The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works [Paperback]

William Shakespeare (Author), Richard Proudfoot (Editor), Ann Thompson (Editor), David Scott Kastan (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 2001

The Complete Arden Shakespeare contains the texts of all Shakespeare's plays and poems, edited by leading Shakespeare scholars for the renowned Arden Shakespeare series. This edition includes eight newly revised playtexts as published in the Arden Third Series since 1998.

 

A general introduction by the three General Editors of the Arden Shakespeare Third Series gives the reader an overall view of how and why Shakespeare has become such an influential cultural icon, and how perceptions of his work have changed in the intervening four centuries. The introduction summarizes the known facts about the dramatist's life, his reading and use of sources, and the nature of theatrical performance during his lifetime.

 

Brief introductions to each play, written specially for this volume by the Arden General Editors, discuss the date and contemporary context of the play, its position within Shakespeare's oeuvre, and its subsequent performance history. An extensive glossary with nearly 400 entries explains vocabulary which may be unfamiliar to modern readers.

 

 

 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

General Editors' Preface

Introduction

Shakespeare's Sonnets

A Lover's Complaint

Venus and Adonis

Lucrece

The Passionate Pilgrim

"The Phoenix and Turtle"

All's Well That Ends Well

Antony and Cleopatra

As You Like It

The Comedy of Errors

Coriolanus

Cymbeline

Hamlet

Julius Caesar

King Henry IV, Part 1

King Henry IV, Part 2

King Henry V

King Henry VI, Part 1

King Henry VI, Part 2

King Henry VI, Part 3

King Henry VIII

King John

King Lear

King Richard II

King Richard III

Love's Labour's Lost

Macbeth

Measure for Measure

The Merchant of Venice

The Merry Wives of Windsor

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Much Ado About Nothing

Othello

Pericles

Romeo and Juliet

The Taming of the Shrew

The Tempest

Timon of Athens

Titus Andronicus

Troilus and Cressida

Twelfth Night

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Two Noble Kinsmen

The Winter's Tale

Bibliography

Index of first lines of sonnets

Index of first lines of songs

Glossary

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Proudfoot is Emeritus Professor and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of English Studies in the University of London. He is the author of Shakespeare: Text, Stage, and Cannon and numerous essays on Shakespeare. He is a general editor of the Arden Shakespeare.

Ann Thompson is Professor of English Language and Literature and Head of the School of Humanities at King's College London. She has edited Hamlet for Arden and The Taming of the Shrew for Cambridge University Press. Her other publications include Shakespeare's Chaucer, Shakespeare, Meaning and Metaphor (with John O. Thompson), and Women Reading Shakespeare, 1660-1900 (with Sasha Roberts). She has also published widely on editing Shakespeare and Shakespeare's language. She is one of the general editors of the Arden Shakespeare.

David Scott Kastan is the Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, New York. His publications include Shakespeare and the Book, Shakespeare after Theory, and Shakespeare and the Shapes of Time. In addition, he has edited A Companion to Shakespeare, A New History of Early English Drama (with John Cox), and Staging the Renaissance (with Peter Stallybrass). He is one of the general editors of the Arden Shakespeare.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1360 pages
• Publisher: Arden Shakespeare; 1st edition (July 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1903436613
• ISBN-13: 978-1903436615
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7.3 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #323,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing in his community. William probably went to the King's New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy, Hamnet ( who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith, were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers." Shakespeare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later under James I, called the King's Men). In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain's Men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare's plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. In 1611 or 1612 he gave up his lodgings in London and devoted more and more time to retirement in Stratford, though he continued writing such plays as The Tempest and Henry VII until about 1613. He died on April 23 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. No collected edition of his plays was published during his life-time, but in 1623 two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell, put together the great collection now called the First Folio.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, but inconvenient, November 15, 2005

By 

Jim Blackie "jblackie" (Northern Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works (Paperback)

After discovering to my horror that my carefully boxed volumes of the Temple Shakespeare had gone to mold and stain, I sat around for a year or more with nothing but one of these "club" books printed on onion skin paper, with teeny-tiny print and nothing but "some" (?) editorial version of the plays. I needed to get my hands on something to use, something convenient, not expensive and all inclusive. The Arden Trade paperback edition was my first choice due to the respect generated by this edition and editors. Also, as it was not a hardcover, I envisioned myself happily schlepping it about with me on the subway, on the plane or train.... This was not to be.

1) The volume is HUGE and heavy and too unwieldy - trying to make notes or highlight this while moving about in public transportation is impossible.

2) As noted elsewhere, if an unfamiliar or forgotten archaic word pops up, you need to put your finger in your place, flop over to the back of the book (somewhere) to the glossary and hope the definition is there. There are NO footnotes; therefore, no on-the-go interpretation or editorial explanation of the line/word.

3) The essays and editorial intros are okay, but not as valuable or lengthy/specific as I've found in the Pelican/Penguin individually published volumes - one play, one volume.

If you're intending to use this for purposes I've described and are not such a Shakespearean scholar that you still need help from time to time with an explanatory note or definition, then stay away from this one and get the singles. I now have 4 collections of Complete Works, still searching for the "perfect" one. Riverside is closest to perfect, I love my very old Signet edited by Barnet and keep it at work for lunch hour browsing/reading. I have the Bevington 4th edition on order (I buy most stuff used at the Amazon marketplace and their competitors or I'd be broke) based on word of mouth.

But still-- day to day, I use the Pelican single play copies and mark the heck out of them without worrying about reducing their worth by this practice. Your call.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for Teaching, November 8, 2007

By 

Glenn Odom (Grinnell, IA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works (Paperback)

I have taught several Shakespeare classes with several different texts. In the interest of my student's pocket-books I chose this complete works. The lack of editorial notes makes it unusable in class. I am also surprised by the decision to alphabetize the plays rather than arrange by date of composition (or presumed date of composition.)This is a sturdy volume, for a paperback, which is a mark in its favor, but the Riverside will be my edition of choice in all future classes.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Incomplete Works, March 16, 2009

By 

Shakes Lady Sarah (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works (Paperback)

As an actress, I often use the individual Arden play texts. The footnotes are numbered as such and touch on not only definitions, but expressions, historical figures, and locations. These appear at the bottom of the page where the word or phrase appears. This "in-complete works" lacks these. It contains only definitions in a glossary at the back of the book. Not helpful in the world of acting and even less so as a teaching reference. Very disappointing.