The Complete Works of Shakespeare [38 plays, 4 poems, sonnets]

by William Shakespeare, David Bevington

A balanced editorial approach, a highly respected editor, and proven apparatus combine to make Bevington the most student-friendly introduction to Shakespeare on the market.

The fifth edition of this comprehensive anthology addresses the two key issues confronted by students approaching Shakespeare today: a lack of knowledge about the historical period and difficulty with the language of Shakespeare's plays. A richly illustrated general introduction offers insight into Shakespeare's England and background on the literary and cultural contexts in which Shakespeare wrote and produced plays. Each play is introduced by a descriptive essay designed to help students appreciate the cultural contexts and interpretive issues raised by the play, without dictating students' interpretations. Thoroughly revised and updated notes and glosses support student readers line by line, paraphrasing Elizabethan idioms in clear and accessible language.

New to This Edition

Expanded coverage of stage performance and film. Introductory essays for each play have been revised and updated to include additional information on historical and modern performances, describing how stage and film directors have dealt with interpretive and cultural issues.

New 16-page color section, “Shakespeare's World: A Visual Portfolio,” includes historical documents, art, and photos to allow students to grasp the cultural context in which Shakespeare wrote. The Visual Portfolio also includes photos and production stills taken from recent stage and film productions, to help students to visualize on-stage scenes and dramatic situations.

Completely revised and updated notes and glosses assist modern student readers by providing clear, accessible paraphrases and contexts for Shakespearean idioms and word-play, while incorporating state-of-the-art critical insight and scholarship on the plays.

Genres: Classics, Plays, Poetry, Shakespeare, Fiction, Drama, Literature

1744 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2003

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

[Lusy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Procession of Characters from Shakespeare's Plays

"The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature." ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The quote above is precisely the reason I enjoy art and literature. I always love when a story takes me on a time traveling trip back to the past like the ones in this book.

After reading it for some months, I'm now more than halfway done with the plays in it. It's been so far so good. I enjoy walking down the memory lane reading them again.

My review here will be about my experience reading Shakespeare's works all these years as well as what I think about this book as a whole by comparing it with the previous edition. Yes, this will be an ongoing review which I'll edit along the way till I'm done reading everything.

So far, my rating hasn't changed yet but we shall see.







Picture credit: Wikipedia.

[Alexis Hall]

Well, this guy is generally considered pretty good.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bevington really is the authority on Shakespeare. I have this monster still from college and will likely never part with it.

[Isham Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've now read all the plays (many multiple times) except for King John and Henry VI (1-3) & VIII, which I'll get around to at some point. My views on Shakespeare (garnered after years of teaching him as well) are summed up in my concise essay "A Shakespeare sex-and-violence starter kit" (https://ishamcook.com/2012/01/29/shak...). I had David Bevington, the editor, as my teacher in several courses at the University of Chicago back in the '80s. Now, for sheer ability to create worlds through speech and dialogue alone (the Elizabethan stage largely lacked props and scenery), Shakespeare is the gold standard for all fiction and drama writers. I say this as a skeptic of the timeworn piety that "Shakespeare" the writer and Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon were the same person. Who really wrote Shakespeare's plays is the greatest literary mystery of all time. No, it's neither Edward de Vere nor any of the other long trotted-out usual suspects. We just don't know (a good place to start is Diana Price's "Shakespeare's Unorthodox Biography").

[Brian Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course, it's Shakespeare, but Bevington actually has a lot of interesting insight that he puts before every play, and notes within the plays themselves. Often he'll refer to the original source for where Shakespeare got his inspiration, at least for the history plays, and say where Shakespeare deviated from the facts, or conflated two events, and offer his opinion why it might have been good for the play for Shakespeare to do that. My only complaint is with the construction of the book - it's hardcover, but it feels like it's going to fall apart. In this respect, I might be more willing to recommend Yale's Complete Works of Shakespeare, edited by Brooke and Cross, which is much better constructed.

