By reading Timon of Athens, I can now say I have read them all!!! As a theater major, it is my duty and pleasure.

Romeo and Juliet — 4 stars
A Midsummer Night’s Dream — 5 stars
King Richard II — 3 stars
The Merchant of Venice — 4 stars
King Henry IV Part One — 3 stars
Much Ado About Nothing — 5 stars
Julius Caesar — 3 stars
Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will — 4 stars
Measure For Measure — 2 stars
Othello, the Moor of Venice — 4 stars
The Winter’s Tale — 5 stars
The Tempest — 5 stars

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is acknowledged as the greatest dramatist of all time. He excels in plot, poetry and wit, and his talent encompasses the great tragedies of ‘Hamlet’, ‘King Lear’, ‘Othello’ and ‘Macbeth’ as well as the moving history plays and the comedies such as ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘As You Like It’ with their magical combination of humour, ribaldry and tenderness.

This volume presents all the plays and it also includes Shakespeare’s Sonnets, as well as his longer poems ‘Venus and Adonis’ and ‘The Rape of Lucrece’.

I have finally done it!

I am so pleased to say that I have finally finished reading The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare. I feel like I have been reading this book for years; oh wait; I have. I read the sonnets and poems really early on and then I started working on the plays. After a few plays I found myself in a reading slump so I decided to read one play each month instead. So for the last couple of years I have been reading a Shakespeare play each month and now I have read them all.

I had previously read Shakespeare in school and I have watched many films and television shows based on Shakespeare plays, so I was familiar with some of the works before I read them. Having some familiarity was a huge help while I was getting use to Shakespeare writing style. I loved reading the original work and then watching an adaptation of it. That became a kind of ritual for me each month.

I am glad that I read every play, but I will admit that I enjoyed some a lot more than others. I found I really liked the comedies, I liked the tragedies that I was already familiar with, and I liked a few of the histories. I also found that the comedies were easier to read; that probably help with my enjoyment of them.

After reading the complete works it is easy to see why Shakespeare is still so loved and respected to this day. I will definitely be reading certain plays, poems and sonnets in the future, and I am glad that I now have a better understand of William Shakespeare’s work.

The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare is a collection that everyone should try and read in their lifetime.

Geramie Kate Barker
gemsbooknook.wordpress.com

Through the soaring heights of the incredible Henriad to the stinking depths of the godawful Titus Andronicus, thirty-nine plays worth of whore-son caterpillars, bacon-fed knaves, and several hundred references to cuckold's horns, I enjoyed the vast majority of them and am now glad to have inflicted this masochistic completionist's challenge upon myself some twenty odd months ago.

Most of the plays were read from a six volume Complete Shakespeare edition edited by David Bevington with fantastic footnotes at the bottom of each page. Others were from various publishers but Bevington's notes, in my opinion, were by far the best.

Listing my individual ratings here from greatest to Andronicus, interested to see how this order may change over time while watching the BBC stage productions and any other adaptations featuring the fanciest of pant(aloon)s.


Julius Caesar ★★★★★
Macbeth ★★★★★
Henry IV (Part 1) ★★★★★
Antony and Cleopatra ★★★★★
Richard III ★★★★★
Coriolanus ★★★★★
Hamlet ★★★★★
Henry V ★★★★☆
Henry IV (Part 2) ★★★★☆
Richard II ★★★★☆

Henry VI (Part 3) ★★★★☆
Henry VI (Part 2) ★★★★☆
Henry VI (Part 1) ★★★★☆
King Lear ★★★★☆
A Midsummer Night’s Dream ★★★★☆
Twelfth Night ★★★★☆
Romeo and Juliet ★★★☆☆
As You Like It ★★★☆☆
Much Ado About Nothing ★★★☆☆
The Tempest ★★★☆☆

Love’s Labour’s Lost ★★★☆☆
Othello ★★★☆☆
The Merchant of Venice ★★★☆☆
Troilus and Cressida ★★★☆☆
The Taming of the Shrew ★★★☆☆
The Winter’s Tale ★★★☆☆
All’s Well That Ends Well ★★★☆☆
Measure for Measure ★★★☆☆
Cymbeline ★★★☆☆
Timon of Athens ★★☆☆☆

The Comedy of Errors ★★☆☆☆
The Two Gentlemen of Verona ★★☆☆☆
The Merry Wives of Windsor ★★☆☆☆
The Two Noble Kinsmen ★★☆☆☆
Henry VIII ★★☆☆☆
King John ★★☆☆☆
King Edward III ★★☆☆☆
Pericles ★★☆☆☆
Titus Andronicus ★☆☆☆☆


Some of them quite possibly would have received a higher rating if they had been penned and published by a different author: I was at times rating Shakespeare against Shakespeare. But then the plays which actually were written mostly by someone else (Fletcher, Middleton, S̶i̶r̶ ̶F̶r̶a̶n̶c̶i̶s̶ ̶B̶a̶c̶o̶n̶ various mystery men) were always worse off because of it.

