Shakespeare: Complete Works

Hi all,

I'm a newbie to both Easton Press and The Folio Society, and I've been wanting to start collecting fine books for some time now. What I'd really like is a complete works of Shakespeare - does anyone have the Easton Press 39 volume set, or has anyone seen any of these? How illustrated are they, what is the quality like, and do they contain notes for understanding of the text?

Also, does anyone know if the FS publish a similar complete works of Shakespeare?

I have both the 39 volume Easton set edition, and the original version, the Limited Editions Club set done back in 1939. The Easton Press is a photographic reprint of that original letterpress version, but with a really gorgeous leather binding (the LEC original were bound with patterned paper sides and linen on the backstrap--the Easton looks far more impressive on the shelf (and due to the thickness of the leather binding, takes almost one third more shelf space). Each play is illustrated by a different artist, and the illustrations (at least a half dozen for each play) range from classic--such as A Midsummer Night's Dream illustrated by Arthur Rackham and Boardman Robinson's King Lear--to craftsmanlike but uninspired--Robert Gibbings' Othello drawings. On the whole, I have never seen a better illustrated Shakespeare, as is to be expected since the range of artists represented the cream of mid-20th century illustrators.

There are no notes for understanding the text--no footnotes nor any marginal glosses. The text is the First Folio version, plus Quarto where no Folio version exists, with emendations and overall editing by Herbert Farjeon--the exact text used in the famous (and stratospherically priced) 7-volume Nonesuch Press Shakespeare of 1929. Thus, the spelling is not modernized and can be wayward and requires a bit of getting used to. I don't think I would recommend this as your only Shakespeare if understanding the text is a matter of importance. I have read most of the plays several times, in many different editions, and I still occasionally stumble over a line because it looks so different on the page (reading it aloud helps tremendously, as Elizabethan spelling was phonetic to the extreme)--just remember that letters such as the modern "s" were printed looking like the modern "f" and that punctuation was a matter of improvisation.

The Folio Society has published several Complete Shakespeares over the years--I have the 6 volume set from the 90s. The text is much easier to read, but the illustrations are sparse, all in black and white (mostly wood engravings), and aside from a Introduction to each play, there is no scholarly apparatus.

Thanks so much Django - this was really helpful. I studied Shakespeare at university, so have the complete works already in one volume for study, but I'm after something more visually impressive and 'special'. So, on your advice, I think the Easton set looks like the best option for me. I keep thinking of those lovely leather bindings stretching across my bookshelves... mmmmm.....

I just received a mailing for Shakespeare the Complete Works from Easton Press. This is a new 39-volume set that reproduces the 1901 ‘Chiswick’ Shakespeare. The flyer states that “the ‘Chiswick’ is celebrated for its authoritative text, modernized spellings, clear and elegant type, and, above all, the hundreds of captivating full-page illustrations by Byam Shaw, one of the revered masters if the ‘Golden Age’ of illustration.” The flyer also states that EP enlarged the format and enhanced the reproductions of Shaw’s artwork (the volumes are 5 ½”x8 ½”).

I must say that I like the illustrations in the flyer. I am tempted to order Julius Caesar as they are offering it as the introductory volume for only $10.90*. The rest of the volumes are $44.90*

*includes $4.95 shipping and handling charge.

Interesting--I know nothing about the Chiswick version of Shakespeare and haven't seen any of his illustrations. I am curious as to the merits of the text, as it was widely stated when the Nonesuch Shakespeare came out in 1929, that it was the best text ever published. The texts of Shakespeare are notoriously corrupt, and further textual editions are still coming out.

Hi. New to site, came across these posts. Have EP 39 vol Shakespeare, reprint of 1939 Ltd Editions set. Don't want to but will sell if price is reasonable...if interested email me at lmurray@citlink.net.

Lee Murray

Does anyone have the current EP Chiswick Easton? Any photographs? I am very interested in hearing about this set. Are the illustrations good? What of the editing and any scholarly or editorial apparatus?

I would have preferred the previous EP Shakespeare series (I could probably pick this up second hand) but I want to pay be installments, so that leaves only the new Easton set in the running.

I desperately need a multi volume Shakespeare. I love my single volume Aleaxander edition Shakespeare, but it's not the most practical volume for enjoying the plays.

Now I have received my first copy of the current EP Shakespeare series (Julius Caesar). I have mixed feelings about it.

The EP catalogue says of this series - "Created from one of the most beautiful of all editions of the Bard's works—the 1901 "Chiswick" Shakespeare—this set is celebrated for its authoritative text, modernized spellings, clear and elegant type, and, above all, the hundreds of captivating full-page illustrations by Byam Shaw, one of the revered masters of the "Golden Age" of illustration". I have googled the "Chiswick Shakespeare" and looked it up in my many books about Shakespeare, but I can find very little reference to the edition to verify what EP say about it.

