Rating: 
Summary: Good, portable edition
Review: A colleague advised that I assign my college students this edition, and I am glad she did. Rather than reading the few anthologized works together with some handouts, students now own the entire set. For anyone not familiar with Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, this gives an affordable and portable version. For anyone familiar with the works, this book offers them in a beautifully light, compressed format that itself enhances rereading and re-interpretation. The book begins with a helpful one-page background on the sonnet form and on Shakespeare's collection, and ends with an also-helpful alphabetical list of first lines. The two-page glossary of terms at the end may be too little, too late, but the drawbacks of Dover's edition--its lack of notes and its use of roman numerals to number the poems--pale compared with the book's availability. As an enthusiast myself--someone who studied at the Shakespeare Institute, England, writing a 310-page thesis on the Bard--I feel grateful to be able to help others to such an inexpensive and pleasant way to own and explore Shakespeare's entire collection of sonnets. Because I could skim the poems in sequence so quickly and easily with this edition, the interrelationships among Sonnets 113, 114, 115, and the famous 116, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds," for example, struck me in a new way as I reread them in this little book. A highly- recommended edition.
Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare, what more can I say
Review: Although I had read a number of Shakespeare's sonnets in both high school and college, I did not know I would find so much satisfaction out of his complete sonnets. The beloved of Shakespeare is truly preserved through each of these tightly constructed poems. I think this is a must read for young and old alike as the themes, symbols, and ideas encapsulated in these sonnets have guided the course of the Enlgish Langauge as we know it. Profound.
Rating:
Summary: I have nothing fo add
Review: I am not a native english speaker, but through Shakespeare's I have become one. For Sure.
Rating: 
Summary: Left me lost - till I got a better edition
Review: My English major friends kept raving about the sonnets, so I finally decided to spend a buck to get this least expensive edition. It was kind of interesting. I could tell that Shakespeare was really intense about his issues - but I was lost as to why everybody was so crazy about them. I also did not like having paper that was so thin that my highlighting and notes went right through to ruin the other side of the page :(Finally I spent another buck to get an (almost as inexpensive) edition (used) - the Signet edition edited by Burto. That helped a lot - with definitions of terms and hints about lots of secret relationships possibly there for those who would dig further. At last I'm starting to figure out why this guy is considered so awesome. To really get an appreciation of Shake's heart and mind, beginners like me really need more than just the poems. Now I'm borrowing an English major's copy of Dr. Vendler's edition (Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets). It's pretty heady, so I'm just trying to read her introduction. Whew! I haven't tested out all her theories, but is so much incredible care and complexity going on behind the scenes in these poems - it's no wonder people are still boggled after 400 years. Truly amazing - but unless you're an English major I wouldn't recommend bothering with this doubtful dollar deed. Getting a copy of the Signet or Folger Library editions will make beginners much happier.
Rating:
Summary: Left me lost - till I got a better edition
Review: My English major friends kept raving about the sonnets, so I finally decided to spend a buck to get this least expensive edition. It was kind of interesting. I could tell that Shakespeare was really intense about his issues - but I was lost as to why everybody was so crazy about them. I also did not like having paper that was so thin that my highlighting and notes went right through to ruin the other side of the page :( Finally I spent another buck to get an (almost as inexpensive) edition (used) - the Signet edition edited by Burto. That helped a lot - with definitions of terms and hints about lots of secret relationships possibly there for those who would dig further. At last I'm starting to figure out why this guy is considered so awesome. To really get an appreciation of Shake's heart and mind, beginners like me really need more than just the poems. Now I'm borrowing an English major's copy of Dr. Vendler's edition (Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets). It's pretty heady, so I'm just trying to read her introduction. Whew! I haven't tested out all her theories, but is so much incredible care and complexity going on behind the scenes in these poems - it's no wonder people are still boggled after 400 years. Truly amazing - but unless you're an English major I wouldn't recommend bothering with this doubtful dollar deed. Getting a copy of the Signet or Folger Library editions will make beginners much happier.
Rating: 
Summary: This gives frustration rather than savings
Review: Not one of America's best gifts to England :( - -
A couple bucks more for the Signet or Folger editions will help you so much more to appreciate our Bard. (or... if you're a Brit, the "New Penguin" edition is a great way to go).
Like Steve says, you'll get NO help (or love) from this *thrift* edition.
Rating:
Summary: This gives frustration rather than savings
Review: Not one of America's best gifts to England :( - -
A couple bucks more for the Signet or Folger editions will help you so much more to appreciate our Bard. (or... if you're a Brit, the "New Penguin" edition is a great way to go).
Like Steve says, you'll get NO help (or love) from this *thrift* edition.
Rating:
Summary: Sonnet editions VARY so greatly in quality
Review: Shakespeare? Not all that bears his name deserves it. No longer alive to protect it, "Shakespeare" may be claimed by any publisher wishing to boost sales through a (...) edition. From Dover, for example, we have: Paper that is (...) newsprint. Editing that is unreliable and anonymous. A complete blank where we need annotation with definitions of Elizabethan words. A sure way to dash a new student's appreciation for Shakespeare. You won't spend much on a Dover edition, but 100% (okay: 99%) of it will be wasted. For more thorough suggestions on finding a REWARDING edition of the Bard's great love poetry, see the comparative review at the BN edition of the sonnets: ISBN 088029941X You owe it to any thoughtful mind, to any open heart... to offer a taste of the grandeur of Shakespeare's Sonnets. There ARE wonderful editions in print to begin the feast. Unfortunately, even more numerous are the disappointing travesties that have been attractively bound and foisted on unsuspecting newcomers to Shakespeare. Caveat emptor. NOTE: Because of Amazon(.com)'s way of linking reviews, it is difficult to know to which edition the reviewers below (if not providing an ISBN) refer.
Rating: 
Summary: Perfect - if you want only the bare bones
Review: The Dover Thrift Edition of the Complete Sonnets is exactly that: the complete sonnets, and nothing more. Though often scorned by literary snobs, the entire Dover series does fulfill one very useful function: it provides cheap, easy-to-read, and widely-available versions of literary classics. What you get, in this case, are all of Shakespeare's sonnets (undisputably some of the greatest poems ever written and a true treasure of English literature; obviously, a review of any edition of these poems will inevitably focus not upon the work itself, which is beyond repute, but, rather, on the individual edition as presented) -- and nothing else. Much more expansive (and expensive) versions are available, featuring an introduction to the sonnets with background information, notes and annotations, a handy list of definitions for archaic and obscure Elizabethian words -- and, more than likely, at least one pretentious individual interpretation of the work. Obviously, if one is looking to study Shakespeare, really go in-depth into the sonnets for scholarly or academic purposes, then one should look into one of the editions just described. If you just want a copy of the sonnets without desiring to spend too much money, you don't need or don't want all of those extras, or you simply want to impress incredulous people by owning a set of Shakespeare's sonnets, however, then you could do worse than picking up this inexpensive little book.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect!
Review: The perfect pocket edition of Mr. Shakespeare's sonnets! Of course, if you are wondering what they mean, and all that, you will have to get yourself familiar with Rowse's edition of the sonnets: A. L. Rowse: Shakespeare's Sonnets. But once you know who the principal characters are -- Henry Wriothesley, the young Earl of Southampton, Christopher Marlowe, and Emilia Lanier -- plus young Will Shakespeare himself -- then the Dover will do fine for you and yours. After all, this is exactly the book you could have bought on its first day of publication, four centuries ago!! :-) ttfn jimmy
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