ABANDONED. Shakespeare adaptation of plays into prose in two medium sized textbook style books circa 1998

[Jen]

When I was in secondary school in approximately 1998 I read two collections of Shakespeare stories that were written out in prose rather than as plays. One collection had the Henry and Richard and King Lear plays, and the other collection had things like Twelfth Night, Midsummer Night's Dream, Merchant of Venice in it. I think they were divided up that way anyway. One book might have had a blue front cover but I can't be certain.
The books were bigger than your average reading books, like a medium sized text book, quite thick, but paperback.
There were illustrations in them - I remember a quite graphic one of King Lear without his eyes.
I've got no idea who they're by - obviously Shakespeare is responsible for the original content but as to who has adapted them I haven't the faintest idea. The writing is in modern day English rather than Shakespearean I think, and I remember them being very accessible reads for people who dislike plays.
Oh also I'm in the UK, so that might be a useful clue, I'm not sure.
Really not sure what else to add other than it's Shakespeare, but not as plays as stories instead, in two collections where each chapter in each book is a play, and that there might be more books that my school library didn't have in the series.
Huge thanks to anyone that can help!

[L J]

There are quite a few of these. The oldest I know of is Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb. It removes not suitable for children parts but since it is old the language is dated and the editions I've seen were not heavily illustrated. The Usborne Illustrated Stories from Shakespeare seems more likely to be what you are looking for if they were printed in paperback in the UK. They have many illustrations. The only ones I've seen were hardback but the Usborne books I've seen in paperback are taller and wider than a regular paperbacks.
ETA: Just did a quick search for Shakespeare for children on Amazon and found some including the Usborne. Same search on Goodreads brings up several.
Hope this helps.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Jen, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Kris]

No response, moving to Abandoned folder.

Jen (OP) was last active on the site in August 2018.