Also enjoyed his narrative poems but found the sonnets to be a bit tedious. That may of course be due to having read all of them over a period of only 3 days. No doubt would've been better to have read one or two sonnets per day over the course of several months thereby torturing myself much more slowly.

This is NOT The Riverside Shakespeare, Second Edition

The Riverside Shakespeare, Second Edition was published in hardback in 1997. The first edition was published in 1974. This electronic version contains nothing but the texts of the plays from the first edition. The title page of this electronic version states, "based on the 1974 Riverside Edition." When I took a course on Shakespeare in my second year of undergrad studies in 1 985, we used the original first edition (I do not know which printing of the first edition we used. About a year ago I bought the first edition in hard copy, used and in good condition (sixth printing, with corrections and additions) for only $4.00 because all of my books were destroyed in an apartment fire in early 1986. The pages of the first edition are 10 inches tall and nearly eight inches wide, with thin (but not extremely thin) paper. It is 1,923 pages long and contains a 26 page general introduction, followed by an 18 page section titled Shakespeare's Text. That section begins with several quotes of text familiar to Shakespeare readers, such as "[m]ost readers know that MacBeth, reproached by Lady MacBeth for seeming cowardice, asserts, 'I dare doo all that may become a man; / Who dares do more is none,'" and other such examples. After four more examples, the essay states': " What most readers are not aware of, however, is that none of these familiar lines appeared in the original, basic texts in exactly the same form here quoted; in fact, each contains one or more amended words designed to restore meaning to an otherwise corrupt passage. " This section of the first edition is followed by a chronology of texts and sources. Each play has an introduction of its own introduction. The first full-length page of The Comedy of Errors contains 39 footnotes making it possible to understand the text (e.g., "making amain" means "proceeding at full speed"; "gave healthful advice" means advice saving the lives of shipwracl'd guests, etc.).
The second edition 2,057 pages long, with additional information. It is available used in good or very good condition on Amazon and through other outlets for a mere $10.00. I could not possibly understand what I am reading without those notes and all of the other helpful information, all of which is missing from this electronic version falsely advertised as the second edition.

A way for me to keep track of all the Shakespeare I have (not) read without cluttering my to-read shelf.

COMEDIES

I had read sixteen of Shakespeare's plays up to this point, but I finished the rest this month.

The Tempest:
Not one of my favorites. It was a very convoluted plot with seemingly drunken shenanigans that were hard to follow. I listened to an audio and read along, but I think this one would be much easy to follow if you watched it with props and set. There were some beautiful lines about love between Miranda and Ferdinand.

Two Gentlemen of Verona:
Neither of the main characters are gentlemen! Not at all a good way to start a Shakespeare binge. Frivolous, ridiculous, and misogynistic. The only saving grace was some of Julia's great lines about love.

Merry Wives of Windsor:
Seems like the foil of 2 Gentlemen. Women living their lives. And I like it a lot better. It is quite convoluted. It seems like the story with Anne/Slender/Caius/Fenton should be one play and Ford/Page/Falstaff should be another. Both are good, but it was a little hard to keep up with both.

Measure for Measure:
The simplest, most easy-to-follow plot of the plays I've read so far. Isabella is the strongest female character I've encountered in Shakespeare. She had strong opinions and great wit.

Comedy of Errors:
Simple but fun story. I think it has been retold so many times that it's hard to appreciate the original. What was surely a novel plot twist at the time is now a trope. I listened to an obscure audiobook production and was surprised to discover David Tennant as one of the twins. A delightful surprise.

Much Ado about Nothing:
Loved it! This is my new fav! An accurate title as not much happens, but it's a fun little story. Beatrice is awesome.

Love's Labor's Lost:
An odd one. I found it a little hard to follow and not particularly memorable.

A Midsummer Night's Dream:
One of the few I've seen performed live, but I didn't remember most of it. I remembered it being a bit absurd and it was, but that's the point. "Though she be but little, she is fierce."

