book is for you.
How about a security system? I guarantee any burglar you bash over the head with this book is going to have at least a concussion, if not brain damage.
What about a doorstop? do you live in a drafty house with doors slamming all the time? You need one of these then, any door parked behind this tome is going nowhere.

Got kids? Are they too big for a high chair but still a little too short for a regular chair? Park one...more

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Dec 01, 2010 Keeko rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Finished off with The life of King Henry the Eighth. I read it side by side with the Yale edition published in 1925 and edited by John M. Berdan and Tucker Brooke because I like how the Yale edition plays are published in individual 4" x 6" blue cloth-covered volumes that you can hold easily in your hands. People get all caught up in studying Shakespeare, and I think that sometimes that gets in the way of remembering that the reason he's lasted this long is because he's a wonderful storyteller....more

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Jan 19, 2010 Nicholas Whyte added it · review of another edition

Henry VI, Part I[return]Henry VI, Part II[return]Henry VI, Part III[return]Richard III[return]Comedy of Errors[return]Titus Andronicus[return]Taming of the Shrew[return]Two Gentlemen of Verona[return]Love's Labour's Lost[return]Romeo and Juliet[return]Richard II[return]A Midsummer Night's Dream[return]King John[return]The Merchant of Venice[return]Henry IV, Part I[return]Henry IV, Part II[return]Henry V[return]Julius Caesar[return]Much Ado About Nothing[return]As You Like It[return]Merry Wives o ...more

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Aug 22, 2011 Nicholas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, theatre, reviewed

What can I say? This is Shakespeare, one of the greatest writers in the English language ever. His plays and poems are still required reading in British schools (although in my opinion they don't pick the best plays for the curriculum), and his work continues to be performed by theatre companies great and small all over the world. Not many other playwrights can say that nearly 5 centuries on from their deaths. This is just one of many editions to contain the full body of his work, but despite th...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Mel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, drama, poetry

This isn't exactly the edition I have but it's about the nearest I'm going to get. In-short, working your way through the entirety of Shakespeare's works is no mean feat but the challenge proves well-worth it in the end. I think everyone in the English-speaking world has had to sit through endless hours in a classroom listening to their teacher drone on about the main themes of Romeo & Juliet or Hamlet but to actually just sit and read the plays for the sheer enjoyment of it is something mag...more

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Jan 24, 2010 Holly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read approximately 25 plays around Oct. '09. Rankings: The Comedy of Errors, 3.5. Love's Labor's Lost, 4-4.5. 1Henry VI, 3.5. Richard III, 3.5. The Taming of the Shrew, 3. The Two Gentlemen of Verona, 3.5-4. Romeo and Juliet, 4. Richard II, 4. The Merchant of Venice, 3.5-4. 1Henry IV, 4. Henry V, 3.5-4. Much Ado About Nothing, 3. Julius Caesar 3.5-4. Troilus and Cressida, unfinished. All's Well That Ends Well, 3. Othello, only made if half way through then zzzzz. Measure For Measure, 3.5. King...more

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About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, 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 surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been tr...more William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, 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 surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. Scholars believe that he died on his fifty-second birthday, coinciding with St George’s Day. It is an interesting idea that English writer is so closely identified with the Patron Saint of England!

At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

According to historians, Shakespeare write 37 plays and 154 sonnets throughout the span of his life. Shakespeare's writing average was 1.5 plays a year since he first started writing in 1589. There have been plays and sonnets attributed to Shakespeare that were not authentically written by the great master of language and literature.
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