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Rating: 
Summary: Best portable complete Shakespeare collection
Review: I needed to get a book of complete works of Shakespeare, and portability was of key importance. So I went to a theater bookstore where I compared several different collections, including ones by Arden, Stratford, Pelican, and Gramercy. And this collection by Harper-Collins was hands-down the best in terms of readability and portability (and affordability).The Arden and Pelican ones are the most comprehensive in terms of glossary, essays, and other scholarly stuff, but they also are the heaviest and the priciest. The Illustrated Stratford Shakespeare is surprisingly light (especially for a hard cover), but presumably to save page space, it abbreviates the characters' names before their lines (which I hate), and its font is pretty horrible in legibility. Gramercy's "William Shakespeare - The Complete Works" is the worst, being quite heavy while being extremely hard to read (abbreviated names and no indentation). Harper-Collins' "Complete Works of William Shakespeare: The Alexander Text" is one of the best in terms of readability, with its good paper, font choice, fully spelled character names, and appropriate indentations to help legibility. It also has a decent glossary in the back for hard-to-understand words. I would have loved to have footnotes at the bottom of each pages instead, but hey, you can't have everything, I suppose. In terms of portability, this one is the second lightest of the five books (Stratford is the lightest). And the price is certainly right. If you need complete Shakespeare on the go, this is the one to pick.
Rating:
Summary: Best portable complete Shakespeare collection
Review: I needed to get a book of complete works of Shakespeare, and portability was of key importance. So I went to a theater bookstore where I compared several different collections, including ones by Arden, Stratford, Pelican, and Gramercy. And this collection by Harper-Collins was hands-down the best in terms of readability and portability (and affordability). The Arden and Pelican ones are the most comprehensive in terms of glossary, essays, and other scholarly stuff, but they also are the heaviest and the priciest. The Illustrated Stratford Shakespeare is surprisingly light (especially for a hard cover), but presumably to save page space, it abbreviates the characters' names before their lines (which I hate), and its font is pretty horrible in legibility. Gramercy's "William Shakespeare - The Complete Works" is the worst, being quite heavy while being extremely hard to read (abbreviated names and no indentation). Harper-Collins' "Complete Works of William Shakespeare: The Alexander Text" is one of the best in terms of readability, with its good paper, font choice, fully spelled character names, and appropriate indentations to help legibility. It also has a decent glossary in the back for hard-to-understand words. I would have loved to have footnotes at the bottom of each pages instead, but hey, you can't have everything, I suppose. In terms of portability, this one is the second lightest of the five books (Stratford is the lightest). And the price is certainly right. If you need complete Shakespeare on the go, this is the one to pick.
Rating:
Summary: The Portable Bard
Review: This is an edition of the complete works of Shakespeare that I keep next to my bed. No heavier than a large fashion magazine and absolutely readable, it is my favorite. The glossary is useful, the commentary is brief, and the cover folds back for comfortable beach reading. This edition brings Shakespeare into focus as an intimate whose work and life and suffering are not in any way distant from ours. Given the genius of the work, this particular edition encourages an easier relationship because the book itself is so easy to use.(When no one's around, pull it out and read a speech or two aloud) An excellent any-occasion gift that will be used and appreciated, especially by students, because it is so very convenient!
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but incomplete
Review: While the Harper-Collins edition is nicely laid out and a comfortable size, it is incorrectly called a "complete" collection. It is based on the 1951 Alexander text, which does not include either Edward III or The Two Noble Kinsmen. This edition contains the orthodox canon of yesteryear. With a limited selection of support material included, the reader will have to choose whether it's not worth spending the extra for a more comprehensive edition with expanded notes, glossary and supporting descriptions.
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