There's special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.

If readiness be all, then this volume is a staple on any bookshelf. Ready to be opened for quick quote checks, ready to be heaved at home intruders (it's really heavy), it is useful in so many ways. It stays open on the window shelf, so the afternoon breeze can choose its special pages. Additionally, there are several sections dealing with Shakespeare's life, the Plague, Elizabethan art, and the people of the Great Poet's time.

The extras are worthwhile. For instance, Tudor London was a genuinely filthy place, but as editor G.B. Harrison makes clear, it was still beautiful in its own way. There was no smog to grime the buildings, half-timbered homes stood on narrow lanes, and the Thames was still clear. The old City was all but wiped out in the Great Fire of 1666. Maybe that's why I love having this huge volume on hand, so I can imagine olden times filled with silver tongues.

Confession: I also use this to come up with the many passwords I need for all of my online apps. That's because the bottom of each page has highlighted words and their meanings. It helps.

Book Season = Year Round (thitherward)

Finally, after a month of having this book, I finished it!

This book is divided into two parts:

1. 90% of the book is composed of plays. Of course, there are boring plays, but others were fun. There are short plays, but some are longer. Giving this book a 5-star review was not because I loved all the plays; in fact, I hated many plays. The reason I gave this book a 5-star review was because of the journey. It gave my life meaning. Every day I woke up knowing I had the task of reading and completing all of Shakespeare. It gave boredom a fun trait. About 15% of the plays are 20-29 pages long. About 30% are 40+ pages long. And the remaining 55% of the plays are 30-39 pages long.

2. The other 10% of the book is composed of poems. There is not much to say about the poetry section. All I can say is that it was short!

I really liked the adventure of Shakespeare; I enjoyed experiencing all his plays and understanding how Shakespeare wrote. While I surf through the ink, I began to imagine the world of Shakespeare, as if the characters are all acting in my head. I can imagine them clearly…

All's Well That Ends Well 5/24/2016 - 5/26/2016 ** An intelligent woman helps the king who then grants her anything in his power. She wants to marry some guy who was raised as her brother. He would rather go to war then marry her. She then follows him and tricks him into marrying her. All's well that ends well.

As You Like It 6/16/16 - 6/23/2016 *** Brothers that are dukes fight and one is banished. Brothers that are young and sons of a different duke fight and one leaves. They fall in love with girls. All ends happily. Although the end was a little sudden/easy, I found this one more enjoyable than the previous story.

The Comedy of Errors 8/3/2016 - 8/7/2016 ***
Two sets of twins are given the exact same name and then separated for years. Eventually one looks for the other and a comedy of errors occurs when everyone keeps confusing the twins. It was cute, but really, the same name?

Cymbeline, King of Britain 1/3/2017 - 1/17/2017 ***
I can't read One Hundred Years of Solitude while on the treadmill, so this will be my running book for a bit. Finished this and only about half through Solitude, so I may get another Shakespeare in. This book wasn't quite comedy although there was some silly stuff, particularly mixed identities and sneaking around in a traveling trunk. Can't be described as a tragedy as it all worked out in the end. It was enjoyable, but based on having not heard of it, probably one of the more forgettable.

Love's Labour's Lost 1/23/2017 - 1/28/2017 **
A few dudes get together and swear to study and give up women for 3 years. They forgot they were meeting some women in a few days and allow it to happen. They all fall in love instantly. There are funny parts, but also slow parts, and then the story just ends. Some of the better prose, but the story fell flat for me.

Measure by Measure 6/12/2018 - 6/13/2018 ***
Duke disguises himself to see how his replacement will act. He doesn't act very nicely. Some more tricks in the dark to make people have sex. Everything ends happy. This was a quick read, we knew the Duke was going to make everything ok in the end, but the different characters wouldn't know it, although he must have had one hell of a disguise.

The Merchant of Venice 1/31/2019 - 2/5/19 ****
I enjoyed this one, maybe it is because I haven't read any of these in a long while, or maybe it was recognizing the name and never having read it. Not too much happens. You have the mean, nasty Jew, and in the end he is outsmarted and everyone lives happily ever after. Evidently being Jewish is so terrible, your children run away. Only part I didn't like was the end when Portia announced out of the blue, that she had a letter telling Antonio that he was all good.

