New to Shakespeare - Help me find my perfect edition!

DiskuteraThe Globe: Shakespeare, his Contemporaries, and Context

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New to Shakespeare - Help me find my perfect edition!

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1justanotherjohn
Redigerat: jan 28, 2016, 12:17 pm

I've decided the time has come for me to seriously start reading Shakespeare. As a reader of the classics, I know the right edition can make or break the reading experience. Based on my personal taste, I'm looking for the following:

-Single editions. Hardback or paperback is fine, as long as they look nice on the shelf. An example of a nice-looking paperback series to me is the Oxford World Classics Series.

-Wide margins (single column)

-Footnotes (not endnotes). A reasonable amount, I guess, to explain a lot of what was known in the plays by the audience of the time but not so now.

-Brief but informative introductions.

Any recommendations are much appreciated!

2mstrust
Redigerat: feb 1, 2016, 7:38 pm

I happen to have the Yale Shakespeare set and have been very happy with it. Each play is its own lightweight hardcover book, with single columns and footnotes. In mine, the 1920's editions, I've come across just a couple of introductions, but I don't know if more were added with later printings. They aren't eye-catching, being just medium blue and plain. For beauty, I have the Riverside Shakespeare.

3alaudacorax
feb 2, 2016, 6:55 am

On the whole, for really getting to grips with a play I'll always go for the Oxford World Classics. Good, lengthy introductions and helpful notes at the bottom of each page - some scholars are not such skilled writers as others so on occasion you have to rather wade through an introduction, but, so far, I've always found them worthwhile.

4justanotherjohn
feb 2, 2016, 2:37 pm

Thanks to both of you!

5messpots
feb 3, 2016, 5:15 pm

I have different editions for different plays. I try to find out which edition might be better for the particular play I intend to read. The Yale UP editions I have (MND, JC) are terrible. The Penguins have good supplementary material, but the notes are at the back. The very witty LLL drove me crazy, because I didn't get all of the jokes and had to turn to the back all the time. My Cambridge UP editions are uniformly good. But my favourites, for giving me the supplementary material I really want (performance history and interviews, as well as notes), are the RSC editions.

6Crypto-Willobie
feb 3, 2016, 8:40 pm

There are also the Arden series(es). They are currently finishing up Arden III, with Arden IV being planned, but even most of the Arden IIs (1950s thru 1980s) are worth a look. One possible drawback is that some might consider them TOO long on introductions and heavy on (foot-of-page) annotation. I like the Oxford and Cambridge but when I want to use a single-play volume I almost always reach for an Arden first.

7Podras.
feb 4, 2016, 11:09 am

For single volume plays, I second the recommendation for the Arden editions, primarily for the extremely extensive introductory material and footnotes that can sometimes take up as much as 80% of a page. It is hard to imagine anything with more supplementary information. It is always possible to skip all of that and just read Shakespeare's text, so the extra stuff isn't really in the way. That is a recommended approach for the first read of a play anyway. Later when delving deeper, the information is available.

8messpots
feb 4, 2016, 4:13 pm

Some plays are omitted by some publishers; I could find Edward III only in Cambridge UP, and Sir Thomas More only in Arden.

9TheHumbleOne
feb 5, 2016, 5:42 am

The RSC published an edition of Edward III to tie in with their production back in the noughties - I'd go with the Cambridge though (although I'm not entirely sure the Countess of Salisbury scenes are by Mr Shakespeare).

I think you are right about Sir Thomas More.

More generally I too am an Arden man although other editions jostle for attention on my shelves. I'm not sure the notes are all that more intrusive than those of Oxford Classics whilst Arden has the advantage of a larger, more readable typeface fro those notes. For those not keen on notes there is something to be said for Penguin although, as already pointed out, they use end notes which can be a pain.

PS Personally I rather enjoy the various performance based editions but can't recommend them as a sole choice.

10TheHumbleOne
Redigerat: feb 5, 2016, 5:45 am

>6 Crypto-Willobie:
Another Arden edition! Will the line stretch out to the crack of doom? How will my wallet cope - let alone the shelves?

11Crypto-Willobie
feb 5, 2016, 10:31 am

>10 TheHumbleOne:
We may not find out -- depends on how long we live. Arden II took about 30 yrs to complete and Arden III about 25. Arden IV is only in planning stages I believe.

