Customer Reviews

The Complete Pelican Shakespeare

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The two reviews below (as of this posting) are so complete and useful that I won't bother repeating what they've so articulately said. Both of them, however, express disappointment with the paucity of introductory material in the Pelican. Initially, I agreed with them. After the fullness of biography and background in the previous edition--not to mention the wonderful illustrations of the Globe by C. Walter Hodge--the cursory intros in the new Pelican took me as rather much of a letdown. (And why weren't the brief essays signed?) Part of the fun of any new Shakespeare, after all, is in the editorial bells and whistles!

On further thought and reading, however, I've changed my mind. The introductions to the individual plays and poetry continue to be full, thoughtful, and elegant (especially John Hollander's essay on the sonnets), and the annotations are clear and well-placed. The brief essays at the beginning of the volume provide only the essential background that the individual intros really can't. In that context, their "just the facts, ma'm" approach is refreshing and bound to be less intimidating to the first-time reader. I mean, how many students have been put off Shakespeare by the lengthiness and detail of preferatory material? Don't all the bells and whistles of other volumes imply to the fearful that one has to become a scholar simply to enjoy the show? One does need help, of course, but not a scholastic cloud. (The Norton is especially horrifying in this vein; woe to the 101 student whose instructor has chosen this for the class.)

The new Pelican does seem somehow "thinner" than its predecessor--but we might just as well say "sleeker." This is still by far the friendliest one-volume Shakespeare out there. In twenty years, this will be just as beloved as the first edition!

Like many English majors in the sixties, I grew up reading this edition. The old one had a distinguished roster of editors and was pleasant to hold and read. In the latter category this new edition is a noble successor: clear type, full names of characters (no more "1 Serv."), and notes indicated by line numbers. This new edition fails however in its skimpy (9 pages!) of introductory matter and a masthead of editors who are fairly obscure. Still, I would award the plume to this volume for the first-time reader who wants a complete Shakespeare. The pleasant appearance that I mentioned above is important--we want a volume easy to handle and read. The editing is conservative and non-controversial (no more of the Oxford/Norton kinky titles--"The First Part of the Contention," sheesh--that's Henry VI, Part 2 to us plebians). And it's not as bulky as the power-lifter's Riverside and other editions. To sum up: if you have in your family or acquaintance a budding Shakespearean, this is still the one to buy. Seeing this book in the shop was like greeting an old friend. I look forward to hundreds of wonderful hours with it.

The Pelican Shakespeare is oftentimes overlooked in a very crowded field of complete Shakespeare editions. It faces stiff competition from the likes of Norton (who have more or less monopolized all of literature for college students these days), Bevington, and Riverside. I own all three, but I find myself coming back to Pelican.

At first look, one can definately see why a past reviewer calls The New Pelican Shakespeare "sleeker." It is considerably more compact than the aforementioned heavyweights, and more brief compared even to the first edition. The paperback release, in particular, is ideal for students who need an edition to carry to class (it weighs less than a standard textbook).

The reason for this is that, unlike Norton in particular, the annotations throughout the text itself is relatively light. This is pretty refreshing when you just want to get to the plays. The quality of these notes is exemplary. They are cohesive, unassuming, and enlightening. As with the Bevington, line numbers are marked where there is an accompanying footnote - something that saves the reader from having to count between markings and from wondering whether there is any footnote at all for the present line. Also, general introductory material (a biography of Shakespeare, an essay on Elizabethan theatre, and an essay on the text of his plays) is kept to a bare minimum. These brief essays amount to less than ten pages. This is pretty modest compared to the likes of Riverside or Bevington. I'm not too fond of humongous all-encompassing introductions, and professors usually suppliment the reading with an external book instead: something like Russ MacDonald's "Bedford Companion to Shakespeare" for English students or Michael York and Adrian Brine's "A Shakespearean Actor Prepares" for theatre students.

