Complete Works of Shakespeare

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Complete Works of William Shakespeare is the standard name given to any volume containing all the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. Some editions include The Two Noble Kinsmen, a collaboration with John Fletcher, and some do not.

The Complete Works form one of the two books (the other being the Bible) "given" to guests on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, so that they cannot choose it. In their 2006/7 season the Royal Shakespeare Company committed to the performance of the Complete Works in a single year. In 1987 Adrian Hilton acquired a Guinness World Record for reciting the Complete Works non-stop, enduring 5 days without sleep.

[edit] References

• Best, Michael. Internet Shakespeare Editions, University of Victoria. (Accessed 11/29/06) http://ise.uvic.ca/

The University of Victoria is providing proofread versions of the plays and poems. For all the plays (except Pericles) they have now on site quarto and/or folio versions. They intend to provide, in addition, modern edited versions, with annotations. Right now, just three plays and one of the poems have been so provided.

• The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Fifth Edition, David Bevington, ed. Longman, 2003.

After a useful introduction, provides well-glossed, conservatively-edited versions of each play, preceded by an informative essay, and with auxiliary matter (dating, text versions, sources, etc.) in appendices. The typeface is clean and good-sized, nor is the book unwieldy.

• The Riverside Shakespeare, Heather Dubrow, William T. Liston, Charles H. Shattuck, G. Blakemore Evans, Joseph Jay Tobin, Herschel Baker, Anne Barton, Frank Kermode, Harry Levin, Hallett Smith, Marie Edel, eds. Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

Long the standard, it boasts a glittering array of editors.

[edit] See also

• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), a slapstick speeded-up version by the Reduced Shakespeare Company (1987), cramming all the familiar bits into a single performance.

[edit] External links

• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - plain vanilla text at Project Gutenberg.

	William Shakespeare and his works
General information	Biography · Style · Influence · Reputation · Religion · Sexuality · Shakespeare authorship question
Tragedies	Antony and Cleopatra · Coriolanus · Cymbeline · Hamlet · Julius Caesar · King Lear · Macbeth · Othello · Romeo and Juliet · Timon of Athens · Titus Andronicus · Troilus and Cressida
Comedies	All's Well That Ends Well · As You Like It · The Comedy of Errors · Love's Labour's Lost · Measure for Measure · The Merchant of Venice · The Merry Wives of Windsor · A Midsummer Night's Dream · Much Ado About Nothing · Pericles, Prince of Tyre · The Taming of the Shrew · The Tempest · Twelfth Night · The Two Gentlemen of Verona · The Two Noble Kinsmen · The Winter's Tale
Histories	King John · Richard II · Henry IV, Part 1 · Henry IV, Part 2 · Henry V · Henry VI, part 1 · Henry VI, part 2 · Henry VI, part 3 · Richard III · Henry VIII
Poems	Sonnets · Venus and Adonis · The Rape of Lucrece · The Passionate Pilgrim · The Phoenix and the Turtle · A Lover's Complaint
Apocrypha and lost plays	Edward III · Sir Thomas More · Cardenio (lost) · Love's Labour's Won (lost) · The Birth of Merlin · Locrine · The London Prodigal · The Puritan · The Second Maiden's Tragedy · Richard II, Part I: Thomas of Woodstock · Sir John Oldcastle · Thomas Lord Cromwell · A Yorkshire Tragedy · Fair Em · Mucedorus · The Merry Devil of Edmonton · Arden of Faversham · Edmund Ironside · Vortigern and Rowena
Other play information	Shakespeare's plays · Shakespeare in performance · Chronology of Shakespeare plays · Oxfordian chronology · Shakespeare on screen · BBC Television Shakespeare · Titles based on Shakespeare · Lists of characters A–K, L–Z · Problem plays · List of historical characters · Ghost characters