Four Great Comedies: The Taming of the Shrew; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Twelfth Night; The Tempest (Signet Classics)

Rather than commenting about the plays themselves, I'm writing about this particular edition. Signet produces good editions of Shakespeare's plays. The footnotes are numerous, and the footnote mark in the body of the text is not intrusive (they use a superscripted 'o' instead of a number). The paper quality is good, and the font is quite clear. This collection of four of the Bard's comedies is a very cost-effective way of getting four books for a lower price than if you bought them separately. It includes a 17-page scholarly introduction that's focused specifically on the four comedies here. The comedies then follow, with no intermediary text.One thing that is missing is the nice introductory 50-page biographical sketch of the Bard found in other Signet Shakespeare books. I also have the Signet editions of Romeo & Juliet and Othello, and both of those have the same 50-page introduction. I do not know if the individual editions of these four comedies have the same, but I would think so. Hence, if you already have another Signet edition of any of the Bard's plays with that introduction, the omission of it here won't be a big deal at all.

It's a good book. It has an easy-to-read layout with round and readable type faces. Unlike many other Shakespeare books, it shows the names of characters in full without abbreviations so that you don't have to memorize the abbreviations or keep on guessing who's speaking at a given time. It also has nice space between each character's speech so that things are not crammed up to save space. It's easier on the eyes. The book also comes with nice, succinct footnotes that explain what words mean in modern English without getting too technical or scholarly. It's a good book that's easy to use, readable, inexpensive and not so academical while providing good information. So, I'm happy with it.

This book is one of the best shakespeare books that i have seen. It offers clear interpretations of language that is uncommon in our time, often giving several differing interpretations which are still being debated by language experts. It is simple enough for a first time shakespeare reader, yet still retains all of the content. However, constantly looking at the footnotes, some of which can take up a fourth of a page, grows tiresome, which is why the book only gets 4 stars.

This book contains the four "best" comedies of Shakespeare, along with an excellent foreword by Joseph Papp. For each play, it contains a very well written introduction (one that is not only on the play, but links each of them together), Shakespeare's original source material (example: "A Merry Jest of a Shrewd and Curst Wife Lapped in Morel's Skin" for "the Taming of the Shrew"), and well commented textual notes. I found this collection particularly useful for an "upper-level" look at these four plays.

Very classic, humourous veiw of shakespeare