I love the feel and heft of the volume which is an ideal size for an individual volume Shakespeare. These books are about the size of a new Everyman's Library hardback, so they are legible but still quite portable. The volume has the usual EP charm about it. The title page is also beautiful, as are many of the headings to the Acts. I must admit that I can't figure out what that peculiar design on the title page represents - I can see Shakespeare's signature but what is that thing underneath?. The plays have an introduction and notes by John Dennis - who is he? I have never heard of him and can find out nothing about him. Is he a reliable introducer or a non-entity? The illustrations are by Byam Shaw, a noted pre-Raphelite. His illustrations to the titles of the Acts are whimsical and quite charming (as you can see below in the heading to Act 1).

The Chiswick Shakespeare, which appeared in 1900, were produced in the smaller pocket sized format so beloved of British publishers until the advent of paperbacks. The problem is that in magnifying the text and illustrations any of the clarity of the original publication is lost and the defects are magnified. This shows most tellingly in the illustrations, some of which are quite muddy. See the attached illustration of Brutus standing over the body of Caesar. Whilst I can't compare this to the original, the body of Caesar is just a dark mass. Perhaps it was like that in the original - the Victorians/Edwardians were quite squeamish and shied away from depicting unpleasant matters, so perhaps Caesars body is suggestively obscured??

If you want a multi volume high quality version of the plays then there is not really any choice apart from the EP offering. I did not want the Penguin Shakespeare as they are paperbacks - lovely ones, but still disposable paperbacks devoid of charm. The Arden Shakespeare is to heavily freighted with notes and essays making it the best student's text but not the best readers Shakespeare. I have the one volume Collins Alexander text of all the plays but this is hefty and the print is tiny. The previous EP Greatest Shakespeare Library is available on Abe but is pretty expensive and obviously can't be ordered in instalments of one volume a month. In any event, those volumes utilise the First Folio spelling which, whilst it may be a purists Shakespeare, does make these difficult plays even more difficult to read. I am willing to sacrifice a little textual purity for readability - in any event, scholars are still debating which Shakespeare text is the best and it seems likely that this question will never be answered.

The current EP version is growing on me and I still want to see the series through. It is a very nice multi volume Shakespeare, and probably the best luxury edition available and whilst it has bags of EP charm, it's not perfect.

Thanks for uploading those pics Quicksilver66. For now, I only have a camera phone, but I thought I'd add a few pics from EP's 1992 series based on the Limited Editions Club "Complete Shakespeare" of 1939. The image quality is low because I only have a camera phone for now, but it should be sufficient to get a sense of them for comparison purposes.







This final pic both displays the differences in size and spines between the two editions as well as the extra volumes I have for trade:



Finally, I noticed that on the cover of the Autumn 2010 EP catalog, there are copies of the 1992 Complete Shakespeare collection on the bookshelf (second row from the bottom, center) even though it's long been OOP.

Thanks for posting those Chris.

From your photographs the 1992 collection looks aesthetically better than the current EP offering. However, I notice that the volumes are a lot larger and therefore not as portable. Portability is quite important for me with Shakespeare - I like toting his plays about whenever I travel. However, I still find the antiquated spelling quite jarring on the older version.

QS66, as you noted regarding the blown up the original Chiswick Shakespeare appears to have been Pott 8vo (4" x 6¼"), but is reprinted by EP as (5 1/2" x 8 1/2"):

http://books.google.com/books?id=uX5MAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA388&lpg=PA388&dq=...

As you may know, portable volumes used to be the height of fashion with many readers and collectors. Thomas Jefferson, for one, preferred portable volumes over all others. His favorite size for Shakespeare was duodecimo (5 by 7 3/8 inches) so the new EP's are fairly close. Because I resort to my Loebs when I need something small to read on the road, I prefer the larger 1992 volumes for Shakespeare.

As to original versus modern spelling, I prefer the original, so long as the publisher doesn't use medial s's which I can tolerate but do not prefer.

I do have a soft spot for portable volumes, Chris. I have a collection of the old Oxford Worlds Classics pocket hardbacks. I have often wished that good quality books were still produced in this format.

I would like an original spelling Shakespeare, but as an alternative rather than my main reading edition. What I was looking for in the EP was a good multi-volume reading edition that was portable enough to take on the train and on my travels. I think I have that in the current EP editions- but, alas, the perfect edition does not seem to exist.

I am often surprised that Shakespeare is not given more of a de luxe treatment by mainstream publishers, both here in the UK and in the US. There are numerous luxury editions of Tolkien, leather bound, india paper and so on, but none for the greatest writer in the English language.

Message 9 I received a flyer the other week for "The Greatest Shakespeare Library Ever Published" containing the volumes you show in your picture above. These are the Macy editions. There are 39 volumes and priced at $49.50 plus $5.25 shipping and service. This came in the shipment of my Nathaniel Hawthorne Classics I received from Easton last week.

Has anyone else received this flyer?

> 13

Very odd. According to the EP website that edition is no longer available and has been discontinued.

It is possible, the Nathaniel Hawthorne Classics set having been around for quite some time now, that the Shakespeare set was still available when your books were packaged for sale. In the interim between then and now the flyer has likely become out of date. Again, this is speculation, but it seems very plausible.

For many years that I was a subscriber to Easton Press they did not include flyers with their shipments. Later they began adding them in the envelopes they attach to the boxes with the billing information. Later still they began adding them inside the boxes with the books as well.

