
Complete Works of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare(Author)
Peter Alexander(Editor)
HarperCollins (Publisher)
Published on 1. May 1994
Book
Paperback/Softback
1488 pages
978-0-00-470474-6 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
This single-volume edition of the complete works of William Shakespeare includes commissioned introductions to each of the plays and poems by a team of academics, including John Jowett and Philip Hobsbaum, with a textual introduction by the Shakespearean scholar Alec Yearling explaining the significance of the Alexander edition. This volume also includes a biography of Shakespeare by Germaine Greer and an introduction to Shakespeare's theatre by Anthony Burgess.
Reviews / Votes
'A symbol in the history of our national culture' - The GuardianMore details
Series
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Illustrations
glossary, bibliography
Dimensions
Height: 204 mm
Width: 131 mm
Thickness: 64 mm
Weight
1122 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-470474-6 (9780004704746)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions

William Shakespeare | Prof. Peter Alexander
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
The Alexander Text
Book
04/2006
Collins
€24.00
Available immediately
Previous edition
William Shakespeare | Peter Alexander
Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Book
04/1985
Collins
€31.13
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Persons
The mystery of Shakespeare's rise to literary eminence is demonstrated by the fact that his suspected parents were illiterate. He was born on April 23rd 1564, and of the years that intervened between his christening and his appearance on the London stage, nothing is known. He must have gone at least to dame school, and from the age of six or seven to the King's New Grammar School. In the lower school he would have studied Latin. In the upper school he would have studied rhetoric and logic, Cicero, Quintilian, Ovid, Virgil and Horace and have begun the study of Greek. These studies were all the literary training that any Elizabethan poet received. In the 1590s there was no profession of letters. Poetry was practised as an accomplished pastime by gentlemen and scholars. It is therefore impossible to document with certainty Shakespeare's development from his birth to the publication of his poem Venus and Adonis in 1593. The only documented event in these years is the rather unconventional marriage of William Shakespeare, aged eighteen with Anne Hathaway, an heiress, six or seven years older and pregnant. The only other documentation we have before 1592 relates to the children Anne bore William; Susanna in May 1583, and the twins Hamnet and Judith in 1585. William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright the world has seen, and produced an astonishing amount of work; 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 5 poems. On April 23rd 1616, aged 52 years to the day, Shakespeare died and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.