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THE CLASSIC ONE-VOLUME SHAKESPEARE,
INCLUDING ALL THE PLAYS AND POEMS,
NOW COMPLETELY REVISED AND UPDATED
The distinguished Pelican Shakespeare series has sold five million copies. Now Penguin is proud to offer this fully revised new hardcover edition of The Complete Pelican Shakespeare.
Since the series debuted more than forty years ago, developments in scholarship have revolutionized our understanding of his time, and his works. With new editors who have incorporated the most up-to-date research and debate, this revised edition of The Complete Pelican Shakespeare will be the premier choice for students, professors, and general readers for decades to come.
The general editors of the series-world-renowned Shakespeareans Stephen Orgel of Stanford University and A. R. Braunmuller of UCLA - devoted seven years to preparing introductions and notes with a team of eminent scholars to the forty volumes of Shakespeare's plays and poems. Now, the new series is complete and available in one lavish and complete edition.
Authoritative and meticulously researched texts
Illuminating new introductions and notes by distinguished authors
Essays on Shakespeare's life, the theatrical world of his time, and the selection of texts
A handsome new design inside and out Deluxe packaging, including a full-linen case, ribbon marker, Smyth-sewn binding, printed endpapers, acid-free paper, and illustrations throughout
Photos and drawings reflecting Shakespeare's theatrical legacy
Line numbers marking every tenth line and footnote references
Both glossarial and explanatory notes appearing conveniently at the foot of the page
Excellent and Highly Readable Shakespeare
| Customer Rating:  | I bought this for a class sort of against the professor's orders; he had recommened we get the Norton Shakespeare, but a number of the reviews for that volume had mentioned that the page were very fragile and also see-through. So I searched around for one that had been reviewed better and eventually bought this one, which I don't regret. This is a gigantic book, but it's still quite a bit smaller than many other complete Shakespeares, and it manages its compactness without sacrificing page thickness or having a ridiculously tiny font size. Furthermore, the annotations are easily accessible and (relatively) complete. The included essays (that cover every play) are also very helpful and englightening, and they give support for a number of different readings of each text. I would also like to mention that this is a very handsome volume; the excellent binding and Thurber-esque drawing of Shakespeare on the cover make it stand out among other editions. Finally, the price is very reasonable-- a new Pelican Shakespeare costs less than a number of the other editions used. Highly recommended!
(Also, the book description doesn't really make this clear-- this *is* a normal, not-based-on-a-specific-folio-or-quarto complete Shakespeare; I was a little worried when I bought it, but it *is* a normal complete Shakespeare.) |
All the World's A Stage.
| Customer Rating: | The 1598 loss of their theater's lease should have been a major blow to the Lord Chamberlain's Men, one of Elizabethan England's premier acting troupes, who had gained even more popularity by teaming up with one Will Shakespeare, a Warwickshire glover's son come to London some six years earlier in pursuit of his Muse, leaving behind a wife and three children; daughter Susanna, born but seven months into his marriage, and twins Hamnet and Judith, who'd followed two years later. Yet, what to another company might have spelled "present death" only brought greater fame and fortune to the one boasting, in addition to Master Shakespeare's talents, those of Richard Burbage: not only a superb tragedian but also his troupe's financier and, together with brother Cuthbert, happily able to afford the construction of a new theater in Bankside, on the opposite side of the River Thames. Prophetically, the company named their new home "The Globe" and endowed it with a motto which, in approximate translation, audiences of one of the first plays produced there - "As You Like It" - would soon also hear pronounced from the stage, and which sums up the essence of the Bard's plays better than anything else: "Totus mundus agit histrionem" - "All the world's a stage."
The new playhouse's name and motto were apposite not only because the era did indeed consider a stage a model of the world (the area above was referred to as heaven, the area below as hell, and characters would often appear accordingly: as such, Hamlet's father is heard crying "below [stage]" after his encounter with the Prince), but first and foremost because Shakespeare's plays themselves, individually as well as collectively, represent a microcosm of human relationships and behavior virtually unparalleled to this day: Laced with murderous schemes, revenge, and the search for justice, love, and peace of mind, but also comedy, all-too-human fallibility and great nobility of spirit, they delve into the human mind's darkest recesses and soar to its greatest heights; exploring greed, envy, ambition, guilt, remorse and pure evil, next to compassion, generosity, humility, innocence, fidelity, cleverness, boundless cheers and optimism; all interwoven in timeless plots unmatched in wit, variety, construction, and richness of characters.
Yet, for all this, the biggest difficulty remaining to modern editors and readers alike is that while Shakespeare himself didn't seek the publication of his plays, in the absence of anything approximating modern copyright laws, he was unable to prevent their publication by others, in so-called "quarto" editions, often based on unreliable transcripts made during or after a performance. Only after his death, in 1623, his former fellow-actors John Hemmings and Henry Condell published 37 of his plays "cured and perfect of their limbs" - i.e., restored to their author's true intentions - in a volume since referred to as the "First Folio."
