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William Shakespeare: The Complete Works

william shakespeare

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Definitive, comprehensive, and handsome edition presents every one of Shakespeare's great plays-the Comedies, Tragedies and Histories-plus his poems and, of course, the Sonnets. All in one beautifully illustrated volume. B&W illustrations throughout. 1248 pages.

1248 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1,1623

This edition

Format
1248 pages, Hardcover
Published
October 13, 1991 by Gramercy
ISBN
ASIN
B0DSY5XGKQ
Language
English
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william shakespeare

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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, 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".

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bricolo101
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Update: Seven plays into my current spree, I'm going to have to put this on hold due to a lack of time. I've now read 17 total- my most severe weakness is the histories (have only read Richard III and Henry IV). When I come back to this project, I think that I will be reading those in order.

1st: Macbeth (finished-review posted)
2nd: Two Gentlemen of Verona (finished-review posted)
3rd: King Lear (finished-review posted)
4th: Merchant of Venice (finished-review posted)
5th: Othello (finished-review posted)
6th: Comedy of Errors (finished-review posted)
7th: Antony and Cleopatra (finished)

Original Post: I've been thinking about doing this for awhile, but as it is Shakespeare's birthday, I've decided that now is the time to start this project. I want to read everything, starting with the plays I haven't read in awhile, or at all, and moving to the ones I'm more familiar with. I'll post individual reviews as I go through.

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K-Lye
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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As of today I have read all that shakespeare ever wrote! I couldn’t have done it without you Goodreads OOMFs.
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Paradise266
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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. I've been watching the old BBC An Age of Kings. For those who don't know, this is an old BBC series of Shakespeare's history cycle from Richard II though to Richard III. It has a young Sean Connery as Hotspur and Tom Hardy as Henry V. Judi Dench is there as is Angela Baddley (Mrs. Bridges from Upstairs, Downstairs. It got me thinking about the timeless of Shakespeare.
Why does everyone on the planet read Shakespeare? Why does the Bard's work appear on stage, in film, on television? Why does his work inspire other stories? Why can his work be placed in almost any context and still be good (okay, Julius Caesar set in Panama didn't work, but that was the smoky cap guns).

Perhaps the answer to the above questions is that Stratford-Upon-Avon needed a good tourist draw. No, of course not. It is because Shakespeare is da bomb.

There is something for everyone in Shakespeare. There is love in R&J or any of the comedies. There is murder in several plays. There is family relationships constantly being examined such as in Lear and Hamlet. There are thousands, if not millions, of dirty jokes. And don't forget the sonnet that is only about sex. Shakespeare was a beautiful poet who had a really perverted sense of humor sometimes. I half agree with one of my professors, Titus just might be Shakespeare's attempt at comedy, trying to mock the revenge tradition. It does, as the Reduced Shakespeare Company has shown, make a really good cooking show.

I personally find the less well known plays to be the better ones. I love Tony and Cleo. I love Much Ado. Even King John has its high points It is in lesser known plays that the average reader can discover gems. It’s true that Hamlet and the other big plays are wonderful, brilliant, but the reader should also play attention to the others, the ones that haven’t been talked to death. Because it is in those, that in many ways, the reader can reach Shakespeare. If you know what I mean.

It’s true that the Bard has had some misses. I don’t think anyone truly, really knows what he was doing with Trolius and Cressida, though I have a soft spot for that play. I read The Phoenix and the Turtle but can’t remember it very well.

But Shakespeare is still da bomb.

The important thing to remember about Shakespeare is that he wasn't meant to be read, but meant to be seen, to be heard. The plays work best when they come off the page, either though performance or simply reading aloud. It also helps to have a working knowledge of the Bible and mythology.
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irlfutabasakura
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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At some point, I simply had to invest in The Complete works. It didn't make sense to go on collecting mismatched editions of Shakespeare's plays!
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Klabautermann
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April 16,2025
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I strongly believe that Shakespeare is not really meant to be read, but experienced as a live production! As a compromise, I followed along with the text of each play while simultaneously watching recorded versions of performances on YouTube (Side note: thank goodness so many excellent renditions are available to watch for free online!) It’s incredible how Shakespeare can be adapted, and how uniquely creative different versions of the same play can be. It never ceases to amaze me how talented actors can breathe so many varying interpretations of feeling into a single line on the page.

Now, when it comes to the bard himself, obviously, he’s simply unmatched. The way Shakespeare played with words is truly awe-inspiring. No one can craft a sick burn or a witty double entendre like he did. His characters can go from making dick jokes to delivering profound insight into the meaning of life and human relationships, all within the same scene. UGH how can you not LOVE Shakespeare!?!

My favorite plays are Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, and Othello. Here are some of my favorite lines from various plays:

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” -The Tempest

“O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that hath such people in’t!” -The Tempest

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” - Measure for Measure

“O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace!” -Much Ado About Nothing

“I pray thee now, tell me, for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me? For which of my good parts did you first suffer love for me?” -Much Ado About Nothing

“The course of true love never did run smooth.” -A Midsummer Night’s Dream

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts.” - As You Like It

“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie.” -All’s Well That Ends Well

“For where thou art, there is the world itself, with every several pleasure in the world, and where thou art not, desolation.” -King Henry VI (2nd Part)

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” -Julius Caesar

“Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” - Macbeth

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” -Hamlet

“What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculty. In form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an Angel, in apprehension how like a god. The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals. And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor Woman neither; though by your smiling you seem to say so.” -Hamlet

“Virtue! a fig! ’tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners.” -Othello

“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove. O no, it is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken.” -the Sonnets
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