Every time I see this on my "currently reading" shelf I feel guilty for not having been actively reading it for a while. So to eliminate guilt, I am moving it to my "read" shelf even though I have not yet read the entire thing. I have read enough of it to rate it and can continue to add plays individually as I get around to reading them.
Of course the collected works of Shakespeare gets 5 stars.

Oceans of ink have been written about Shakespeare's works, so I see no reason to add my two pence. As to this edition, though, I have many good things to say. It is an academic edition, and I am please with the book for a number of reasons.

First off, the book is attractive and well made. The hardcover is sturdy, the interior artwork is elucidating and fun, and the complete works are included, even the ones whose canonicity are only probable.

Different scholars write the general and individual work introductions, which is nice as it adds variety and exposes the reader to different approaches and views of the works.

The book is heavily glossed on the page where the text in question appears, which is great as you can simply look down to find the information. Most readers are not going to know all the nuances of Elizabethan English, so this glossing is vital to understanding ye olde utterances of The Bard.

There are various appendices dealing with the stage history of the works, original source material, and timelines as well as a bibliography and selected glossary at the end.

This book is my favourite by far of Shakespearean books in regard to completeness and reading aids. It also helps me get my exercise carrying it around the house as it clocks in at just over 2,000 pages. I read every one of them. You should, too.

Regarding the plays, they are written to be performed and are best enjoyed, in my opinion, in performance combined with reading. I read first and after and have no preference myself as to which should be done first, but I definitely recommend both. I personally found the BBC versions of the plays to be great as they are Englishmen and talented. The videos are free on youtube. The BBC set out to do all the plays, which is great because you can watch some of the lesser performed works. I am not sure the canonical views of the BBC and this book match 100%, so a few of the plays that were previously not considered Shakespearean may not be available. Still, watch those you can. Then, read this wonderful text (or vice-versa) for a deeper enjoyment of these works; they really are timeless and worth the time necessary to invest in the experience.

10/10, nothing else to say. Most of the "Histories" are skippable, though.

This Riverside edition of Shakespeare has excellent footnotes. I have had it since college, when I read every play and footnote, cover to cover. I went on to read a couple of other editions, mostly to learn from different footnotes in each, but I still found Riverside to be the best. (It has the added benefit that you can find safety under it in the event of a tornado.) Seriously though, even the paper and typeface are outstanding.

I have the older 1974 edition. It's been on my bookshelf my whole life (born in 1973), and I feel ashamed that there are still a few plays I haven't bothered to read. With that said, however, it is an gigantic tome and worth having just for the princely place it takes up on the bookshelf. Being that it is the complete works of Shakespeare, that is also a bonus.

It's all here in one big beautiful book. I love Shakespeare and like to pick this up and read from it. It's also nice to have the complete works in one place--easy to look things up if you are a stickler for Shakespeare "trivia" or want to know if something is being done accurately. I got this for an undergrad class and am so happy to have it (although I know mine is an earlier edition as this was published in 1997 and the class would have been earlier than that). Finally got rid of all my little individual Shakespeare books over the years. One downside, this is not portable--big and clunky!

Shakespeare is a very well-known historical figure and Author, Play write and more. His writing is studied in schools, higher education and beyond. From stage to cinema. At some time in your life, whether we know it or not, we will have seen or heard a Shakespearean script.
Why share that I have read this edition of collected works now?
The reading of this collection of works is an endless task, and again, as with many other books that I have collected over recent years, I 'read it' on a variety of levels, for reading, for inspiring and for prompting stories.
If anyone had asked me who this chap was when I was a teen I would have said, “Who?” Even in my twenties - I had sort of heard of him, but - I was too busy living a life to make the time understand this Writer. At no point in my childhood education do I ever remember been asked to understand the Authors. Times have changed, and I have recently learned more and more about Shakespeare via the T.V. the internet and choosing to study him, and his writing. I discovered there were so many films I had watched and books that I had read that I thoroughly enjoyed, and they had all used the plots and story-line-arcs that Shakespeare shared hundreds of years ago.
Again, with a lot of the book choices I have had in recent months and years, this book is not one for the bottom of your handbag, or briefcase. It is heavy. On a positive note, you would burn additional work-out-calories if you chose to carry it around.
This book shares the Complete Works of Shakespeare, and it is easy to follow, just cumbersome if you planned to take it for a holiday read, it adds on just too many baggage handling kgs. I highly recommend this book if you like to know a bit about Literature and the past. Today, I don’t know about you, but stories just aren’t told in the same way anymore, but when on the odd occasion they do reflect the original works, I often catch my breath.
I have a greater appreciation for plot and the suspense held within tales, thanks to Shakespeare. And this book can be a wonderful tool if you like to practice I-Ching or the Censa method when Poetry writing.
Julie Spencer, Creative Writing, and Philosopher

This wonderful compilation of Shakespeare's works was assigned to me as an English major during my undergraduate studies. I will always treasure it as I spent a lot of late nights (and all-nighters) with it in college. Someday I hope to go back to it and read some of the works that were not assigned to me in class.

When I first saw the cost (and the weight!) of this book at my university bookstore, I really did NOT want to buy it. However, it has really been a Godsend. It has wonderful annotations without a lot of frills, and it really is the entire collected works. For a student/teacher of literature or for any true Shakespeare fan, this one really is worth it in my opinion.

This will sound cliche, but I want anyone reading this to KNOW that I mean it in the most absolute, surest sense. "If I had to go to a deserted island for the rest of my life and if I was only allowed to bring one book there..." it would be this one. Period. All one needs to know about life is in this book. All of the tragedies, all of the humor, heartbreak, guilt, redemption, evil, generosity, tolerance, wisdom - all in one neat volume.

Summer 2021. Reading introductory materials. The "Linguistic Medium" section is wonderful, but otherwise this volume shows less favorably than I remembered, especially compared to the old PELICAN anthology:
* The MEASURE FOR MEASURE introduction is sophisticated foolishness.
* The PERICLES introduction is better: factual when it can be, hesitant to make unwarranted inferences, honest about the play's weaknesses but critical in teasing out unexpectedly powerful lines.
* Glad I didn't abandon this volume: the CYMBELINE introduction is informative and measured, describing both sources and the formal/generic context, offering critical excerpts from major writers (Hazlitt, Shaw), and profitably shifting attention from dramatic structure to poetic matters.
* Gladder still: the WINTER'S TALE introduction is judicious enough to undo all the folly of its MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

Fall 2003. Undergraduate textbook. Stellar.

Although I've read MOST of this anthology, I cannot honestly say that I've the whole thing.

But, almost all.

Henry VI, Parts I, II, & III, quite frankly were too daunting. They became laborious which was exactly the OPPOSITE experience of the rest of the plays, sonnets, and scholarship in this wonderful compilation.