Merchant of Venice:
I like the pacing of this plot. There were a few simultaneous storylines that came together well. It was weirdly anti-Semitic but had a great line about all people being equal. Another David Tennant cameo!

As You Like It:
Has the same feel as Midsummer Nights Dream with the psychedelic magic. I really like this one. It's the style of Shakespeare that I love.

Taming of the Shrew:
Loved the first act and the wittiness. There's clever dialogue throughout, but especially between Kate and Petruchio. I didn't like the ending. I wanted a better resolution than that he actually "tamed" her by starving her. Retellings are much more clever.

All's Well That Ends Well:
One of the few plays with an actual villain, though it made for a weird "happy ending." I loved Helena's pining monologues. They are so poignant.

Twelfth Night:
I get why this one is so popular. It's a little rambling, but it's just the right mix of silly and dramatic.

Winter's Tale:
The most dramatic play I've read yet. Not one of my favorites, but it's a solid dramatic tale Got a little weird at the end.


King John:
I didn't follow the plot very well (not a good omen for all the histories still to come). But there was some beautiful prose about grief. And there were lots of long monologues which were great to just let wash over me in the audiobook, appreciating the sound and feel of Shakespeare.

Richard II:
This one held my attention better than King John. I really liked the scene between King Richard and Queen Isabel after Richard is arrested and is heading to jail. Clearly I'm just a sucker for romance. But I almost cried.

King Henry IV, Part 1:
Wow, this is a slog. I zoned out a lot in this one--nothing to hold my attention. I still like listening to it and hearing it in the background, but I often found myself paying absolutely no attention.

King Henry IV, Part 2:
Didn't hold my attention. I think the histories are going to be a struggle. I did like the introduction by the narrator. Made it feel like a campfire story. There are several famous quotes in this one: "uneasy lies the head that wears the crown," "eaten me out of house and home." I also loved "commit the oldest sins in the newest kind of ways."

King Henry V:
I had to go back and read a summary of this one after reading the play. So that's what happened?! I didn't catch most of that. I liked the end with some beautiful lines by King Henry to Kate.

King Henry VI, Part 1:
Really struggling with these histories, but David Tennant as Henry VI helped. It was interesting seeing the British perspective on Joan of Arc, esp. since last year I read Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc in which he practically idolizes her.

King Henry VI, Part 2:
Plot had a lot of action. If I were going to see a history live, I think this would be the one. "Erect his statue and worship is, and make my image but an alehouse sign."

King Henry VI, Part 3:
Seemed like a bridge between the other King Henry stories and Richard III. But now I'm really excited for Richard III.

Richard III:
And that was disappointing. I know this is a cool story full of plotting and assassinations, but the telling of the events was just boring. It does (just about) end with the great line "my kingdom for a horse" so there's that. I did like the return of the prologue/epilogue.

King Henry VIII:
It left all the best parts out, undoubtably because Elizabeth was queen when it was written, so this must have ended with her birth. It also made for a simpler story than the rest. Though I like that it doesn't really cast anyone as a villain in the story. I also like the prologue and epilogue.


Troilus and Cressida:
That didn't go where I thought it would. Interesting. I thought it would go Romeo and Juliet, but ended up feeling more like Wuthering Heights. There were some fun lines, especially the bantering right at the beginning.

Coriolanus:
Meh. The pacing felt off. Not terrible, but not great. Coriolanus did make for a great anti-hero. This is obviously the namesake for Coriolanus Snow from the Hunger Games, so I'm drawing some interesting parallels.

Titus Andronicus:
Well, that was definitely a tragedy. I see why people describe this as an illustration of excess. It had the voyeuristic feel of Sweeney Todd. Or a really bad shark movie. Another reviewer counted. This play has "14 killings, 9 of them on stage, 6 severed members, 1 rape (or 2 or 3, depending on how you count), 1 live burial, 1 case of insanity and 1 of cannibalism--an average of 5.2 atrocities per act, or one for every 97 lines." And there really isn't must to add beyond that. I'm hesitant to take advice from any characters in this play, but I liked this line: Is the sun dimm'd, that gnats do fly in it? The eagle suffers little birds to sing, and is not careful what they mean thereby, knowing that with the shadow of his wings he can at pleasure stint their melody."

Romeo and Juliet:
It's the most famous for a reason. I hadn't read it in years, and it's interesting reading it in line with other Shakespeare. It's easier to follow the story because there's less stage direction, and the direction there is is more physical and simple. It also has some beautiful page-long monologues--longer than most.