I was actually taken aback by how much revision was done to the original Pelican Shakespeare - in fact, just about everything here is new: new introductions, new annotations, and even newly constructed texts themselves. (Example: In the first edition, Juliet's line in Act II: Scene 2 of "Romeo and Juliet" reads: "That which we call a rose, by any other name..." The new edition reads "That which we call a rose by any other word..." Both editions, though, include footnotes indicating the variance.) I do kind of miss the old first edition (edited by Alfred Harbage). It was a formidible, scholarly, and easy-to-use edition. In particular I will miss it's introductions to each individual play. The introductions here are by no means inferior - they are eloquent, informative, and well-researched. I may have just become attached to the more stately essays in the previous edition.

The texts themselves are authoritative, conservatively edited and beautifully presented - standard modern spelling, readable and clear typeface in two columns. "King Lear" is here in three versions. The 1608 Quarto and 1623 Folio texts are presented in columns juxtaposed side-by-side (makes for convenient comparison), followed by a conflated text (the one from the old Harbage edition, slightly edited) that combines the best of both worlds. Ample black-and-white illustrations (as well as attractive fascimiles of the first few pages of the First Folio and Quartos) compliment the edition. Overall, the Pelican Shakespeare is an edition designed with the everyday reader in mind. Students will find it a streamlined, well-designed edition for serious study.

Scholarly, attractive and easy on the eyes, the New Complete Pelican Shakespeare is a delightful entry into the crowded field of mammoth Shakespearean texts. As a teacher, the things I like most about this new edition are the insightful introductions to each of the individual works and the clear, readable text. It has the most attractive page of any of the major Shakespeare tomes.

However, the general introduction at the beginning of the text is only fair compared with for example, the Norton Shakespeare. The Norton is much more complete for newcomers to the Bard, while the Pelican is more streamlined and attractive to the experienced reader. The footnotes are good and the method of indicating which line has a footnote is much better than Norton's (which is intrusive) or the Riverside's (which has none).

The binding of the book is better than Bevington's or Riverside's and the paper is much stronger and denser than Norton's. Overall this is the toughest book of the major editions, which counts for something when you shell out so much money for a really big book.

The text of this edition is good: better than Norton's (Oxford's) quirky text, but not so good as Riverside's grand text. Riverside's is not so modernized as the Pelican's and gives the reader a better flavor of Elizabethan speech and idioms.

Both Bevington's and Norton's have attractive color photo sections and copious addenda that the Pelican and Norton Shakespeare fall short of. The Norton is better than the Pelican in this respect, but the Pelican is decidedly brief. If you like near encyclopedic information on Shakespeare's life, criticism, theater, etc., Riverside or Bevington is best.

My favorite one volume Shakespeare is the Riverside Shakespeare, however, because, beside having in my opinion the best text, it also provides ample space in the margin to take notes. No other annotated edition (Norton, Bevington, Pelican) does this. To a teacher this is a tremendous bonus. My Riverside Shakespeare is completely marked up with notes that mean a great deal to me and wouldn't fit in any other edition.

Scholarly, attractive and easy on the eyes, the New Complete Pelican Shakespeare is a delightful entry into the crowded field of mammoth Shakespearean texts. As a teacher, the things I like most about this new edition are the insightful introductions to each of the individual works and the clear, readable text. It has the most attractive page of any of the major Shakespeare tomes.

However, the general introduction at the beginning of the text is only fair compared with for example, the Norton Shakespeare. The Norton is much more complete for newcomers to the Bard, while the Pelican is more streamlined and attractive to the experienced reader. The footnotes are good and the method of indicating which line has a footnote is much better than Norton's (which is intrusive) or the Riverside's (which has none).

The binding of the book is better than Bevington's or Riverside's and the paper is much stronger and denser than Norton's. Overall this is the toughest book of the major editions, which counts for something when you shell out so much money for a really big book.

The text of this edition is good: better than Norton's (Oxford's) quirky text, but not so good as Riverside's grand text. Riverside's is not so modernized as the Pelican's and gives the reader a better flavor of Elizabethan speech and idioms.

