This single-volume edition of the complete works of William Shakespeare includes commissioned introductions to each of the plays and poems by a team of academics, including John Jowett and Philip Hobsbaum, with a textual introduction by the Shakespearean scholar Alec Yearling explaining the significance of the Alexander edition. This volume also includes a biography of Shakespeare by Germaine Greer and an introduction to Shakespeare's theatre by Anthony Burgess.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'A symbol in the history of our national culture' - The Guardian
About the Author
The mystery of Shakespeare's rise to literary eminence is demonstrated by the fact that his suspected parents were illiterate. He was born on April 23rd 1564, and of the years that intervened between his christening and his appearance on the London stage, nothing is known. He must have gone at least to dame school, and from the age of six or seven to the King's New Grammar School. In the lower school he would have studied Latin. In the upper school he would have studied rhetoric and logic, Cicero, Quintilian, Ovid, Virgil and Horace and have begun the study of Greek. These studies were all the literary training that any Elizabethan poet received. In the 1590s there was no profession of letters. Poetry was practised as an accomplished pastime by gentlemen and scholars. It is therefore impossible to document with certainty Shakespeare's development from his birth to the publication of his poem Venus and Adonis in 1593. The only documented event in these years is the rather unconventional marriage of William Shakespeare, aged eighteen with Anne Hathaway, an heiress, six or seven years older and pregnant. The only other documentation we have before 1592 relates to the children Anne bore William; Susanna in May 1583, and the twins Hamnet and Judith in 1585. William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright the world has seen, and produced an astonishing amount of work; 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 5 poems. On April 23rd 1616, aged 52 years to the day, Shakespeare died and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.
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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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best portable complete Shakespeare collection,
By Tivor (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Complete Works of William Shakespeare: The Alexander Text (Collins Classics) (Paperback)
I needed to get a book of complete works of Shakespeare, and portability was of key importance. So I went to a theater bookstore where I compared several different collections, including ones by Arden, Stratford, Pelican, and Gramercy. And this collection by Harper-Collins was hands-down the best in terms of readability and portability (and affordability).The Arden and Pelican ones are the most comprehensive in terms of glossary, essays, and other scholarly stuff, but they also are the heaviest and the priciest. The Illustrated Stratford Shakespeare is surprisingly light (especially for a hard cover), but presumably to save page space, it abbreviates the characters' names before their lines (which I hate), and its font is pretty horrible in legibility. Gramercy's "William Shakespeare - The Complete Works" is the worst, being quite heavy while being extremely hard to read (abbreviated names and no indentation). Harper-Collins' "Complete Works of William Shakespeare: The Alexander Text" is one of the best in terms of readability, with its good paper, font choice, fully spelled character names, and appropriate indentations to help legibility. It also has a decent glossary in the back for hard-to-understand words. I would have loved to have footnotes at the bottom of each pages instead, but hey, you can't have everything, I suppose. In terms of portability, this one is the second lightest of the five books (Stratford is the lightest). And the price is certainly right. If you need complete Shakespeare on the go, this is the one to pick.
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Portable Bard,
By A Customer
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This review is from: Complete Works of William Shakespeare: The Alexander Text (Collins Classics) (Paperback)
This is an edition of the complete works of Shakespeare that I keep next to my bed. No heavier than a large fashion magazine and absolutely readable, it is my favorite. The glossary is useful, the commentary is brief, and the cover folds back for comfortable beach reading. This edition brings Shakespeare into focus as an intimate whose work and life and suffering are not in any way distant from ours. Given the genius of the work, this particular edition encourages an easier relationship because the book itself is so easy to use.(When no one's around, pull it out and read a speech or two aloud) An excellent any-occasion gift that will be used and appreciated, especially by students, because it is so very convenient!
25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but incomplete,
By
This review is from: Complete Works of William Shakespeare: The Alexander Text (Collins Classics) (Paperback)
While the Harper-Collins edition is nicely laid out and a comfortable size, it is incorrectly called a "complete" collection. It is based on the 1951 Alexander text, which does not include either Edward III or The Two Noble Kinsmen. This edition contains the orthodox canon of yesteryear. With a limited selection of support material included, the reader will have to choose whether it's not worth spending the extra for a more comprehensive edition with expanded notes, glossary and supporting descriptions.
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