The Complete Works

The Oxford Shakespeare brings the modern reader closer to Shakespeare's plays as originally performed than has ever before been possible. Based on eight years of full-time research by a team of distinguished British and American scholars, this monumental volume offers many remarkable innovations, including a new chronological order, revised stage directions, two full versions of King Lear--as originally written and as revised later for performance--and the complete text of The Two Noble Kinsmen. The Compact Edition packs all these features into a portable and inexpensive single volume. In addition, a lucid General Introduction by Stanley Wells and brief introductions to each play provide a wealth of background information. Hailed by The Washington Post as a definitive synthesis of the best editions of recent decades and by The Times of London as a monument to Shakespearian scholarship, it is an ideal travel companion on vacations or trips and a perfect gift for literature lovers young and old.