Alas, authoritative weight though it has, even the latter doesn't conclusively answer what the Bard intended as the final version of these 37 plays. For one thing, research shows that even some of the Folio texts were edited by others; most prominently so "Macbeth," where Thomas Middleton inserted, inter alia, the witch queen Hecate as an additional character. Secondly, quarto editions of several plays published prior to the "First Folio" (especially of "Henry IV Part 2," "Hamlet," "Troilus and Cressida," "Othello," and "King Lear") are widely believed to represent earlier (or rival) drafts written by Shakespeare himself, and thus accorded considerable authoritative weight of their own. Often, these plays are therefore presented (both in print and on stage) by "conflating" both versions' texts. In the interest of purity, the editors of this particular volume have eschewed that approach, choosing instead to reproduce the Folio text throughout (with gently modernized spelling), because this was probably the text originally used on stage, and appending the passages most frequently added from the rivaling quartos at the end of the respective plays. Thus, this edition's reader will find Hamlet musing in "To be, or not to be" about "enterprises of great pith and moment" whose currents "turn awry and lose the name of action" (not "of great pitch and moment," as in the 1604 "Second Quarto"); he will, however, have to consult the appendix to find the Prince's reflections on that "stamp of one defect" so prominently featuring in Sir Laurence Olivier's movie, or his vows of "bloody thoughts" after encountering Fortinbras. Only in the case of "Lear," the editors chose to fully include both rivaling versions - that of the First Folio and that of the 1608 quarto - because here, the omission of entire scenes and reassignment of numerous pieces of dialogue essentially transforms the Folio text into a new play vis-a-vis the 1608 quarto.
As painstakingly researched and an as obvious labor of love as this work's first edition, the second edition moreover restores the plays' original titles ("All Is True" instead of "Henry VIII," etc.), and also contains Shakespeare's long poems and sonnets, brief accounts on the lost plays ("Cardenio," "Love's Labour's Won"), and - with appropriate caveats - the texts of works of only partial/uncertain attribution, such as "The Two Noble Kinsmen," sundry poetry, and (for the first time) "Edward III," as well as the editorially and topically so problematic "Sir Thomas More."
Background and supplemental materials include introductions to Shakespeare's life, career and language and on the Elizabethan theater, a user's guide, a list of contemporary references to the Bard, commendatory poems and prefaces of his works (including those of the "First Folio"), a glossary, an ample reading list, as well as a short introduction to each work. At well over 1000 pages a brick even in paperback format, this isn't the place to turn for a complete scholarly review of any given play - for that, the reader is well-advised to consult this volume's "Textual Companion" or one of the many excellent editions of the individual plays - but a marvelously-presented one-volume resource on the legacy of the playwright whose works, as already friendly rival Ben Jonson rightly prophesied, would last "for all time."
Also recommended:
William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion (Oxford Shakespeare)
Shakespeare & Co.: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher and the Other Players in His Story (Vintage)
Shakespeare: For All Time (Oxford Shakespeare)
The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare: 38 Fully-Dramatized Plays
BBC Shakespeare Tragedies DVD Giftbox
Olivier's Shakespeare - Criterion Collection (Hamlet / Henry V / Richard III)
William Shakespeare's Hamlet (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Henry V
Richard III
Peter Brook's King Lear |
A "complete Shakespeare" should actually be complete.
| Customer Rating:  | Why do we buy "complete" editions of Shakespeare, when individual plays are available in many excellent editions, reasonably priced, eminently portable, and offering far richer commentary than will ever be available in a single volume?
The one reason I can provide is that a "complete" Shakespeare is--or ought to be--just that: complete, including everything the author is generally understood to have written.
This edition of the Pelican Shakespeare has many virtures: it is handsome, high-quality, and features thoughtful and thorough introductions to the plays, along with good annotations.
But it falls flat on the claim it makes in its very title: it is not complete. "The Two Noble Kinsmen" is nowhere to be found, although the introductions to several different plays mention it and acknowledge it as Shakespeare's. Many scholars believe that at least one scene of another play, "Sir Thomas More," is likely to be by Shakespeare, and yet another play, "Edward III," has a great deal of support for partial Shakespeare attribution as well. These items are routinely included in modern editions of Shakespeare. They are absent here, and the editors give us no explanation at all for the omissions. This is a substantial oversight, and makes it difficult to recommend this edition.
To anyone looking to read a little Shakespeare, I would encourage you to pick up a Folger and a Signet single-play edition, and see which suits your taste better. If you are set on a one-volume Shakespeare, I have to suggest you get one that is actually "complete"--Riverside, perhaps, or the new RSC. |
A must have!!
| Customer Rating: | | This is a must have for any student of literature or lover of Shakespeare. However, this is not meant to be light reading. If you are a student, particularly undergrad, you will be better served by cliffs notes or spark notes. |
The most readable edition
| Customer Rating: | 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. |
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