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

So I started reading Shakespeare's plays in chronological order. Big mistake. Should have just started with the good stuff. Now I'm stuck in the dnf purgatory.

The two gentlemen of Verona; worst ending in the history of literature. But at least it had some comedic gems like this:

"- So, by your circumstance, you call me fool.
- So, by your circumstance, I fear you'll prove."

Golden.

Or this:

"Love is your master, for he masters you:
And he that is so yoked by a fool,
Methinks, should not be chronicled for wise."

The Taming of the Shrew came next. It bored me to death. It took me a whole week to read it, an exercise in intellectual suffering. And if anyone mentions the term "gender roles" in a comment, be warned, I will block you. Not in the mood for your woke bullshit.

I binge-read Shakespeare as research for my novel Shakespeare's Twin Sister. And this edition was particularly good for that.

Rereading Shakespeare is like playing a piece of music. The pleasure grows as you learn it, until you can watch it in your mind without looking at the words, like you can play the music without looking at the score and then can hear the music without playing it.

probably the definitive edition. Taylor's a renaissance scholar, but got his start in textual criticism, with some BCCCS-style cultural materialist influence. Prioritizes folio texts over quartos, with impressive rationale. Two Lears and inclusion of More and Edward likely piss off the conservative folks. Good times to be had by all. Annoying that much paratextual material is deferred to supplemental volume--not sure if the editors thought that the consequent derridean joke was salient or not.

Shakespeare does have some detractors--I suppose someone so highly lauded makes a big target--but he is a genuine favorite of mine. If your introduction to him in school put you off, I'd recommend you try renting one of the many fine films made of his famous plays. The text of a play is after all just a scaffolding--it's really not meant to be read, but seen. Here are a few suggestions, chosen not because they are necessarily Shakespeare's best plays, but among the most watchable film adaptations I've seen:

King Lear - there's a version with Lawrence Olivier that's superb.
Hamlet - I love the Kenneth Branagh version, but it clocks in at 4 hours. Shakespeare novices with less stamina might want to choose the ones with Gibson or Olivier in the title role instead.
Macbeth - Orson Welles and Roman Polanski both did versions I found very watchable.
Romeo and Juliet - I love the Zeffirelli version. He cast actors that were actually the right ages, and this film made me a fan of Shakespeare in my teens.
Henry V - I love both the Branagh and Olivier versions--though they're very different reads. Olivier's, done in the midst of World War II, heroic and patriotic, Branagh more cynical and dark.
Julius Caesar - try the one with a young Marlon Brando as Mark Anthony.
Much Ado About Nothing - Branagh again--but also his (then) wife Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington and Kate Breckinsale all bringing their A-game.
Taming of the Shrew - with wife/husband team of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Taylor chews the scenery--great actress she isn't--but I admit I find the film fun.

There's also a Othello with Lawrence Fishburne and a Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino I've heard great things about, but haven't gotten around to seeing myself.

Although the more you're familiar with Elizabethan language, the better you can comprehend and appreciate the plays, and there's something to be said for reading the plays quietly on your own, one after another. Eventually you get oriented to his world and language, and it comes easier. Precisely because the language and some of the literary and historical allusions are unfamiliar though, reading an annotated edition of the plays is a must. About the only play I don't like is the ridiculous Titus Andronicus. Even if Camille Paglia defends it, I think the best that could be said of it is that it's comforting to know even Shakespeare can flub it. As for Shakespeare's poetry, I do love the sonnets madly. But Shakespeare's longer poems, such as Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis? Not so much.

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.

Henry VI, Part I[return]Henry VI, Part II[return]Henry VI, Part III[return]Richard III[return]Comedy of Errors[return]Titus Andronicus[return]Taming of the Shrew[return]Two Gentlemen of Verona[return]Love's Labour's Lost[return]Romeo and Juliet[return]Richard II[return]A Midsummer Night's Dream[return]King John[return]The Merchant of Venice[return]Henry IV, Part I[return]Henry IV, Part II[return]Henry V[return]Julius Caesar[return]Much Ado About Nothing[return]As You Like It[return]Merry Wives of Windsor[return]Hamlet[return]Twelfth Night[return]Troilus and Cressida[return]All's Well That Ends Well[return]Measure for Measure[return]Othello[return]King Lear[return]Macbeth[return]Antony and Cleopatra[return]Coriolanus[return]Timon of Athens[return]Pericles[return]Cymbeline[return]The Winter's Tale[return]The Tempest[return]Henry VIII[return]The Two Noble Kinsmen[return]Edward III[return]Sir Thomas More (fragment)

Procession of Characters from Shakespeare's Plays

"The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature." ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The quote above is precisely the reason I enjoy art and literature. I always love when a story takes me on a time traveling trip back to the past like the ones in this book.

