Customer Reviews

The Complete Signet Classic Shakespeare

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When you go to a bookstore to buy a good one volume edition of Shakespeare's works, you will certainly find a wide range of choices. Most people who buy one edition do so because it is that edition only that their literature professor demands. However, before you buy consider what you will need in that one edition: (a) Does it include every word Shakespeare ever wrote? Some do not. (b) Are the character's names spelled out each time? Abbreviations can be confusing. (c) Does each play contain a coherent and insightful introduction? Again some do not. (d) Are there helpful side or bottom notes? (e) Do the editors include a wide range of explanatory essays including his biography, his Globe Theater, his fellow actors, the contemporary dramatic background, his writing style, his usage of English, the intellectual background, and separate overviews of his tragedies, his comedies, and his histories? Part of the problem that students have in reading and understanding Shakespeare is that they do not see the connecting but subtle links from play to play. THE COMPLETE SIGNET SHAKESPEARE, edited by Sylvan Barnet, does all this and more. To take just one play as example, consider 'Julius Caesar.' The contributing editors, William and Barbara Rosen, write eloquently not only of the themes and ideas of the play, but they manage to connect how the audience of Shakespeare's day saw the action on stage. Without this background, then the reasons behind Anthony's ability to stir up his listener's at Caesar's funeral to a killing frenzy go unnoticed. There are more recent editions than this one (1972), but new does not mean better. This one improves with age.

I have so many volumes of the Complete Works of Shakespeare that I can speak from experience. I picked this up used for about 10 bucks and put it aside as my new and shining copies of Riverside and Arden arrived. I took my Signet to work, flipping it open from time to time, using it as a reference and for casual reading of essays and re-reading the plays. You know what? I LOVE this volume. Better than even my previous favorite, Riverside, with all of the nice photos and plates and slipcased double volume leather covers that Signet lacks!

Signet is handy, not overly large or too hard to drag around, the essays are sharp and relevent to my reading. Full names used throughout (unlike Riverside)! No more "Ham." or "Jul." - It has no visual frills, but the substance is there. I used the signet paperbacks in high school and never appreciated them (quality was rather poor - bad paper, weak spines, etc.) but THIS volume... I'd want to be buried with it.

After finding many purple highlighted pages in Midsummer Night's Dream alone of this voulme I screamed in dismay and went all over the internet looking for a replacement "clean" copy, which I just finished ordering here at the Amazon Marketplace for nearly triple my origal cost! But SO WHAT? This is a wonderful book and worth the investment. When it comes, I'll mark it up myself, perhaps, but not with a purple marker. My first copy will stay with me at my desk, at work.

This was the text we had... and I remember how beautiful it felt just carrying it to class. Very nice reading too, better than the Riverside edition that has "replaced" it in schools. I had to trade it in, but finding it years later was like being 20 years old again, and learning what I knew all along ~ Shakespeare is easy to read, and this book makes it a pleasure as well. Get a copy and carry it everywhere with you for a few months, you'll be glad you did.

Coming across old treasures like The Complete Signet Classic Shakespeare is always a welcome surprise. That there are a plethora of options for would be readers of Shakespeare is made completely evident by a mere search through Amazon's offered collection. I myself searched for nearly an hour, cross-comparing reviews and prices as I searched for an edition which would be both price friendly and complete. Between my own experience with reading Shakespeare, and the reviews across which I came on Amazon, I knew what I did not want in a text. I did not want a text which had merely reproduced an older typesetting, as these tend to employ fonts that are difficult to read. I did not want a text which was prone to abbreviate the names of dramatis personae, as the transformation of Hamlet to mere "Ham." and Julius Caesar to "Caes." is both hard on the eyes and demeaning to the characters. Further, I wished to avoid the tiny print and the more-than-tissue-thin paper which more modern editions seem to impose upon readers in the attempt to maximize profits and reduce costs. Finally, I wanted to find a collection of all of Shakespeare's writings which were companioned with essays that not only related and placed the text for the reader, but also did not attempt to push modern and controversial interpretations onto readers in exchange for the more time-warn and constructive insights which best fuel one's own ability to understand and appreciate Shakespeare.

In The Complete Signet Classic Shakespeare, I found all of this and much more. The accompanying essays which precede the plays and poems are informative, but not overbearing in their attempt to either politicize or indoctrinate. Further, the somewhat lengthy but well received introduction explains, not only the history of Elizabethan drama, but Shakespeare and everything in his world. Apt use of contemporary sources are also employed, as well as the plays themselves, to drive home the author's points.

The editing is also well done, with handy glosses present at the bottom of every page. These do an exceptional job of giving the meaning of words and phrases which could throw off the novice reader of Early Modern English. Though not in this position myself, the glosses still manage to give insightful clarifications for grammar idiosyncrasies and other such things. Further, the editors also explain deviations between folio and quarto.

On the hole this is an exemplary edition and it is a shame that it does not seem to be in print at the moment, as I find it comparable or even superior to the current Shakespeare collections for which a myriad of university students are forced to pay hefty sums. For those who have professors open to other editions, or for those who wish only to have a standing copy of the complete works of English's greatest and most influential writer, this is worth picking up second hand.

It all comes down to punctuation now. For a book to be this old and still be the best in my mind is great and also pathetic that all the newer texts out there have strayed away from such a clear edition of his complete works. I wish it were possible to get them to start re-printing this as my copy is a little old with some water damage. It's still the copy I run to though when I need to clarify a line, or some misleading punctuation, when working on a play.

If you can't get this one, try the older versions of the Pelican...I seem to be seeing a trend here. What's up with modern editors screwing up Shakespeare?!