Both Bevington's and Norton's have attractive color photo sections and copious addenda that the Pelican and Norton Shakespeare fall short of. The Norton is better than the Pelican in this respect, but the Pelican is decidedly brief. If you like near encyclopedic information on Shakespeare's life, criticism, theater, etc., Riverside or Bevington is best.

My favorite one volume Shakespeare is the Riverside Shakespeare, however, because, besides having in my opinion the best text, it also provides ample space in the margin to take notes. No other annotated edition (Norton, Bevington, Pelican) does this. To a teacher this is a tremendous bonus. My Riverside Shakespeare is completely marked up with notes that mean a great deal to me and wouldn't fit in any other edition.

The Complete Pelican Shakespeare is a very informative and most convenient edition for Shakespeare's complete works. The introduction for each play is brief enough to provide guidance without unduly delaying the reader's forage for the substance of the main text. The footnotes are kept minimum yet adequate to shed light on difficult words and passages. The Appendix or Notes on the Text (or Texts) for individual plays are quite useful. Furthermore, the quality of the pepar and binding also makes this edition attractive. It is an excellent edition for Shakespeare's fans who like to tuck a light copy of the complete works in the bag when travelling.

THE COMPLETE PELICAN SHAKESPEARE is quite good at what it does. It presents all of Shakespeare's plays, sonnets, and poems. Each play is preceded by a well-written introduction that attempts to analyze that play in terms of its major themes and to place it in an historical literary context. I found the frequent line numbers useful in that I could easily look up lines that in other editions might leave me counting up or down from a target line number. However, this edition is less useful for a serious student who needs a text that includes more than what this one does. This text does begin with a consideration of Shakespeare's Theatrical World, and in terms of getting background information on Shakespeare, his style, and overviews of his tragedies, comedies, and histories, these are sadly lacking. The COMPLETE SIGNET CLASSIC SHAKESPEARE (1971) includes all that this one does and adds the following: relevant biographical data, WS's theater and actors, the dramatic predecessors, style and structure, the 'Elizabethan World Picture,' and detailed overviews of his histories, comedies, and tragedies. THE COMPLETE PELICAN SHAKESPEARE is a useful and attractive text for a casual reading, but if one wishes to delve into areas where Pelicans fear to tread, then I recommend the Signet.

I have several complete Shakespeare editions, and the Pelican stands out as the most readable I own. The book is, of course, large and thick, but the paper is not see-through, and the type is large enough for those of us with aging eyes. The text is in two columns with footnotes at the bottom of each column, making it easy to skip from words to notes and back again.

Best of all, as an owner of the Arkangel Shakespeare on CD, the Pelican is the text they use for these recordings, so following the text in print when listening to those excellent audio versions is perfect with this edition. While there is not a lot of critical apparatus - any Shakesperean worth his or her salt already has several books analyzing the plays - this volume offers a great readability for its cost. A must-have.

I have owned other collections with print too small for me to read now, but this one I can manage in good light. I like the way this is organized, and the commentaries are wonderful, making Shakespeare's works accessible even to the non-scholar that I am. I have enjoyed memorizing Hamlet's "To be or not to be...", and my 14 year old son is having fun with me. To have all these plays and other writings together in a single book that I can hold without much difficulty is a joy. Thanks to Pelican, and thanks to Shakespeare for his precious wisdom and stamina!

This book contains the best introduction of any complete work I have ever read. Not only do the publishers include the standard biographical information on Willy - that's slang for Shakespeare folks - but they throw in a lot of interesting extras; for example: reprints of the posters which Willy himself used to advertise his plays and detailed information about the theatres of the time.

For serious collectors - who do not concern themselves with such trivial matters - the edition is printed on archival quality paper, contains excellent footnotes and a quality binding. You should be able to pass this one on to your great grandchildren.

It's a little expensive, but trust me on this one folks, you get what you pay for and then some!