After reading it for some months, I'm now more than halfway done with the plays in it. It's been so far so good. I enjoy walking down the memory lane reading them again.

My review here will be about my experience reading Shakespeare's works all these years as well as what I think about this book as a whole by comparing it with the previous edition. Yes, this will be an ongoing review which I'll edit along the way till I'm done reading everything.

So far, my rating hasn't changed yet but we shall see.







Picture credit: Wikipedia.

Read so far:

*The Tempest
*The Two Gentlemen of Verona - 3 Stars (It's been a while seen I've read Shakespeare. Was this one easier, or had I gotten better at old-timey English?)

I listened to an audio version and good bits are some of the language and although not good representations the wider world is integral to some characters and dialogue.

Overall though not for me. Glad to have got through it all but not in a rush to do it again.

Please note, this is a review of this particular edition of the "Complete Works of William Shakespeare" from 1923. For reviews of various individual plays by Shakespeare, please see my shelves. **

This edition was published by "The Literary Press, London" on fine paper, to traditional standards, with each section sewn into the spine rather than glued. The top edge of the volume is gilt-edged. It has a soft cover with a burgundy leatherette finish, and gold lettering, plus a gold embossed design of the Shakespeare Coat of Arms.

Not many people know that William Shakespeare received a Coat of Arms from the English Government, to signify that he and his family were now a part of the upper class. Unfortunately, since he did not have a son to carry on the honour, the Coat of Arms was not carried on through the family name. Here is a copy of the Shakespeare Coat of Arms:



The motto is in medieval French: "Non sanz droict" translating to English as, "Not without right".

This volume is clearly intended to be a useful compact volume of Shakespeare's complete works. It is subtitled, Containing the Plays and Poems with special Introductory matter, Index of Characters & Glossary of unfamiliar terms. It can be held in one hand, and is comfortable to handle, considering it that it contains so many works. The frontispiece shows an engraving of "The Stratford Shakespeare":



The print, as one would expect, is quite small, but comparatively clear. The "special introductory matter" mentioned, consists of an introduction by St. John Greer Ervine, the Irish writer and critic, and an essay entitled "Shakepeare and Bacon" by the great Victorian English actor, Henry Irving.

There are also just a few double spread colour plates on glossy paper. These are all by classical painters such as the Pre-Raphaelites William Holman Hunt, and Sir John Everett Millais, and the animal artist Sir Edwin Landseer. There is also a painting by Daniel Maclise, a portrait painter and popular illustrator to Dickens's works, and one by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, who specialised in classical subjects, particularly of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire. Since there are only eight of them, they are sadly not very noticeable in a volume of over 1000 pages, but they are attractive to come across in context:



A Scene from "Twelfth Night" ('Malvolio and the Countess') - Daniel Maclise



A Scene from "Midsummer Nights Dream" ('Titania and Bottom')- Sir Edwin Landseer



A Scene from "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" ('Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus')- W. Holman Hunt

This must have been quite an attractive volume originally. It is still a nice one to have, as it presents all the works in a way which is quick to refer to. It is nicer than an average modern "Complete Shakespeare" volume, and easier to use too. It has some history, but is still not my first choice for ease of reading each individual play. However, it was my first introduction to Shakespeare, as I found it in a church jumble sale for a few pennies when I was a child. I remember the occasion well, being convinced I had found a very important work - a real bargain! It therefore has some sentimental value for me personally. I seem to remember there was a yellow-gold silken ribbon bookmark attached at the top ... but it must have got detached and lost over the years.

As today is 23rd April 2016, and the quatercentenary, (400 years) of Shakespeare's death, it seemed a good time to have a look at my oldest book by him, even though it is not yet quite a hundred years old.

**I have not read all the works in this volume. However, if you would like to read my review of a particular play by William Shakespeare, please see my shelves for these.

I believe my favorite Shakespeare play is A Winter’s Tale: Paulina, redemption, quirky weirdness and magical resurrection. Paulina is, arguably, the best character in all of his plays.