The Merry Wives of Windsor 2/7/19 - 2/14/19 **
This one would have made a better play than a "read." Some wives play a trick on their husbands, and almost go to far. One of their daughters marries the person she wants instead of the other people her parents want her to marry. Again, not a great read, but probably makes for a funny play.

A Midsummer Night's Dream 5/22/19 - 5/25/19 ***
This is another one where i feel i really should see the play. Not overly interesting to read but im sure the comedy would come out watching it performed.

Much Ado about Nothing 1/18/2022 (wow, I have neglected this one) - 1/20/2022 ***
A typical play from what I've been reading. Two people don't want to marry and end up marrying. Two want to marry and some silly disguises ruin the wedding, but ultimately everything works out in the end.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre 1/21/2022 - 1/25/2022 ****
I admit I had never heard of this story, but it was nice to read one with no foreknowledge. I enjoyed this story very much.

The Taming of the Shrew 6/16/2022 - 6/22/2022 **
This might be the first one to really show its age, as it is very old fashioned in its treatment of women. The play also has an "intro" that is never revisited, which seemed strange to me.

The Tempest 8/16/22 - 8/18/22 ***
Magic guy is banished, sort of gets revenge, but then forgives. Some fun quotes, including "brave new world"

Troilus and Cressida 12/20/22 - 12/27/22 **** I felt this one did not have a true ending, but this was one of the few ones I wouldn't mind seeing a play of as I felt it had an interesting story.

The Twelfth Night 12/28/22 - 1/2/23 *** Twins, mistaken identities and a love triangle. This did not approach the comedy in "a comedy of errors" but was interesting enough.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona 5/18/23-5/19/23 ** Another that may be more interesting to watch as a play than to read. I will admit there was a section where I was laughing out loud as the page described his love of the milkmaid.

The Winter's Tale 8/16/23-8/23/23 ** Jealous king causes wife/son to die from shame. Lost daughter returns and the wife comes back to life. Everyone is happy, except the dead son.

Henry IV Part 1 and 2 05/16/24 - IDK *** Evidently these are really the 2nd and 3rd book of a semi-trilogy, but nothing was hard to follow. King who rose to power has to fight to keep it. His son likes to hang with seedy characters. He joins up with his dad without much of a fuss. Falstaff is silly. In part two they win the war by a bit of deception, but oh well.

The Life of Henry the Fifth 10/31/24 - 11/19/24 *** Once more into the breach. Just tearing through these Henrys. I didn't like that a few scenes had a lot of French in them, as I don't speak French. Otherwise was fine.

The First Part of Henry VI

A proper evaluation of this new edition of Shakespeare's (probably im)Complete Works from Oxford University Press would need at least 8000 words to explain, and I am not interested in writing that. Overall, the texts are well edited in the popular way of editor's changing the texts to what they believe Shakespeare actually wrote when they believe something was misprinted in the early editions. They also add lots of notes, and some that are perhaps less helpful than they are intended to be.

I am always grateful for glosses of obscure words and phrases, and these are mostly helpful. I am less grateful for the staging notes that coexist with the glosses. Those I have read are not inaccurate, but they discourage creative thinking by directing our attention to specific explanations which may or may not be correct.

I do not like the lack of introductions. In place of these are quotes about the plays from dozens of people. At best, these can hint at interpretations but really explain nothing. A well thought out interpretative introduction puts the play in context. We can agree or disagree with it, but it is an argument about the play, and a good introduction is of great value.

I deeply objected to the inclusion of the lyric "Shall I Die?" in the 1986 edition, but here I do not mind for it is in a section of poems attributed to Shakespeare in the seventeenth-century miscellanies. Fair enough. This will be a problem when I comment on the AUTHORSHIP COMPANION. The tiny section on the lost original version of SEJANUS, HIS FALL is another matter. There is no apparent warrant for it. It is just annoying to find it there.

I do not mind the controversial choice to note Shakespeare's co-authors on several plays and it is about time that ARDEN OF FAVERSHAM and other works made it into a supposedly complete Shakespeare. On the other hand, the 1994 Second Edition of the previous version had complete texts of EDWARD III and SIR THOMAS MORE. The current edition only excerpts the Shakespearean parts of those plays. The previous was a deeply flawed edition of Shakespeare, but these excisions might be even worse.

