Newbie to Shakespeare

[JDW89]

Hello all, new to the forum and for the most park Shakespeare. We had to read quite a few of his works in high school though I was hardly interested and never read anything of his out of really wanting too. Can someone recommend the best way to get all of his works in one volume including the poetry? There are quite a few different publications last time I looked so I am just looking for the best one. Thanks in advance!

[Pompey Bum]

Hello JDW89 and welcome to the site. There's a free Ipad app that has all the plays and sonnets. You can also download them for free from Gutenberg or read them online here. (Whatever you do, don't get an updated language version--if you're not actually reading the poetry then why bother?). Good luck and welcome again. :)

[JDW89]

Hello JDW89 and welcome to the site. There's a free Ipad app that has all the plays and sonnets. You can also download them for free from Gutenberg or read them online here. (Whatever you do, don't get an updated language version--if you're not actually reading the poetry then why bother?). Good luck and welcome again. :)


Hello and thanks for your response! I'm glad to know a lot of it is free I would like to have a hard copy and don't mind paying a little for one, which one is best?

[Pompey Bum]

Well you'll have to ask one of the non-misers about that. Lykren is a generous-hearted intellectual. He could probably help you. And JonathanB knows a lot about Shakespeare. You may want to start a thread in the general literature forum and just ask the whole crew (or maybe folks will notice you here). People usually love to give advice on this site. Good luck!

[Clopin]

RSC complete works is quite good in my opinion. It's 3200 odd pages, single column, and has good, but not overwhelming footnotes.

[Lykren]

'Generous-hearted intellectual'! Awww, so kind, Pompey!

I like Everyman's Library Shakespeare series; the notes are footnotes, but not intrusive, and it groups the plays by genre, so you don't have to carry around one big volume. There's two volumes for tragedies, two for histories, one for romances, etc. But, it is a bit more expensive than a single volume edition.

[JDW89]

RSC complete works is quite good in my opinion. It's 3200 odd pages, single column, and has good, but not overwhelming footnotes.

I can't see this one available anywhere :(

[JDW89]

'Generous-hearted intellectual'! Awww, so kind, Pompey!

I like Everyman's Library Shakespeare series; the notes are footnotes, but not intrusive, and it groups the plays by genre, so you don't have to carry around one big volume. There's two volumes for tragedies, two for histories, one for romances, etc. But, it is a bit more expensive than a single volume edition.
Do you know how many volumes of these there are?

[Lykren]

Here's a link to buy the whole set:

http://www.everymanslibrary.co.uk/all-author.aspx?letter=S&search=&firstname=William%20&surname=Shakespeare

Looks like there are 8, which includes all the plays and poems, and the price is about 100 pounds, or 149.3 dollars.

[Jackson Richardson]

RSC complete works is quite good in my opinion. It's 3200 odd pages, single column, and has good, but not overwhelming footnotes.

As it happens I picked this up for £32 in Foyles in London on Monday. That's less than £1 per play. It's not in double columns and has annotations at the bottom of the page. It is the only complete Shakespeare with both those features that I've come across. It's cheaper paperback. Here it is on UK Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-RSC-Shakespeare-Complete-Works/dp/0230200958. And on US Amazon http://www.amazon.com/William-Shakespeare-Complete-Modern-Library-ebook/dp/B00BO4GSA2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426108972&sr=8-1&keywords=shakespeare+rasmussen

There are features I don't care for, but it is the best complete one I know. It means I can now read the plays for which I don't want to get an individual edition. I've just finished Two Gentelmen of Verona so I now know that is the original context of the phrase "To make a virtue of necessity", spoken by Third Outlaw.

(Mind you I don't see the point in A Winter's Tale of telling me Bohemia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (which didn't exist in Shakespeare's day and doesn't exist now). Far more to the point, what's it doing with a ruddy seacoast?)

For individual plays I've been buying up the Oxford Everyman editions. But the question was to do with a Complete Works (and the RSC includes the poems and Pericles and The Two Noble Kinsmen, both in smaller typeface.)

[JDW89]

As it happens I picked this up for £32 in Foyles in London on Monday. That's less than £1 per play. It's not in double columns and has annotations at the bottom of the page. [/url]

There are features I don't care for, but it is the best complete one I know. It means I can now read the plays for which I don't want to get an individual edition. I've just finished Two Gentelmen of Verona so I now know that is the original context of the phrase "To make a virtue of necessity", spoken by Third Outlaw.

(Mind you I don't see the point in A Winter's Tale of telling me Bohemia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (which didn't exist in Shakespeare's day and doesn't exist now). Far more to the point, what's it doing with a ruddy seacoast?)

For individual plays I've been buying up the Oxford Everyman editions. But the question was to do with a Complete Works (and the RSC includes the poems and Pericles and The Two Noble Kinsmen, both in smaller typeface.)

For the RSC edition you posted on the UK Amazon, that includes every play and poem? Do the footnotes end up taking up a look of you or can you easily ignore them if you decided to? I think they are important to help shed light on some of the words that we don't commonly use today but wouldn't want them to take precedence over the actual words of the play/poem. Just not sure what to go with at this point.

[Pompey Bum]

If you are at all unsure of Elizabethan English, you need good footnotes. It's just part of reading the plays. After a bit you pick it up better, but really, in the beginning it would be a mistake not to use them extensively. But what you don't want to do is to waste time with a modernized text. Shakespeare's poetry, especially his sound, is at least as important as his stories. It's what makes him unique and inimitable. I suggest you read the plays out loud (yes, out loud), stopping to check the notes every few lines. It sounds strange, but you get used to it quickly. And it's so worth it. But even if you don't read them out loud, do use the footnotes.

[JDW89]

If you are at all unsure of Elizabethan English, you need good footnotes. It's just part of reading the plays. After a bit you pick it up better, but really, in the beginning it would be a mistake not to use them extensively. But what you don't want to do is to waste time with a modernized text. Shakespeare's poetry, especially his sound, is at least as important as his stories. It's what makes him unique and inimitable. I suggest you read the plays out loud (yes, out loud), stopping to check the notes every few lines. It sounds strange, but you get used to it quickly. And it's so worth it. But even if you don't read them out loud, do use the footnotes.

Great advice, thank you!

[Clopin]

The footnotes in the RSC edition are neatly at the bottom of the page and organized by line number. I found that without exception, every time I read a word or phrase which I did not know it could be found in the footnotes in about a second. The plays are also prefixed with a brief essay which can be quite helpful if you don't have access to any other criticism.

Everyman's Classics are very attractive books, by the way, and it would definitely be less cumbersome to read the set of eight if you don't mind paying three times the price. I will probably buy the set myself eventually.

[JDW89]

Now the RSC contains all of his works, correct?

[mona amon]

The RSC Complete Works contain all his works. There are other RSC volumes, even of single plays I think, so be sure to order the right one.

[Jackson Richardson]

Pompey and clopin give excellent advice. The RSC notes explain lots of basic words (which by now I know in any case) and explains all the smutty bits. (My pure and innocent mind was quite shocked at times.)

Here it is available from the Book Depository - http://tinyurl.com/l6wkke5

[JDW89]

Can someone post some pictures of the inside of the Royal Shakespeare Company complete works? I can't find any online

[fajfall]

I'm following the opposite pay and collecting different publications of the same play to read different footnotes. All libraries have some of his plays and second-hand bookstores have them very cheap as students discard them when they're no longer needed.