[Paul Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trigger Warnings

Abandonment
Ableism
Abuse (emotional and physical)
Addiction
Animal death/cruelty
Assault
Blood
Bones
Bullying
Cannibalism
Character death
Classism
Colonisation
Decapitation
Dismemberment
Domestic violence
Eye injury (unsimulated)
Exsanguination
Fairypogenic climate change
False imprisonment
Fatphobia (unchallenged)
Fire
Forced marriage
Gaslighting
Genocide
Gore
Grief
Hate crime
Hostages
Human experimentation
Incest
Infertility
Massacres
Menstruation
Misogyny
Mutilation
Murder (including children)
Profanity
Racism
Rape (past, recollected)
Self-harm
Sexual violence
Skeletons
Slavery
Suicidal thoughts
Suicide (unsimulated)
Torture
Underage sexuality
Violence (including against children)
War

[Lynette Caulkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb edition of the Works of Shakespeare, containing very full commentary in essays for each play, each division of plays and poems, and in front matter. Every play has copious footnotes that explain archaic words and phrases and staging issues, making the English of Shakespeare highly approachable for modern readers. It won't take long before you start getting the hang of the older English and find that you don't need many of the footnotes. My personal dislike of Shakespeare and opinion that his work is highly overcelebrated does not lessen my appraisal of this tome.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually have the fourth edition, but it's got the same editor, so I'm confident that this edition is good as well. I love Shakespeare (Hamlet is my absolute favorite!), and this book of the complete works is amazingly well put together. Aside from the texts themselves, the footnotes and commentary are truly useful and insightful. I've read this book for fun and used it as a textbook several times. The only real downside is that it's a heavy thing to lug around!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to buy this hulking beast of a book for a class on - what else - Shakespeare. I couldn't bring myself to try selling it afterwards, and to be honest it's been a good addition to the shelf to look up a line and/or prove that you didn't misquote something. The cover of the edition I have is way less gaudy than the one posted here ...

[Rosa Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this, thinking I'd get a complete works of Shakespeare.

I wasn't really a fan of the "introductions" before each of his plays. I am glad they were trying to help people better understand his work... It just wasn't for me.

Once I was in the nitty gritty of Shakespeare, I loved every word.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent critical analysis and useful insight into Shakespeare's entire body of work. Purchased for a college Shakespearean lit class. The only problem: far too large and heavy to take on planes, the El and other locations where I often read.

Favorites: Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream

[Cass · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is much easier to read Shakespeare NOT in a large clumsy book. It worked best to make copies of what I wanted to read then to read it...but that killed too many trees. So I keep this book as a library piece and buy the plays in smaller format.

[Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has gotten me through years of college and grad school. I once told Emily while sitting in class that I wanted to be buried with my Bevington. He adds fantastic (and informative) intros to each play, and appears to stick to Shakespeare's original text (when compared to other books).

[bridget Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

i used this book for my Shakespeare class and read 5-6 plays in it and not i am using it again..not the whole thing, we are only reading three plays for my Shakespeare and culture class. It is good to have.

[Zulma · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books!!! I would've carried it everywhere with me if the book wasn't so big. Truly a great read if you are ever in the mood for some Shakespeare. The author even does a nice job with reference points within each of Shakespeare's work. W

[Jake Maguire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this version of the complete works however it would have been better with a nicer quality of paper. The break downs of each play are great and the line numbering features are the best I've seen so far.

[Saurabh · Rating 5 out of 5]

shakespeare has always been a delight - othello, merchant of venice, midsummers night dream, macbeth, king lear and some of his poems like the the seven ages of man, a lovers complaint and the rape of lucrece are my fav'! i go back to this collection again and again and am never disapointed!

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will always love reading works by good old Bill, even after the many blood, sweat, and tears I have given up to him in academia. His language and sub textual content is fascinating. It is almost as if there are no wrong ways to interpret each play/poem/sonnet he has ever written. A true genius.

[June G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks, Anonymous, for reopening a fat can of worms I'd all but forgotten about. No more Shakespeare rereads for ME 'til I figure out just who the hell I think I'm rereading (or not rereading...that is the question.) What fools we mortals be. Though I suppose a rose by any other name...

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buy the Bev!!

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Shakespeare and love David Bevington, even if he does fart during class.

[Minnie Romanovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love him, love him, love him.

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love his plays most. My book is actually the 3rd edition, not the 5th. I'm not sure if there's a big difference in each edition. David Bevington edits them all, so I'm guessing there's not.

[Stacy Parrish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shakespeare needs no introduction. Everyone should read Shakespeare. Period.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

hadn't read the whole thing but macbeth is probably one of my picks

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, I read almost everything in this complete collection. I was an English major in a Shakespeare class.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only read the major tragedies

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good anthology with all kinds of extra info-y goodness. Very good edition to use for deep reading and course work in Shakespeare.

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always love Shakespeare, and this edition has excellent notes. I used it in college.

[Christel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like Julius Caesar, Othello and Hamlet the best.