On the other hand, this is Shakespeare!

Finally over.
Man, this was one hell of the ride.
When I first took this book, I thought I will read all the play written by Shakespear in 2 months, tops.
Little did I know it stretched over 8 months.
There were bad plays, good plays, and amazing plays, but overall Shakespeare is class of its own.

It took me with a few weeks of rest about 2 months to finish this and I enjoyed it immensely! 4.5 !

And so my hypothesis is wrong. I was going to say that my Yale Shakespeare makes Bottom's Dream look like kiddie=play. But, no. Only 1517 pages. Two column. But it is BIG. FAT and TALL and THICK. .....BUT, you'll notice that the 406 editions of the Complete Shakespeare as listed on gr have garnered a total of 45,434 Ratings & 742 Reviews. In other words, there are more people who have read ALL of Shakespeare than are dreamt of in your dreams of slender volumes. Bottom's Dream ain't so bad.....

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

This year's goal is to attempt to read all of Shakespeare's work

COMEDIES
All's Well That Ends Well 27/1/22
As You Like It 22/2/22
The Comedy of Errors
Cymbeline 1/3/22
Love's Labours Lost
Measure for Measure
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merchant of Venice 20/05/22
A Midsummer Night's Dream 18/1/22
Much Ado About Nothing 19/01/22-21/01/22
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Taming of the Shrew 20/06/22-21/06/22
The Tempest 24/04/22-25/04/22
Troilus and Cressida
Twelfth Night 5/1/22
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Winter's Tale

HISTORIES
Henry IV, part 1
Henry IV, part 2
Henry V
Henry VI, part 1
Henry VI, part 2
Henry VI, part 3
Henry VIII
King John
Richard II
Richard III

TRAGEDIES
Antony and Cleopatra 22/2/22
Coriolanus 23/2/22-28/2/22
Hamlet 4/3/22- 5/3/22
Julius Caesar
King Lear
Macbeth 08/07/22-10/07/22
Othello
Romeo and Juliet 20/05/22
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus

THE COMPLETE POEMS
154 Sonnets 09/06/22-11/06/22
A Lover's Complaint 26/1/22
The Rape of Lucrece
Venus and Adonis
A Funeral Elegy 28/1/22 (less)

W/ today's reading of "A&Cleopatra", I will no longer be able to read a Shakespearean play for the first time . Anyways, the worst of the lot: "Taming", "King John", "Titus" and "Two Gentlemen". The best: "Midsummer Night's Dream", "Macbeth", "Lear", "Richard II", "Richard III" and (of course) "Hamlet". Unexpectedly good: "Henry V", "Henry VI Part 1", "Othello", "12th Night", "Henry IV Parts 1&2".

Finally finished reading this. I don't mean that in a "thank goodness that's over" way, just that it wasn't something I could really tear through. Overall, I enjoyed it. Shakespeare is one of those, like all mortals, who has his good moments and his not-so-good moments. When he is good, he is brilliant. When he is bad, he is terrible. And there were a few I can say I did not enjoy, at all.

I'm probably inviting the Pitchfork and Torches crowd, but I have to say that I have never enjoyed Romeo and Juliet. It isn't the star-crossed lovers theme, or the feuding families, or anything really specific, simply that I have, since the first time I read it in high school, wanted to reach in to shake Juliet and smack Romeo upside the head.

I wasn't overly fond of Richard III, but much of that stems from the fact that Shakespeare and I are on opposite sides of the fence regarding the Plantagenets and the Tudors. Richard III is one of my favorites royals and he was writing plays during the reign of Elizabeth I, Henry VII's granddaughter. To some extent, politics must take precedence. Still, it's a well-written play, and I can enjoy it for that, even if I disagree with the premise.

My favorite has to be The Tempest, which I read in high school. I love the relationship between Prospero and Ariel. It just sets up a great tone and I never tire of reading it.

Poems and sonnets, there were ones I enjoyed and those I wasn't quite as fond of. Still, that's what is so great about a large body of work like this - there is something for everyone and we all can have our opinions about each and every play, poem, and sonnet.

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

COMEDIES