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William Shakespeare

Born

in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England

February 03, 1564

Died

April 23, 1616

Website

https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/

Genre

Theatre, Classics, Poetry

Influences

Ovid, Homer, Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, R ...more

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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, W 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". ...more

Combine Editions
William Shakespeare’s books

Average rating: 3.86 · 8,592,570 ratings · 232,960 reviews · 28,075 distinct works • Similar authors

	Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Paul Werstine (Editor), Barbara A. Mowat (Editor) 3.74 avg rating — 2,830,566 ratings — published 1590 — 138 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hamlet 4.03 avg rating — 1,056,124 ratings — published 1601 — 141 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Carmen Kahn (Contributor), Jack Armstrong (Contributor) 3.89 avg rating — 1,024,735 ratings — published 1623 — 7608 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Midsummer Night’s Dream 3.94 avg rating — 580,205 ratings — published 1595 — 5441 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Othello 3.89 avg rating — 438,079 ratings — published 1603 — 1724 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Much Ado About Nothing 4.06 avg rating — 259,112 ratings — published 1598 — 1329 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	King Lear 3.91 avg rating — 238,172 ratings — published 1605 — 4007 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Tempest 3.78 avg rating — 228,156 ratings — published 1611 — 93 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Julius Caesar 3.71 avg rating — 220,072 ratings — published 1599 — 4337 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Twelfth Night 3.96 avg rating — 195,160 ratings — published 1623 — 3122 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by William Shakespeare…

Series by William Shakespeare

Wars of the Roses (8 books)
by

William Shakespeare,

Eric Rasmussen (Goodreads Author) (Editor),

John D. Cox (Editor)

3.81 avg rating — 221,205 ratings

Shakespeare's Minor Tetralogy (4 books)
by

William Shakespeare,

John Jowett (Editor)

3.82 avg rating — 84,955 ratings

Henry IV (2 books)
by

William Shakespeare,

David Bevington (Editor),

David Scott Kastan (Editor)

3.79 avg rating — 54,822 ratings

Henry VI (3 books)
by

William Shakespeare,

Eric Rasmussen (Goodreads Author) (Editor),

John D. Cox (Editor)

3.62 avg rating — 26,167 ratings

Šekspyro Raštai (4 books)
by

William Shakespeare,

Viljamas Šekspyras,

Antanas Miškinis (Translator),

Kazys Boruta (Translator)

3.97 avg rating — 653 ratings

More series by William Shakespeare…

Imagine a Shakespearean retelling of The Godfather set in a small Southern town, and you’ll have an idea about what to expect in Shawn Andre...

Polls

October 2014 Old School Classic Poll

Which book would you like to read for our October 2014 Old School Classic Group Read?

1897, The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, 192pp

31 votes, 17.1%

1868, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, 449pp

26 votes, 14.4%

1842, Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, 464pp

21 votes, 11.6%

1853, Bleak House by Charles Dickens, 1017pp

14 votes, 7.7%

1853, Villette by Charlotte Brontë, 573pp

14 votes, 7.7%

1602, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, 289pp

14 votes, 7.7%

1862, Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev, 244pp

11 votes, 6.1%

1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, 438pp

11 votes, 6.1%

1872, Middlemarch by George Eliot, 904pp

10 votes, 5.5%

1848, La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils, 256pp

7 votes, 3.9%

800, Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Unknown, 213pp

6 votes, 3.3%

1759, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne, 588pp

5 votes, 2.8%

1874, The Temptation of St. Antony by Gustave Flaubert, 304pp

3 votes, 1.7%

1819, The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott, 400pp

3 votes, 1.7%

1885, Juan de La Rosa: Memoirs of the Last Soldier of the Independence Movement by Nataniel Aguirre, 368pp

3 votes, 1.7%

1864, Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, 528pp

2 votes, 1.1%

181 total votes

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