Including flyers in the boxes with books, knowing they may not sell for an extended time, is another practice that I feel is ill-advised for Easton Press for the very reason that it will lead to displeased customers who mentally build up to the commitment of purchasing a set of books only to discover they really aren't even available anymore.

wailofatail, that seems like a good reason to me. I didn't really think much of it at the time. I was about to throw it in the trash. It looks like a beautiful set and if I were an interested buyer, I have a feeling I would be sorely disappointed.

Thinking about the price of these books, they really don't seem inline with the pricing scale of 2010. I don't see any media codes or item numbers on this flyer.

Quicksilver, I am of course very much a fan of the LEC Shakespeare, which EP reprinted in the 1990s, and it is my preferred version for reading at home. The spelling was, at first, a bit of a surprise, but now I don't even think about it (but then I have studied Middle English extensively, and am used to seeing "through" those old variants).

I do also like a more portable Shakespeare, as he is a frequent companion on trips, and from the time I was in high school, favored the Yale Shakespeare (in the pocket-sized individual volume edition). Alas, my own set of this was ruined in a flood at my parents' home, and for years I wanted a similar collection, with less of the scholarly apparatus of the Yale and with nice illustrations. I found the ideal, for me, in the Folio Society's version from many years ago. Unfortunately it is OOP and I have been buying them up on eBay when I can find them. I suggest you look at these, as they are gems (and I wish the Society would reprint them in a nicer binding than the old versions).

I acquired The Yale Shakespeare 45+ years ago, and it is my favorite for reading. Each volume has footnotes at the bottom of each page, as well as more comprehensive notes on each scene in the back. There are also several appendices on text, date, sources, etc.

Can anyone post a picture the Yale and the FS edition OOP?

The Yale books are blue cloth covered. There are several sets available on Ebay with pictures.

> 17

Thanks Django. I will look out for the older Fs editions. I do wqish that Folio would produce something similar now rather than the exquisite, huge and massively expensive letterpress editions.

>21 Quicksilver66:

I'm in total agreement. If they would just reprint the old set, I'd buy it.

I have just received and read my second volume in this series, The Merchant of Venice. I have to say that the illustrations seem better on this volume than on Julius Caesar - they are crisper and sharper. The introduction by John Dennis seems well judged. A lovely volume.

I am still going to stick with this series.

Does anyone have an idea of the total width that all 39 volumes will use on a shelf? Just trying to library plan here. :)

> 24

Hamletscamaro,

I only have two volumes so it is difficult to judge. The paper is quite thick - as are the leather bindings, naturally. I reckon they will all take at least one full shelf to one and 1/4 of a shelf on my longer Ikea Billy bookcase.

If they are similar in thickness to the 'Greatest Shakespeare Library Ever Published', which had an equal number of volumes, you will need approximately 40" (1 m).

Quicksilver66, I would expect it would be a couple of years before you truly know the total width if you are getting one a month. However, I eagerly anticipate starting this series as it will give me a chance to reread them as they come in and even read the couple plays that I have not read yet.

wailofatail, what is this "1m" of which you speak? Since EP is an american company I would expect this to be 1 yard 4 inches. Now you can use 1m on the Folio Society threads. :) But that gives me a close enough estimation. I just wanted to plan how much space I needed to make in my Shakespeare section of shelves. Never enough space in the library....

Resurrecting an old thread...

I finally went ahead and subscribed to the current 39 vol Shakespeare set. I've received several volumes and have been pleased thus far. I just received my copy of Hamlet and noted that it has the imprint for "The 100 Greatest Books Ever Written" is on the title page. I know that the 100 Greatest Books now includes a copy of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer's Night Dream, but does anyone know if the 100 Greatest just uses the Chiswick editions, simply covered with different leather and design? I thought the new 100 Greatest editions were larger format that the Chiswick series. I have the Shakespeare Complete Works in my 100 Greatest, and I haven't bothered to pick up the 3 individual titles yet to really compare. If they are the same, I probably won't bother getting the 100 Greatest copies.

Anyone know?

>28 hamletscamaro:

The 3 included in the 100 Greatest are from the 39 volume Shakespeare set:) So it is the same 3 books in 2 separate series (or at least they were the same as of an year ago).

>28 hamletscamaro:: I second what AnnieMod says. E/P uses the same three books for both collections. It used to bother me to find the '100 Greatest' moniker in a book or two, or three, that was supposed to match other books from a complete collection. Actually, it still does bother me, now that I think of it some more.

>29 AnnieMod:, 30. Thanks to you both for your confirmation. This is as I thought. I guess it bothers me somewhat, but at the same time, perhaps it saves me money since I don't have to get various copies. I just have to worry about the Shakespeare DLEs that EP occasionally offers (The Tempest ships this week I believe.)

That said, I do like the size of this collection. It has given me an excuse/ reason to reread these as they come in monthly. Many I have not read in years and some I have never read.

This Shakespeare guy may have some talent. (I prefer to attribute the work to the Bard despite the various alternative author theories out there.)