Shakespeare (Arden Shakespeare Complete Works)

Rating:
Summary: Fine as a reference
Review: Arden's edition of Shakespeare's works is an essential item in everyone's shelter. It's a great buy (for a carefully sought edition), but it lacks the critical discussion of the single-play edition.

Rating:
Summary: To air is human; To forgive is folly
Review: Haven't figured out a classy way to tell someone that they get on your nerves? Want to make a big impression in a heated one on one dispute? Well, this is the book for you. Potent, sarcastic yet classic quotes taken from Shakespearean plays are compiled in this tiny book. Whether you tuck this small treasure in your desk at work or place it on the nightstand at home, you must use it. You will definitely have the upper hand in your next verbal battle with the enemy. Be offensive with style!

Rating:
Summary: Easiest Complete Shakespeare To Really Use
Review: I love this book. Having said that, let me tell you what you'll get, and what you won't. This is a good time for Shakespeare scholarship and Arden, Cambridge, Oxford, and others are doing wonders at giving us the best editions of the plays we've ever had. This is no mean feat considering we have nothing in Shakespeare's hand or editorship to give us hints of what he wanted the final version of these works to be. If you know anything about how theatre of that period was done, it's surprising anything came down to us. Pretty much any modern edition will give you the latest in the usual stable of plays. What sets apart the editions is their inclusion of two works: Two Noble Kinsmen (co-authored with Fletcher) and King Edward III. TNK is usually included in modern editions as it is in this one, for the most part accepted into the Shakespeare canon. Its provenance is fairly well understood now. KE3, on the other hand, has some provenance difficulties. But, the modern scholars of Cambridge and Oxford, I read, have accepted it. Those are very heady recommendations. Arden, I saw somewhere, is said to have also accepted it into the canon. But alas, KE3 is not in this volume. In fact, the only KE3 published that I know is a paperback in the New Cambridge series, and a good one it is. I haven't seen an Oxford edition yet. As for the rest, this book is a handsome paperback, fits easily on your lap and lays open nicely. The text is probably 10pt, but nicely spaced and easy to read. The characters' speeches are nicely separated. It's the edition I use for reading my Shakespeare. I use the Pelican paperbacks when I'm learning lines for my next role. I always hope somebody will use the new Oxford "theatrical" versions for performance, but nobody has offered me a role with it yet. Most I work with use the Cambridge editions for performance. Go figure. You won't go wrong with any that I've mentioned. But if you want one book with everything except KE3, I like this one best. The only other thing to know about this book is that the excellent Arden introductions in the individual play paperback editions are not included here. You get good, but very brief one-page introductions. If you need more, get the single play paperback for just the play you need.