12TheHumbleOne
feb 5, 2016, 10:48 am

>11 Crypto-Willobie:
LOL
Do not speak like a death's head, do not bid me remember mine end.

13Crypto-Willobie
feb 5, 2016, 11:38 am

>12 TheHumbleOne:
... keep the wolf far thence...

14TheHumbleOne
feb 5, 2016, 1:57 pm

>13 Crypto-Willobie:
A cheery cove was Mr Webster.

15proximity1
Redigerat: feb 16, 2016, 11:19 am

I recommend The Bantam Books six-volume complete works edited by David Bevington and with prefaces by the stage director, Joseph Papp. These present the texts with notes on variations from differing editions--First Folio, the Quartos, etc. The footnotes give clear glosses on Shakespeare's meanings with alternatives when a meaning is disputed or unclear from the earliest editions. It also offers valuable appendices where one can read historic criticisms and literary sources of the plays.

You shall have in these 6 volumes
everything needed to start reading any play, poem or sonnet and get good insight into it.

16Podras.
feb 18, 2016, 9:10 pm

I have no direct experience with Bevington's Shakespeare, but I note from the blurb about the book on Amazon the following statement: "The seventh edition of this comprehensive anthology addresses the two key issues confronted by readers approaching Shakespeare today: a lack of knowledge about the historical period and difficulty with the language of Shakespeare's plays."

The notion that we can't know much about Shakespeare because of a paucity in the historical record is being pushed by anti-Shakespeareans to try to discredit the certainty of scholars that the glover's son from Stratford was the author of the works bearing his name. It is true that there is a lot more we would like to know about Shakespeare and the time in which he lived, but we also have a lot more information about both of those things than most people realize. As for the narrow question about whether Shakespeare of Stratford was the real author, see How We Know That Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare: The Historical Facts.

17Crypto-Willobie
feb 18, 2016, 9:15 pm

>16 Podras.:

Thank you.

Incidentally both of the authors of that page are LT members.

18Podras.
feb 18, 2016, 9:26 pm

A new all-in-one volume edition of Shakespeare's works was released last year, The Norton Shakespeare, 3rd Edition. Besides featuring a newly edited text that "reflects current textual-editing scholarship and introduces innovative pedagogic features", there is a digital edition included in the purchase price of the book that contains everything the paper version has and a lot more, too. See this link for more information.

I can't yet speak from personal experience about it, but if it is at least as good as the 2nd edition which I do have, then it is probably well worth the price. Down side? Very thick, very heavy, very thin paper. For single play editions, I still recommend Arden.

19Crypto-Willobie
feb 18, 2016, 9:42 pm

Ha! when I saw you were writing about the new Norton I was going to mention that I had recently acquired it (though I don't necessarily need more editions of Shakespeare), in part specifically to read Holger Schott Syme's essay therein. (And fwiw, Syme is also on LT.)

20Podras.
Redigerat: feb 18, 2016, 9:44 pm

>17 Crypto-Willobie:

Thank you, I didn't know that. I hope they like seeing links to their work. If anti-Shakespeareans become more active here, there are many more links likely to be posted. Their whole site is extremely impressive.

21Podras.
feb 18, 2016, 9:46 pm

>20 Podras.:

Ditto. ;-)

22Crypto-Willobie
feb 18, 2016, 11:10 pm

>20 Podras.:

Podras, have you seen this older thread in this group?
http://www.librarything.com/topic/61010
Includes some posts by Dave Kathman.

23Podras.
feb 19, 2016, 12:31 am

>22 Crypto-Willobie:

Thank you very much for pointing that thread out. I haven't spent much time here--mostly just in LT's Library of America group--and the few posts I've made were timely by happenstance. I can see that I've got some interesting reading ahead of me. :-)

24MarleneMacke
apr 9, 2016, 3:57 pm

The RSC editions are my favourites; they are as up-to-date in terms of Shakespeare studies as you can get, the essays are excellent, and best of all, they are among the least expensive editions available. I buy any edition if I spot one in a used book store bin or yard sale, and have multiple editions of most of the plays in my collection. But when I want a play I don't have, I ALWAYS buy the RSC edition.

25MarleneMacke
apr 9, 2016, 3:59 pm

I happen to own Bevington's Shakespeare; it's not one of my favourites, but if I'm researching and writing an essay, I like to consider a lot of different points of view.