A Year in Books/Day 167: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Volume 1 and Volume 2

Posted on by
  • Title: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Volume 1 and Volume 2
  • Editors: W.G. Clark and W. Aldis Wright
  • Year Published: Unknown (Nelson Doubleday, Inc.)
  • Year Purchased: Unknown
  • Source: I swiped these from my grandparents when I was a kid.
  • About: I’ve had this set since I was in fifth grade. I remember picking through it, delicately at first, before gaining steam (and confidence) and plowing through every word. Everything. What I didn’t understand (the majority, to be sure) I loved any way. The words were so alive, magical. I could picture things, even if those images were often fuzzy or incomplete. These books are loved like few others in my collection. A decade later and I was studying Shakespearean Theatre. I no longer act (except in my head), but I still read the plays aloud. How can you not? The Bard of Avon is ever enchanting.
  • Motivation: I had already read my way through most of my elders’ books, including two sets of encyclopedias and various dictionaries and almanacs. I was 10. Shakespeare seemed like the logical next step.
  • Times Read: Unknown
  • Random Excerpt/Page 56: “Thus, with its apparent lightness, there is a serious spirit underlying the play; but the surface is all jest, and stir, and sparkle. It is a comedy of dialogue rather than of incident.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10++++
    Title page of the First Folio, 1623. Copper en...

    Title page of the First Folio, 1623. Copper engraving of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

Leave a comment