The Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

William Shakespeare (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000 | Series: New Penguin Shakespeare

When this volume of Shakespeare's poems first appeared in 1609, he had already written most of the great plays that made him famous. The 154 sonnets - all but two of which are addressed to a beautiful young man or a treacherous dark lady' - contain some of the most exquisite and haunting poetry ever written, and deal with eternal subjects such as love and infidelity, memory and mortality, and the destruction wreaked by Time. Also included is A Lover's Complaint, originally published with the sonnets, in which a young woman is overheard lamenting her betrayal by a heartless seducer.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Founded in 1906 by J.M. Dent, the Everyman Library has always tried to make the best books ever written available to the greatest number of people at the lowest possible price. Unique editorial features that help Everyman Paperback Classics stand out from the crowd include: a leading scholar or literary critic's introduction to the text, a biography of the author, a chronology of her or his life and times, a historical selection of criticism, and a concise plot summary. All books published since 1993 have also been completely restyled: all type has been reset, to offer a clarity and ease of reading unique among editions of the classics; a vibrant, full-color cover design now complements these great texts with beautiful contemporary works of art. But the best feature must be Everyman's uniquely low price. Each Everyman title offers these extensive materials at a price that competes with the most inexpensive editions on the market-but Everyman Paperbacks have durable binding, quality paper, and the highest editorial and scholarly standards. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

William Shakespeare is the most revered English playright. His plays include Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet and King Lear. John Kerrigan is a lecturer in English at Cambridge University.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140436847
• ISBN-13: 978-0140436846
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #482,619 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

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, February 2, 2011

By 

Jarber3 "Jarber" (Salt Lake City, UT USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint (Penguin Classics) (Hardcover)

This review is not about the text itself, but the presentation done by Penguin and Bickford-Smith. As with each of her designs in this series it is beautiful. A timeless presentation of a literary classic.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Kindle Edition Disappointing, September 8, 2011

By 

Melinda Varian (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Sonnets and a Lover's Complaint (Penguin Classics) (Kindle Edition)

Alas, Penguin has not chosen to make a useful version of this book for the Kindle. Navigation is very poorly set up. There is an active table of contents, but it does not list the individual sonnets, nor does it break the annotations section out by sonnet. Much worse is that there is no linkage between a sonnet and the annotations for that sonnet. It would have been very easy to set up such links (forwards and backwards); the result would have been a really useful book. Surely they realize that the typical user will want to consult the annotations for a sonnet when reading that sonnet. What a pity they've not done a better job!

Edited to Add: In the end, I returned this Kindle book. It was full of very bad scan errors. In some cases, I couldn't even figure out what the nonsense word was meant to be. In addition, the annotations section was formatted in such a way that one couldn't use the cursor to select a word to look up in the dictionary or a group of words to highlight.

What a pity Penguin takes so little care with its ebooks!

1 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars lover, July 9, 2005

By 

smith "sam" (india) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

the site is fantastic and i am really found it trust worthy and logically created