The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works

I'm not a Shakespeare scholar, so this is my casual user-experience review with the things I've grown comfortable with compared to the 2nd Edition norton over the years.As for this book, the binding, text size, durability is all hands down, of top quality. The only thing extra I could dream of is a corded bookmark sewn in.The language and diction notes appear as footnotes on the bottom of the page. In the norton, I've grown accustomed to letting my eyes wander past the margins to see the vocabulary notes "as it happens," line by line. I find it distracting to lose my place and peer down to the bottom of the page to see if a footnote even exists for the line I'm on...because they are not marked within the set text.Secondly, I find it irritating that the editors chose to organize Hamlet by overall scene number instead of Act and Scene. Hamlet, arguably the most famous work in the book, is therefore referenced almost ubiquitously by the standard method; for example if you know the To be or not to be soliloquy is in Act 3.1, you cannot flip through the pages quickly and look it up by Hamlet 3.1 - you have to memorize or translate that info into Scene 8 in this book, and remember that forevermore. This is the only play organized at the top of the page by overall scene, and I'm sure it has something to do with scholarship of the folios, but I find it annoying.A four star book still well-deserving of a spot on your bookshelf!

After my 50+ year-old Kitteredge Complete Shakespeare was water-damaged by a 6-lb Chihuahua, who enjoyed using it as a pee stop on his way 'round my library, I went looking for a replacement. After looking at all of the currently (and recently) available Complete Works editions, I decided to order the clothbound edition of The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works. I received it today, and couldn't be more pleased at the many additional works which are included in this edition, which includes anything that is currently thought to have been authored in whole or in part by Shakespeare, as well as lost (original) works by Shakespeare that were preserved in adaptations by his contemporaries. The entire binding, endpapers, and boards are the beautiful, traditional-quality "Oxford Blue" materials that OUP books are known for. The paper, while thin, is durable, opaque, and the pages flip easily, as is appropriate for a 3,000+ page single volume. The volume's size will fit on a standard bookshelf, unlike my old Kittredge Shakespeare, which was so large that it had to be laid on its side. The volume's weight is about 1/3 of my old, ruined edition (Can I ever remember lugging that ancient, gigantic tome to class three times a week!). The only issue that I could find, with this wonderful new edition, is the 1-year subscription card to all 3 complete online editions of The New Oxford Shakespeare, which is bound-in at the beginning of the volume. The web link that is provided goes nowhere (such is the ephemeral nature of URL's). However, with a bit of digging around, I found the correct link, which I am including here. For some buyers this will not be a necessity, for others like me, it may be important, but either way, enjoy your new Complete Shakespeare! This link is probably the only way that you will be able to access those additional online resources, other than emailing the Press for help (please remove the spaces that I inserted, there are no spaces in a URL, but please leave the period/full stops, as they are needed--they are not "punctuation," they are part of the URL!): https: //www. oxfordscholarlyeditions .com/page/ 20/how-to-subscribe

I own 6 editions of the Bard: (5)Bevington, (2)RSC 2nd, (4)Riverside, (1)Pelican, (3)Norton 3rd, (6)New Oxford. This is a review of New Oxford: The book is handsome and complete. The typeface is beautiful; the footnotes and stage directions are helpful. The introduction is thoughtful and easy to understand. Instead of play synopses, there are various quotes from the literati--which I found refreshing and very informative. The text is divided into scenes AND act/scene notations. The poem, "Shall I die..." is in the section 17th Century attributions to Shakespeare--which is where it belongs. There are selections from Sir Thomas More,Cardenio, and Spanish Tragedy. Edward III, Two Noble Kinsmen are complete. A new addition to the canon, Arden of Faversham, is also complete. However, there are terrible typos: To wit, in a b/w photo of Zeffirelli's Hamlet the book says it was made in 1970. No! 1990! Kinsmen features a numerical sequence replacing the character's name. This is unacceptable and annoying. If you feel the same, Do yourself a favor and buy the RSC or Pelican. They are excellent, and available at bargain prices from Amazon. Shakespeare will thank you!

I am not a student or teacher, I bought this edition because it seemed to be the most readable and best formatted for the casual reader. Many all-in-one editions I have found do not include the various word meaning sections, which is a big thing for me- someone who really needs a hand here and there to tell what's being said. This edition delivers on those things very well- the text is clean and clear, with the notes only taking up about 1/5 of the page at most (I have seen Arden editions have notes that's take up 90% of the page- making the text unreadable).There are a few problems however that some people may deem deal breakers:- As an Oxford lead edition there is some heavy bias towards the idea of Shakespeare's authorship, which anyone who is aware of the Oxford debate may find annoying. That said, it only appears in the introductory portions, so the text itself is untouched by this stupidity.- There is no scene summary's like in the Folger editions, so regardless of the word meaning notes, some portions of the play can be a little confusing if your not familiar with it. This can be alleviated with SparkNotes, but at that point you might as well be reading they're No Fear translation.- pages are also very thin, its to be expected with an edition over 3000 pages, but be warned. The hardcover edition is heavily recommended for this reason. Outside of the above the book is perfect, I'm enjoying reading it- despite the struggle with some parts at times. Looks very attractive on a shelf too, if your into curating your own personal library.

