Customer Reviews

William Shakespeare: The Complete Works

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In one sense I think almost every person feels a special pleasure in having a complete edition of the world's greatest writer. The special experience of knowing that one can turn whenever one wants to such great works of literature, and explore them again is a very real one.
However my long experience with reading has taught me that reading the plays in smaller single - volume more heavily annotated works gives more.
I notice for instance that my own ' complete edition' goes largely unread, and that when I need to read Shakespeare I always go to the single- volume works.

After so many years, Shakespeare stills shines above everybody else. No words to describe the feelings and emotions I had reading this book

William Shakespeare-the greatest dramatist the world has ever known. With a very impressive output (37 plays, 4 poems and 154 sonnets, all of them beautifully written), he has rightly been called "Not of an age, but for all time." This, coming from a rival poet (Ben Jonson) is high praise indeed. The plays, poems and sonnets are very difficult to review individually, as they are well written. Shakespeare brilliantly captured the essence of human behaviour in his works. Of course, Shakespeare is not for everyone. Regarding film versions of his plays, I strongly recommend Sir Laurence Olivier's three self-directed Shakespeare films ("Henry V," "Hamlet," "Richard III"), Kenneth Branagh's growing output of Shakespeare ("Henry V," "Much Ado About Nothing," "Hamlet," "Love's Labour's Lost") and faithful stage versions of Shakespeare (The Merchant Of Venice [an out-of-print film starring Laurence Olivier and directed by Jonathan Miller], "King Lear" [starring Laurence Olivier and filmed as a movie in 1984], "Othello" [starring Laurence Olivier and filmed as a movie in 1965]). I also recommend Oliver Parker's 1995 version of
"Othello," starring Kenneth Branagh as the villainous Iago and Franco Zefferelli's 1968 version of "Romeo & Juliet," as well as West Side Story," a classic musical featuring music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (in his debut; he would eventually write "Sweeny Todd") and masterful choreography by Jerome Robbins (he choreographed the dance sequences in "The King & I," "Fiddler On The Roof") which uses the tragic storyline of the play in a modern setting without the dialogue (unlike that idiot Luhrman, who had the c----es to COMPLETELY MODERNIZE the play; "West Side Story" and "Love's Labour's Lost" is as far as you can get to modernizing Shakespeare, the God of playwrights).

His plays, poems and sonnets are rated PG for some violence ("Titus Andronicus," "Macbeth," "Hamlet") and mild vulgarity (sexual references gracefully obscured in Elizabethan English; "Much Ado About Nothing," "Othello," "King Lear," "Venus & Adonis," "The Rape Of Lucrece," etc; though the language of his time was bawdy, Shakespeare DID NOT condone sexual licence). Profanity was also non-existent at the time. He used the words ("Damn," "Hell," "A--," and "B----" [once; in "King Lear"]) in their original definitions. Hell, as a place of torment, damn as in eternal banishment from God, a-- as in the animal also called a donkey and b---- as a female dog. Used improperly, these words immediately become insults of the most vulgar kind.

It's silly to attach a rating system to Shakespeare's genius. Not only is Shakespeare the greatest writer to ever live, I simply cannot believe we will *ever* see his equal. But to that gentleman who told reviewers to stick to Stephen King: obviously you've never read King or you wouldn't dismiss him so casually. He's no Shakespeare, but I honestly believe that he's the Dickens of our generation.

The egregious and omnipresent figure of this unequaled dramaturge reached a peak of colossal dimensions. Although the elapsed time, his influence and absolute domain of the drama, his delirious visions about the greed, ambition, and power 's thirst seem to revive the glorious splendor of the unbeatable Greek tragedy.

There has not been any other writer who had retaken with such vigor, intensity and unrestrained realism the core of the tragic spirit. As the great visionaries, he introduces in his works and obligates us to be part of it. You cannot avoid it. Passion, luxury, betrayal, murder are fundamental factors that support the most diverse complexities of the human soul.

The extended range of aroused emotions we experience show us the mastery of his genius. Humor ( The merchant of Venice, Merry wives of Windsor, The comedy of errors) the eloquent passion exhibited in Gerona 's lovers, the sublime exquisiteness of A midsummer night `s dream, the egregious domain of the feminine psychology (The taming of the shrew) and his portentous vision of the last consequences of the power (Richard III, Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear) reveal such penetrating knowledge of the human being that may be considered a continuous and always renovated source of analysis and febrile investigation for all those who had decided to get inside this kaleidoscopic universe.

His radiant brightness endures and increases through the times. Reading him we understand and even anticipate a good part of the past story of the last Century. That is why Albert Camus defined the XX Century as the Fear 's Century, he was thinking and talking in Shakespearean terms.

Perhaps the most distinguished and remarkable aspect to underline resides in the fact his characters are so emblematic by themselves; that frequently defies any logic or defined ideology. They are models in which his kindness, perversity or evilness concern.

Don' t let your life passes over without having been a silent witness of the astonishing, delirious, chilling, fascinating and sublime world of this Giant ` s Literature.