Product Description

Bound in real cloth, top edge gilt, head and tailbands, ribbon marker, embossed jacket, black & white frontispiece, three-column setting for ease of reading. It is illustrated throughout with 500 of Sir John Gilbert?s (1817-97) superb woodcuts engraved by Thomas Dalziel (1823-1906) and Edward Dalziel (1817-1905). With his prolific historical paintings, John Gilbert was often referred to as "The Scott of Painting," although he was equally active as a book illustrator, producing cuts for editions of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Sir Walter Scott, and other writers venerated during the Victorian era, as well as such contemporary and popular writers as Dickens. ?It is in virtue of his achievements in black and white that he takes his place among the few masters, not of his age and country only, but of all time.? The Magazine of Art This newly re-set edition of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, contains all the plays and poems; the plays are arranged in the chronological order of their composition, not gathered into comedies, histories and tragedies - the traditional method dating from the first folio, and contains synopses of each play and poem. The text is taken from the Shakespeare Head Press, The Stratford Town Shakespeare edited by Arthur Henry Bullen, and this new edition contains John Aubrey?s Brief Life of Shakespeare, a bibliography, biography of Sir John Gilbert, an account of The Shakespeare Head Press edition and listing of Shakespeare?s major characters.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76756 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 720 pages

Customer Reviews

Looks lavish & cheap at the same time
I haven't bought this, but did see it in a bookshop and thought it looked really eye catching. However on closer examination it was very disappointing. The pages seem nicely printed with gold edging, but the binding, once the soft paper dust jacket comes off, is very cheap and tacky looking cloth not very well stuck to board.

Very disappointing. I'm still looking for something better looking.

Shakespeare for true geeks
If shakespeare is your bag, then this book is perfect. It has all the plays (including some of the more random) as well as a collection of his sonnets and poems. Each page has some illustration with a quote taken from one of his classic stories and the pages are well laid out and easy to read

The book is beautifully presented with a golden internal spine and certainly had a real weight and quality to it.

The only criticism i could make is that it is large, and heavy (my book self struggled) but it really is worth building a new bookself just for this collection. It is a real treasure to have and i thoroughly reccomend it.