Timon of Athens:
I really liked the first half but was bored by the second half. Struggled to pay attention. Seemed overly simplistic for Shakespeare. Maybe that's why it's considered unfinished.

Julius Caesar:
"Honor is the subject of my story." This reads almost like a parable. I knew the basic story--as nearly everyone does--but I didn't know the details of how Brutus was manipulated and his redemptive eulogy. It's interesting that few remember or discuss the true villain of the story. Brutus believed he was doing the will of the people.

Macbeth:
A lot happens in this book. I hadn't remembered how much of our modern witch lore comes from Macbeth. An interesting illustration of greed and overconfidence. I loved the porter's rambling monologue in the middle--lightened up a very dark story.

Hamlet:
I think I read this in high school, but I forgot just how convoluted it was. The main character is KIDNAPPED BY PIRATES and it isn't even a major plot point. It's a fun read, though. With lots of quotes, some inspirational and others comical, and many quoted (and misquoted) throughout time.

King Lear:
This one was forgettable to me. There were definitely a few scenes I really liked. I think Edgar is a great villain. His monologue on "fools by heavenly compulsion" was great. He is ruthless and analytical and excessive. Edmund's plan to keep his father from committing suicide by making him think he already jumped off a cliff was genius. But the rest was fairly forgettable.

Othello:
This was a great one to end on. It's such a beautiful tale of jealousy but told in such a simple way. Sometimes Shakespeare gets overly complex and convoluted. Othello doesn't. Also, beautiful prose. I will definitely read/watch this one again.

Antony and Cleopatra:
I struggled with this one. Too much war and battle. I know the characters are supposed to be over-the-top and dramatic, but that didn't come through for me as I was trying to follow the complicated plot.

Cymbeline:
I had never heard of this one before reading it, and it is now one of my favorites. I love the character of Imogen. There are some really fun monologues in here and the basic plot is classic Shakespeare with a fantastical plot twist that is just ridiculous enough for the story.

Pericles:
I liked it a lot. The first half was a little convoluted because we were introduced to so many characters and kingdoms at once. But the story itself, and especially the second half, was very simple and easy to keep up with. It had a very nice moral/parable feel to it. Reminded me a lot of Les Mis, actually.

Venus and Adonis:
I liked this one. The third person made it easier to follow and it's very simple. Two very simple characters. And lots of beautiful lines. My favorite: "before I know myself, seek not to know me."

Rape of Lucrece:
Well, that was about what I expected. Beautiful prose, but that made it all the creepier for the subject matter. I do like the summary at the beginning and the idea that one atrocity can spark a revolution. Also, Shakespeare's dedication at the beginning is more beautiful prose of love than most of his monologues.

Sonnets:
I didn't think I would like the Sonnets (I tend to hate poetry), but I ended up really enjoying them. The first few were tough. The first 15 or so are all telling a young man why he should have children, and as a single woman about to turn 30, that wasn't exactly what I needed to hear. Some were terrible, some were fantastic. Here are some of my favorites: 29, 40, 66, 91, 130, 131,133, 134, 143, 145, 149.

Lover's Complaint:
I like it, but I didn't love it. I found it more difficult to follow than some of the other poems, partly because of her quoting him for so much of it. But also, it seemed written in an "older" English. Love is fickle, even a stoney heart is moved by tears, but not all tears are equal. Also this line: "For thou ar’t all and all things else are thine."

Passionate Pilgrim:
Less than half of these poems are believed to really be Shakespeare and you can tell. Seemed mostly an ode to youth and young love. The rhythm was easier to find in these than the other sonnets.

Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music:
After reading so many sonnets, these completely broke cadence and didn't feel like sonnets at all. 4 is absolutely atrocious (it took me several readings to figure it out and once I did I vowed never to read it again), but 6 is absolutely gorgeous.

Phoenix and the Turtle:
Goodreads/Kindle think I'm done because I jumped around and read this in the middle. Glad I didn't save it for last. It's just random words. I looked up some summaries and interpretations of it, and apparently it's beautiful and tragic, but it's also described as "one of the vaguest poems of English literature." A disheartening way for someone to end a Shakespeare marathon. Someone might think they had a stroke!

When we reread Hamlet in 2025, J enthused about every reference to Denmark.

A bit heavy to hold in your hand, but here you have it all in one. Read most of the plays, but mostly with a Dutch translation next to it, with notes. For a review of the plays: see the individual titles.

One of the ten best books I've ever read.

I never want to have to read this entire thing cover from cover ever again. Titus Andronicus was really good though.