The Norton Shakespeare

Initially, I had to buy this mammoth of a book for a college course covering Shakespeare's early commedies and histories. I've been fascinated with Shakespeare ever since I read Romeo and Juliet in high school, and my college studies merely increased that fascination. This book served me very well in the course; the introductions are extremely relevant to and informative about both the background of play and also the period in which it is written. I appreciate that the introductions are well-written and easy to understand. (Shakespeare is hard enough to understand without having to wade through a difficult introduction as well.) The footnotes are also excellent; they provide much needed explanations, descriptions, and definitions. There are also side notes with the more common words for archaic words used. I certainly wouldn't want to try to read Shakespeare without all the tools provided in this edition. Since college, I have spent nearly two years working my way through Shakespeare's works, and it has been extrememly gratifying. I like some plays better than others and find some plays easier to understand than others, but I couldn't be happier with the edition required back in college. I would also like to add that the book is much sturdier than it seems, especially the tissue thin pages. This book was toted around in a backpack with me for a semester in college and has been most abusively treated since then. I've dropped it numerous times, had it sliding around in the trunk whenever I went on vacation, and toted it with me to many a doctor's appointment. My puppy tried to chew up the corner of it when I wasn't looking, and my husband spilled coffee on the open pages and down the side while I was reading. With the exception of a little wear on the corners of the cover, a coffee stain, and a few wrinkled pages, the book is in fine condition. I would have expected ripped or severly damaged pages from some of the things my book has endured, but all the pages are whole, which is remarkable considering how thin they are. Overall, I think this book is a wonderful edition of Shakespeare's work for both the student and also the reader who just wants to improve his or her mind. I'm not some fancy college professor, but this book has served me equally well in my endeavors as a student and as a reader.

I'd rather give this 4.5 stars, but I can't. As another reviewer said, one wants to not like this volume. It's expensive and there are some annoying things about it--for example, the paper is soooo thin you can practically read the recto on the verso--but it is all-around the edition I turn to most often. The Riverside (I'd judge it to be the other most commonly used anthology) is absolutely ungainly. Its paper is certainly better, but the thing is absolutely huge. Looks great on the shelf, but horrible to carry with you to class. I also dislike the Riverside's two column layout and system of notation, which puts notes and glosses at the bottom of the page without indicators in the text. The Norton puts glosses in the margin, which I find infinitely less disturbing and more likely to be helpful, and it numbers footnotes. It also uses a single-column layout, which I find much easier to read and allows a smaller paper size (same size as all the other Nortons out there, same Bible paper too) without a smaller font size. The introductions to the individual plays have been farmed out to some of the best in the biz, so it's not just Greenblatt's book. For what it's worth, his job on the introductory material in this volume matches the quality of what you expect from one of the leading figures in the field. What's more, the scholarly material is very readable and generally helpful. Yes, the take of that material is definitely influenced by new historicism and cultural materialism, but anything compiled in the last 20 years is likely to be similarly influenced. There is also some good theater history help here and some good old facts. If you have problems with the Oxford edition, then you'll have problems with this one. If you don't, then it should be fine. For what it's worth, I reallllly like that there are the three Lear texts. This is a volume than can just be read if you want to read Shakespeare. But it's also a book that will get you through the hard stuff and that is fit for scholarly work.

I confess that after examining 5-6 of the top-selling complete Shakespeares I tried not to like the Norton. There are less expensive editions, there are editions with glossy pages and colored photographs, there are editions that are half the weight and bulk of this leviathan, which is far more Shakespeare than the average reader--perhaps, even scholar, for that matter--would ever require. But despite its bulk and unwieldyness, its 3500 (!) thin, flimsy pages, its sheer excess, I couldn't ignore its advantages. The small print enables the publishers to squeeze in contextual materials--in the introduction and appendixes--that in themselves amount to an encyclopedic companion to Shakespeare's works; the introductions to the plays are written not in "textbook prose" but in an engaging style worthy of their subject; and perhaps, best of all, this is the only edition that places the glosses right alongside the "strange" Elizabethan word instead of in the footnotes. You can read the plays without experiencing vertigo of the eye. So this is the edition, though you may wish to go with the smaller, bound portions that Norton publishes of the same edition--especially if you can't afford the cost of a personal valet to carry this tome from home to office. On the other hand, the complete edition is excellent for doing crunches and other aerobic exercises--activities many of us who read the Bard are abt to ignore.

As a fervent admirer of Shakespeare, this complete collection, comprising excellent introductions to each play and helpful textual notes as well as informative writings on the history of both England and the art of acting that shaped Shakespeare's writing, was like a dream come true. While before I had to walk around trying to find a good edition of the play I wanted to read, now I can open the Norton Shakespeare and read without being afraid of not understanding words or missing the point of the play. This book's obvious drawbacks are its heft and, as mentioned, its delicate pages, but these are easily outweighed by the abovementioned advantages! Buy it and read!

Up until recently, the only Shakespeare I ever read was in school. Ten years later, I decided to reacquaint myself with his works. I checked this version out from the library and because it is so comprehensive, I eventually bought it.With over 3,400 pages and all Shakespeare's known plays and poems, the high price of this book is well worth it. You'll probably never need another book of his works. The only downside is that it is very heavy (about the thickness of two hardcover novels) and the pages are extremely thin (and wrinkle easily).Intended as a textbook, the editors of this edition add biographical information, glossaries, period illustrations and footnotes. If you're reading Shakespeare for pleasure, I would recommend reading the intro to each play after you have read it through once. The intros tend to give away a bit much of the story (this can be a plus if you're reading this for a class). I'm not suggesting that you skip them altogether, as they do add helpful insight and perspective to each play. I haven't read all the plays yet, but my favorite so far is The Taming of the Shrew. This is the best play I've read in a long time. I laughed out loud in several places. I told the story to my 7 year old son and he even laughed! I also discovered that there is another play called The Taming of a Shrew that is similar to The Taming of the Shrew but with additional passages. These extra passages are also included in this edition.The editors always let you know when more than one version of a play has been found. They include three known versions of King Lear. Two are presented on facing pages so that you can easily see the differences. They also include a conflated version, often used in actual productions.I recommend this book to anyone wanting to read a little or a lot of Shakespeare.