Rating: 
Summary: A worthwhile trip
Review: On a recent trip to England, I saw Twelfth Night at the RSC Theatre. Of course, being a TEENAGER who LOVES SHAKESPEARE, I had to stop by the Shakespheare Birth Trust Company and visit the house he lived in. That is where I picked up this wonderful book, along wih a few extras. I feel in love almost instantly with the cover art and the way it was printed. Including all his plays, sonnents and poems, it's a great collector item for Shakespeare fanatics.
Rating:
Summary: Pelican Complete is best "portable" Shakespeare
Review: Pretty much any edition of Shakespeare deserves 5 stars for content. I think the question most people must have is "Which edition?"I purchased "The Complete Pelican Shakespeare" because I wanted a relatively portable, high-quality book featuring text that benefits from modern scholarship (including brief notes and glossary). I wanted an edition to read and to treasure. I should say that I didn't need extensive commentary with the text (as in the Arden paperbacks). That bulks it up considerably, can be had in other places, and can be left behind once one has read a play once or twice. While I'm no Shakespearean scholar myself, this edition seems to meet the editorial criteria quite well. The text appears to benefit from modern, authoritative editorship, the introductions are brief but useful, and archaic terms and phrases are defined on the page where they occur. The binding is high quality, as is the paper. This is the most portable of the modern hard-cover editions I've found, with the possible exception of the Oxford edition, which is thicker, but smaller in the other two dimensions. I decided against the Oxford because the binding is of lesser quality and Oxford has a relatively idiosyncratic editorial policy with which I don't entirely agree. Sadly, this is still a pretty big book, just small enough for a good-sized person to hold up and read in bed, and too much for an airplane or trip to the park. I wish someone would make a truly portable version! There is no reason that the entire thing couldn't be compressed into the space of a smallish bible (for those with the eyes for it!).
Rating:
Summary: Pelican Complete is best "portable" Shakespeare
Review: Pretty much any edition of Shakespeare deserves 5 stars for content. I think the question most people must have is "Which edition?" I purchased "The Complete Pelican Shakespeare" because I wanted a relatively portable, high-quality book featuring text that benefits from modern scholarship (including brief notes and glossary). I wanted an edition to read and to treasure. I should say that I didn't need extensive commentary with the text (as in the Arden paperbacks). That bulks it up considerably, can be had in other places, and can be left behind once one has read a play once or twice. While I'm no Shakespearean scholar myself, this edition seems to meet the editorial criteria quite well. The text appears to benefit from modern, authoritative editorship, the introductions are brief but useful, and archaic terms and phrases are defined on the page where they occur. The binding is high quality, as is the paper. This is the most portable of the modern hard-cover editions I've found, with the possible exception of the Oxford edition, which is thicker, but smaller in the other two dimensions. I decided against the Oxford because the binding is of lesser quality and Oxford has a relatively idiosyncratic editorial policy with which I don't entirely agree. Sadly, this is still a pretty big book, just small enough for a good-sized person to hold up and read in bed, and too much for an airplane or trip to the park. I wish someone would make a truly portable version! There is no reason that the entire thing couldn't be compressed into the space of a smallish bible (for those with the eyes for it!).
Rating:
Summary: A great introduction to Shakespeare - as it was meant to be!
Review: Several reviewers have criticized this version for its lack of commentary. This may be true. But for the reader who wants a complete collection in a beautifully bound copy, of Shakespeare's works this is an incredible bargain. You will learn much. I feel that you will actually learn more by reading it *without* commentary first. In that way you will gain your own opinion of the works. Any other way would be like someone telling you what to think of a Van Gogh and then seeing it - you would be biased. An interesting note for pop music fans - you may notice a certain 'similarity' between music by The Police and Sting and Shakespeare's sonnets. Buy this book - you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare
Review: Shakespeare's works are quite engaging. Like all great writers he wrote of "the heart in conflict with itself." It is hard to go wrong reading Shakespeare... Okay, now I'm laughing. The very idea of a review of Shakespeare is just funny for some reason. You can't review Shakespeare. And the "how many stars?" thing-- come on. This is Shakespeare we're talking about here. In other news, be sure and read "Castle of Wisdom." If you like Shakespeare, you'll totally dig it.
Rating:
Summary: THE WORKS!
Review: Shakspeare fans will absolutely love this book. "The Complete works" has everything Shakespeare wrote from plays to poetry, and has a wonderful introduction. The print is small, but it is not too small. How many of us have, throughout the years, bought the individual plays and poetry of Shakespeare? Contemplate the total cost. Now, consider that you get it all here in this book, for a reasonable price. Apparently this book is out of print, for the time being. However, if you truly love shakespeare you can find it at auctions and shops for great bargains. No lover of Shakespeare should be without this wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: THE WORKS!
Review: Shakspeare fans will absolutely love this book. "The Complete works" has everything Shakespeare wrote from plays to poetry, and has a wonderful introduction. The print is small, but it is not too small. How many of us have, throughout the years, bought the individual plays and poetry of Shakespeare? Contemplate the total cost. Now, consider that you get it all here in this book, for a reasonable price. Apparently this book is out of print, for the time being. However, if you truly love shakespeare you can find it at auctions and shops for great bargains. No lover of Shakespeare should be without this wonderful book.
Rating: 
Summary: An informative and convenient Edition
Review: The Complete Pelican Shakespeare is a very informative and most convenient edition for Shakespeare's complete works. The introduction for each play is brief enough to provide guidance without unduly delaying the reader's forage for the substance of the main text. The footnotes are kept minimum yet adequate to shed light on difficult words and passages. The Appendix or Notes on the Text (or Texts) for individual plays are quite useful. Furthermore, the quality of the pepar and binding also makes this edition attractive. It is an excellent edition for Shakespeare's fans who like to tuck a light copy of the complete works in the bag when travelling.
Rating:
Summary: This Savors Not of Much Distraction/ Orsino, 12th Night 311
Review: The indispensible edition. Others have longer prefaces; play-by-play editions even have erudite ones; and a handful have larger typeface. But this is the full body of work in one readable, reliable and reputable volume. If one were stranded on a desert island, this volume (and a suitable feminine companion) would suffice.
Rating: 
Summary: Cannot compete against better editions
Review: The modernised one-volume Oxford Complete Works edited by Wells and Taylor has little of significance to offer that is not bettered by its competitors. Its general introduction is thin and bland, and the introductions to individual plays amount to little more than one-page notes. There are no explanatory notes of any kind to accompany the words on the page, and the glossary at the end of the book offers very little help indeed. Thus readers are largely left to flounder on their own. There are certainly, as much publicity has assured us, a number of new textual features, but these are often characterised by a craving for novelty rather than that they have proved convincing or useful to many readers: fewer and fewer readers today really want two texts of *King Lear*, and the number of people inclined to believe the editorial arguments in favour of the so-called "two-text theory" is decreasing rather than growing; similarly, there are no truly good reasons for calling Falstaff "Sir John Oldcastle", etc. As the scholars who have put the edition together are very reputable and their handling of the text does deserve the attention of academics, scholars like myself do, of course, want to own a copy. But I use it sporadically, and hardly feel like recommending it to the non-specialist, who will be much better served by buying, especially, David Bevington's edition, or else - though very much as a second choice - the Riverside, or, failing that - and very much as a third choice - the Norton. - Joost Daalder, Professor of English, Flinders University (South Australia)
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