I recently purchased the 4-volume paperback set of the Third Edition, mostly because of my respect for Stephen Greenblatt, who has written about Shakespeare so well in "Will in the World" and about specific plays more recently in his very disturbing book "Tyrant". The only other complete set of Shakespeare I have is the 1-volume Riverside edition dating from my college days in the late 1970s, so in light of new scholarship, it seemed worthwhile getting a new set. My review won't focus on the plays themselves, which deserve five stars for their overall achievement, but rather on whether or not it is worth buying the Norton Third Edition in one of its formats. As you will see, upon spending my first few days with these books, I'm a bit disappointed.

First, the volumes themselves, while hardly small, are not bricks, either. So size and weight-wise, they are quite manageable. The type is definitely smaller than it should be, however. I typically read without glasses, and I can do so here, but not with much pleasure.

The introductory material, which runs 118 pages in addition to other front matter, is excellent. Greenblatt's 75-page introduction is a mini-book on Shakespeare, his times, and his plays and would be a great starting point for someone not very familiar with his works. The other essays, on the text and on the theater in Shakespeare's time are also well-written and engaging.

The text essay is also a bit disconcerting, however, in its discussion of "single-text editing" -- the practice adopted here, which means they have picked one of the multiple texts available for most of Shakespeare's plays and applied their editing to it--fixing obvious errors, modernizing spelling, standardizing the names of the characters in the speech attributions, and adding stage directions from other texts when needed for clarity. They believe this comes closest to giving us an edition that reflects something actually performed on the stage during and shortly after Shakespeare's career. On the other hand, they don't believe in the approach enough to apply it across every play. King Lear, for instance, is also presented in a "conflated" edition, as it has most often been performed, that includes all the lines from the various versions, providing something that may be called complete, but doesn't conform to how it was actually performed in the years immediately after it was written. Complicating matters even more, all the various editions are provided in the Digital Version, whose license you receive when purchasing any version of the Third Edition, including just a single volume, such as Tragedies. This is great, I suppose, for the scholars who want to delve into Shakespeare in all his permutations, but for someone who just wants to read the "best" version of a play and not have to decide which one, it is a bit confusing. The main intended audience of the Third Edition--in print and in digital--seems to be students, but only a few of them will want to go into that kind of depth, either. More importantly, this edition of Shakespeare's plays is meant for readers, so presenting a scholarly judgment of what the best, most literary version of the plays are, whether or not it was actually performed on stage, would seem a wiser course. Then you can still present all the variants in the Digital Edition. Furthermore, Shakespeare's plays continue to be edited for many performances and certainly when turned into films. What is the point of trying--even though the editors themselves admit it is next to impossible--to present an 'authentic' version from the 17th century? Oh, well. That rant is much more intense than I actually feel about the subject, but I hope some can at least see my point.

Most problematic to the study of all the play variants, the digital license only lasts one year--which may make sense in an academic environment, but is a disappointment for purchasers like myself, who might want to delve into the extra material provided online, such as performances of the songs from the plays, over the rest of our lives as we read a play now and then. Nowhere in the book itself, nor on the Norton website, or in the description on Amazon does it say the license is only for a year. I only found out from reading reviews. I haven't activated my own license yet. I figure I'll save it for when I have a lot o time or an interest that demands it. It appears that you can acquire a license for $42.50 on the Norton website, so if you are a budding Shakespeare scholar, I guess that is a small enough recurring cost.

Each volume includes an introduction to the type of play in that volume. Greenblatt's introduction here, to Tragedies, is fairly brief but clearly shows how Shakespeare's tragedies differ significantly from the model Greek tragedy. The plays themselves include the usual extensive footnotes, but helpfully, problematic words are defined to the right of the line in which they appear, making it easier to read the text without constantly moving back and forth to the bottom of the page. Ideally, you'll be able to skip the lengthier footnotes, some of which seem to be stating the obvious.

Each play receives its own introduction, a textual introduction, and a performance note. I have only read the one for Titus Andronicus so far, but it does a good job of explaining the origin of Shakespeare's bloodiest play and putting it in some context. The bibliography for each play provides references to books and articles, but also lists film versions. Each item in the bibliography includes a sentence or two describing its importance, which is nice.

The Appendices in the back are also repeated in each of the four volumes of my edition. The first essay, on maps, is somewhat interesting, but falls well short of the introductory material, and the maps themselves are nothing special. This is followed by a Documents section, specific to each volume and much expanded in the Digital Edition, with "some early perspectives on Shakespeare's reputation and the works included in this volume." This includes reproductions of material from the First Folio, including Ben Jonson's poem in praise of Shakespeare. The next part, a timeline, will be helpful to purchasers of this 4-volume set who want to skip between volumes to read the plays in the best-guess chronological order in which they are presented in the 1- and 2-volume editions. Finally, there is a glossary and a list of reference books. All in all, the Appendices seem a bit lacking in depth of detail, ceding that to the Digital Edition with its problematic license.

Each volume also includes genealogy charts in heavier paper at the front and back, which reflect the Kings and Queens of England as depicted in Shakespeare's plays (including some fictional or composite characters) and the Houses of Lancaster and York. These charts are somewhat difficult to follow and could have been much better done. ( )

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