Everyman Shakespeare

July 19, 2010 2:51 PM

Is the 'Everyman Shakespeare' series available in other formats?

There is a series of cheap paperbacks of Shakespeare's plays called the "Everyman Shakespeare" that I see around used book stores a lot (totally different in content, in spite of the name, from the hardcover "Everyman's Library" editions of Shakespeare.) These paperbacks are interesting: for one thing, they don't modernize the spelling, which I haven't come across in any other affordable edition of the plays. The physical format bothers me, though--really cheaply-printed. Was the content of the series ever published in any other format, like a hardback 'Complete Works' volume?

posted by Paquda to writing & language (4 answers total)

a good Shakespeare is the RSC Complete Shakespeare that has everything and with decent introductions. It wasn't cheap on release (€40s here) but you can get it in paper and hardback now at a reduced price.

Another thing - if you're associated with a university or a very big public library - is to try and get printouts of editions from Early English Books online, which would give you tons of variants if you were looking for non-modernised editions etc.
posted by iamnotateenagegirl at 3:16 PM on July 19, 2010

You're thinking of the John F. Andrews edition (mentioned here in Ron Rosenbaum's The Shakespeare Wars) and there are used hardback versions available if you search for "The Guild Shakespeare". No single-volume complete works, though.
posted by holgate at 8:08 PM on July 19, 2010

Thank you
posted by Paquda at 7:43 AM on July 20, 2010

As a follow-up--

I've ordered several volumes of the Guild Shakespeare and really like it. The books are compact and neat. The commentary by John Andrews is a bit eclectic, but suits me well. One conspicuous feature is that he frequently notes parallels to biblical passages. Text and commentary are not the same as the Everyman paperbacks, but pretty close. I was wrong to say that the spelling isn't modernized--the editing is an eclectic blend of modernization and retention of original features.

On a related note, in terms of just finding an edition of Shakespeare that doesn't modernize the spelling, I found an edition, the 'Nonesuch Shakespeare' in 4 volumes, 'Comedies', 'Histories', 'Tragedies', and 'Poems'. It was published in 1953 and copies are floating around on the used book sites for reasonable prices. It's really beautifully done.
posted by Paquda at 9:08 AM on August 20, 2010