William Shakespeare Complete Works (Modern Library) [Hardcover]

Perhaps, like me, you have held on to the Complete Works of William Shakespeare you've had since college and are wondering if the world really needs yet another edition of the Bard's complete output. Well, the Modern Library edition of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Shakespeare has a lot to recommend it. The text is beautifully set in single column format, making it easier for actors and those who wish to read the text aloud to scan the poetic lines and to distinguish between poetry and prose. Jonathan Bates's General Introduction is comprehensive, engaging, and lively. As with the introductions to the individual plays, Bates gives special attention to the performance traditions from which these plays emerged as well as those which would shape their interpretation over the centuries. This concern for performance issues is also addressed in the "Key Facts" boxes that follow every play introduction. Here the editors summarize the plot, identify the major parts (with percentage of lines and number of speeches assigned to each character, etc.), take a stab at identifying a dates of composition and first performance, and discuss the plays' sources and state of the texts available. There are ample, but not an overwhelming number of footnotes. And these notes, Bates assures us, do not shy away from discussion of Shakespeare's bawdier puns (something that may not be true of your old college textbook). Another real plus is the inclusion of a fragmentary scene from "Sir Thomas More" based on the only manuscript known to be in Shakespeare's own hand.

But the best reason to buy the RSC Shakespeare is because the editors have gone to great lengths to preserve the First Folio (1623) edition of Shakespeare. They have modernized the spelling and punctuation and have read (and corrected) the text against Quarto texts where these exist, but have not recklessly blended Quarto and Folio texts, something most previous editors have done with impunity for generations. The editors make a strong case for the Folio texts being the best versions available and respecting their "purity" makes it possible for readers and those preparing new stagings to grapple with textual variants in a thoughtful and respectful manner. It seems that Shakespearean textual critical work is finally taking on the discipline of biblical criticism. Let's hope the results will be equally illuminating and revolutionary.

The idea behind this edition is brilliantly simple: produce a modern edition of the First Folio. The editors do not attempt to produce a "definitive" text of Shakespeare. Their goal is more modest: to reconstruct, as closely as possible, the material that Heminges and Condell brought into the printing house in 1623. It is, they say, a snapshot of the playtexts at one stage in their evolution.

The various quarto and octavo editions are used to correct the Folio text (where that is obviously corrupt) but not to supplement it. Passages excised from the Folio are printed here in appendices and textual notes. Plays that didn't appear in the Folio appear in a different format in the back. (So too with the poems and sonnets.) If passages vary in wording between the early editions, the Folio receives precedence, as long as it makes sense.

The notes are also quite extensive about vocabulary and are franker than usual about sexual matters. The notes about historical events are not as extensive as those in the Riverside, but the chronologies, introductions, and other supplementary materials do provide the basic background. The introductions, by Jonathan Bate, are concise and steer a middle course between dramatic / thematic issues on one hand and developmental / textual issues on the other.

Like the Norton Shakespeare, the plays are here printed in single-column format, which greatly aids readability. Unlike the Norton, which prints the plays in approximate chronological order, the plays are printed here in the order they appeared in the First Folio. Highly recommended.

To would-be purchasers: At the library or bookstore, see for yourself if you can really deal with all the physical drawbacks of this book, if it will really meet the demands of how you read and for what you intend to use this book. It should hold up okay for occassionaly pulling off the shelf for a point of reference. But if you need to handle it often, if you really want to get into the text, then I don't see how this book can hold up.

The 1 star is for the publisher of this edition. My complaint is to the person (or persons) who gave the go-ahead for the production specs. They are unworthy of the words of Shakespeare and the work of the editors. The production and printing are truly paltry. All the other review negatives are legit -- cumbersome size and weight; toilet paper thin paper, subject to easy tearing; ink bleeding through recto/verso pages (and in my copy, there's an ink splatter on p. 1438 and several splotches throughout); as well as the binding, which is a non-signature fake sewn binding, glued together like a softcover. As such, this book cannot endure much handling, and over time, as we know with such books, no matter how careful we are, the glue will stale, the spine will crack, and pages will dislodge like rotten teeth. This is absolutely not an edition you can hand down the generations; and depending on your use, it may or may not last even a few years. This edition purports to be a study/working edition, but the book as a physical object precludes any of that. I can't imagine a student or actor lugging it to class or the theatre and trying to recite with a nearly 5-lb 3-inch thick book cradled in his/her arm. Let alone making notes in the generous margins -- the low-grade paper causes text on each side of a page to seep through often clearly enough to be read so that would make scribbling notes difficult; and this paper could not possibly properly absorb notes in pen or highlighter (either would mark and indent right though the other side; light pencil or post-its might work though).

After purusing a few essays and notes, I give the editors 3 stars so far. The scholarship may be serious and exemplary (per other reviewers), but I've read better insights and more extensive notes elsewhere (with etymology, cross-refs, annotations). Here, the footnotes are rudimentary (for example, "fearful" is "frightened", "false" is "dishonest, disloyal", "maim" means to "wound, damage") -- perhaps the target audience starts at age 8. Stage directions of sorts are added here and there; they seem to clarify what's already rather obvious in the text proper. The "Key Facts" are easily digestible, but I can only trust that the editors got all their facts and dates correct, as I have yet to come across any sourcing or even a ref list.

But the main thing is that I simply can't get around the physical inadequacies of this book, so I'm returning my copy for a refund. Instead, I'll check out my public library's copy because I still want to know what all the introductory essays have to say.

I have all the works in various single-volume Quatro-based editions, so I thought it would be interesting to have a volume with the Folio-based text intact. Hopefully, the publisher will come to its senses and re-issue this edition based on previous Modern Library editions, that is, dividing the works into 3 or 4 volumes at a paper size and quality that can be used by human hands and read with human eyes -- even at a higher price, that I would purchase and keep. By the way, I own the two-volume 1938 "Complete Greek Drama" (also published by Random House). Those 70-year-old used books have held up far better than this 2007 new complete Shakespeare ever will. Perhaps this Shakespeare edition is a prime indication of the state of the book publishing industry today -- the bottom line served Will ill.