Rating: 
Summary: Gorgeous Collection, for the Bookshelf
Review: The Arden's Complete Shakespeare is quite gorgeous and very well-presented. The text is easy to read in two-column format, printed on nice paper and equipped with a ribbon book mark. It contains 38 plays and all of the sonnets, which makes the collection more complete than that of Pelican and many others.
However, it is not quite as satisfying as it could be. In particular, there are no footnotes. In the the Pelican Complete Shakespeare, for example, there are ample footnotes explaining obscure references and defining less-common vocabulary. The footnotes and explanations included in the individual versions of Arden's Shakespeare are second to none. The collected works, therefore, is quite unsatisfying. However, I am not too disappointed; I use these footnotes much less than when I began reading Shakespeare.
The net result is that the Arden collection is a really beautiful and easy to read printing of all of Shakespeare's plays but it lacks a lot of input that one would have if the individual plays were collected. I'm happy with the book, but am also thankful I own Pelican.
Rating: 
Summary: Deceiving edition, hard to read, poor typography.
Review: (This review is of course not on the plays and works themselves which are beyond praise, but on this particular edition).All pieces are packed in two columns, without separating pages, a few ugly frontispices, no table of content. Typography is old, greasy. Looks like the fac-simile of a cheap 19th century edition. No notes, no variants, no references, unpractical to read or to use in study, no added value. I do not recommend this at all for any purpose.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely marvelous
Review: After so many years, Shakespeare stills shines above everybody else. No words to describe the feelings and emotions I had reading this book
Rating:
Summary: The Plays as Shakespeare Intended Them
Review: An excellent one-volume edition of the Shakespeare canon, thoroughly reconsidered and revised to present as closely as possible the plays acted on the stages of the London playhouses of Shakespeare's time. An essential volume on every literate person's bookshelf. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: The Plays as Shakespeare Intended Them
Review: An excellent one-volume edition of the Shakespeare canon, thoroughly reconsidered to present as closely as possible the plays acted on the stages of the London playhouses of Shakespeare's time. An essential volume on every literate person's bookshelf. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: A controversial edition of Shakespeare's Plays and Poems.
Review: I am specifically reviewing "The Oxford William Shakespeare The Complete Works--Compact Edition." In 1986 Oxford University Press published three volumes of its Complete Shakespeare: a modernized edition, an original spelling edition, and a textual companion. These three won general acclaim though some, say Eric Sams and Harold Bloom have expressed dissatisfaction. The original spelling edition is long out of print, and is highly prized by collectors. The textual companion is in print, but not by OUP, by Norton. That leaves the only the modernized edition in print by OUP. It is currently available in a compact hardcover edition, though a paperback edition is available in the United Kingdom. One of the general editors Stanley Wells wrote a good general introduction, but the introductions to individual plays are skimpy, generally not longer than a page, and not enough space is given over to the specific textual problems of each play. The plays are printed in a proposed chronological order. Because we do not know for certain which plays were written when, and in which order, the order is nothing more than the editors' best guess. The plays are printed in double columns and in a type size which looks like it is about 10 point size. The type looks small. I made a quick estimate and I found that there were about 90 lines on each page. The lines are numbered by five, except where a long line will bump the number to the next line. Unlike some other complete editions if you are stuck on a difficlult passage you are left to your own devices. There a no footnotes, and the words in the glossary at the end are not keyed to any particular passage. The Oxford text does not lend itself to this kind of naked presentation. The editors are very free with their use of early quarto and folio texts. Their editorial policy is flexible, so flexible that some could say it is inconsistent. For example with "King Lear" we get two versions, quarto and folio. These versions are of limited usefulness because readings from one version are freely introduced into the other and vis-a-versa, but with "Henry V" we get conflated version of the play where readings from the quarto are sometimes preferred to the superior folio text. Above I gave the the compact edition four stars. I should by more specific. For uncritical readers I give this edition three stars. For critical readers I give four stars. And for critical readers who read it in conjunction with "William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion" I give five stars.
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Summary: macbeth
Review: i want the whole story,including picture.
Rating:
Summary: A sturdy volume
Review: I've had my copy of the Pelican Shakespeare for almost 15 years now, have used it heavily as a grad student in Literature, and as one who reads Shakespeare for pleasure, and it has held up beautifully. The editions are clean, and the introductory material is quite good.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent edition of the complete works, with a few quirks
Review: In contrast to some of the other editions of the complete works of Shakespeare, this book really is value for money. All plays (and poems, etcetera) are printed in a lavishly, pleasing way, very easy to the eye (one of the biggest drawbacks of some editions is that they use a very small font to keep the number of pages to a minimum). As others have commented, not much can and should be commented on the works themselves, they have stood the test of time, and the (normal) spelling that is used in this edition makes each reading an enjoyable experience. All the plays are given a brief (and somewhat succinct) introduction, which is, at best, okay. The strange things, in this book, are, for example, the order of the plays, the way King Lear is printed in two versions (that differ only in small details), and the inclusion of fragments that are attributed to Shakespeare (a bit controversial to say the least). Still, if you want to buy a good, thorough, and well-researched edition of the complete works of Shakespeare, you will not go far wrong with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Love those critiques of Shakespeare
Review: It's silly to attach a rating system to Shakespeare's genius. Not only is Shakespeare the greatest writer to ever live, I simply cannot believe we will *ever* see his equal. But to that gentleman who told reviewers to stick to Stephen King: obviously you've never read King or you wouldn't dismiss him so casually. He's no Shakespeare, but I honestly believe that he's the Dickens of our generation.
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