It should be made clear(er) that the Kindle version does not load on the Kindle device. On my iPad it is a beauty: typographically elegant with useful page guides and a better note mechanism than I've had on my Kindle. My fourth read-through-Shakespeare is proving to be the easiest physically. As to the text I'm not competent to comment...but the footnotes at least match the quality of the RSC's, and the right-margin notes on staging are a welcome aid to my impoverished visual imagery. The criticism that the plays are not introduced by explanatory essays falls on my deaf ears. I'd think that anyone who wants to read a complete Shakespeare has access to endless (online) introductory essays, from Hazlitt and Samuel Johnson to contemporary scholars. Instead each play is prefaced by snippets of punchy comments ranging from Shakespeare's contemporaries to ours. They don't prepare you for the play but they're delights to read...perhaps best after reading the play.

Die neue "Modern Critical Edition" der renommierten Oxford University Press ist seit Oktober 2016 auf dem Markt und zugleich der erste Band einer 4-Bändigen Reihe der "New-Oxford-Shakespeare" (NOS)-Ausgaben. Damit wurde sie pünktlich zu William Shakespeares 400. Todestag (1616-2016) veröffentlicht.Die Ausgabe selbst enthält neben einer knapp 60-seitigen Einführung in Shakespeares Vermächtnis, sowie die vorliegende Ausgabe, alle Werke des berühmten englischen Dramatikers, wobei erstmals die genaue Autorenschaft (Shakespeare mit/ohne Kollaborateur) unter die Lupe genommen wurde. So finden sich neben den kanonischen Werken auch die Shakespeare zugeschriebenen Teile von "Cardenio" oder "Sir Thomas More".Das Werk an sich nimmt sich mit ca. 3380 Seiten gewaltig aus (da einspaltig - dies erleichtert jedoch die Lektüre ungemein, glauben Sie mir!), und kann daher nicht mal "kurz nebenher" gelesen werden. Allein schon seine schiere physische Masse verlangt einem volle Aufmerksamkeit ab; diese wird dem Gesamtwerk Shakespeares aber auch irgendwie gerecht.Im Gegensatz zur zweibändigen "Critical Reference Edition" kommt die "Modern Critical Edition" zwar ohne kritischen Textapparat und Original-Schreibweise daher, macht das Verständnis des Textes dadurch aber zugleich sehr viel leichter ("slave" anstelle von "slaue"). Daneben bietet sie zusätzlich Worterklärungen zu englischen Begriffen, die heute eventuell so nicht mehr verwendet werden, bzw. ihre Bedeutung geändert haben.Jedem Shakespeare-Freund kann ich diese sorgfältig recherchierte Ausgabe ans Herz legen. Die Qualität rechtfertigt den Preis (bis auf einen kleinen Serienverschreiber im Seitenheader zu "Much [A]do about Nothing").EDIT: Leider hat der Fehlerteufel auch noch an anderer Stelle zugeschlagen, eine "second edition" wäre daher zu bergüßen... :-(Als Schmankerl obendrauf spendiert OUP jedem Käufer dieser "Basisausgabe" einen 12-monatigen Zugriff auf die NOS-Datenbank, darin inbegriffen sind auch die beiden Bände der "Critical Reference Edition" (sobald online verfügbar!!) sowie der Begleitband "Authorship Companion" in dem die neuesten Forschungsergebnisse zur Autorenschaft der Werke Shakespeares dargelegt werden. Wenn man bedenkt dass eine 12-monatige Mitgliedschaft bei NOS-Online normalerweise 340 GBP kostet, kann man da doch echt nicht meckern...^^Bei mir hat die "Modern Reference Edition" eine während des Studiums billig erstandene Komplettausgabe (Wordsworth Editions) ersetzt, deren Druckbild mir jedoch auf Dauer zu klein geraten schien. Damit ist sie mein zweiter (und vermutlich auch letzter) "Shakespeare".

以前のオクスフォード版をどこかに無くしたので、Kindle版を求めました。初めは高い！とも思いましたが、検索が簡単なので紙より便利ですね。解説付きなので分かりやすい。The kindle version is bloody expensive but is worth it due to the searching ability it has. I was able to search within a minute about certain phrases I wanted to look up while the paper version would take me forever searching. There are different opinions about this translation or interpretation of Shakespeare plays, but I am not a scholar who spends lifetime discussing about different versions of his plays.

Essential copy of the world's greatest poet and playwright.