I want Shakespeare in a compact-format, multi-volume edition.

August 17, 2006 7:16 AM

I want Shakespeare in a compact-format, multi-volume edition.

I want a series, one play per volume, and I want them small like a paperback, pocket-sized, not some fat clunky single-volume thing I cannot easily carry around. I want a hardcover edition that I will carry around in my pocket one volume at a time, and I want it to last until I die. Does such a thing exist?

posted by pracowity to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

I bought a complete set of shakespeare, three plays per volume, from barnes and noble publishing a few years ago (~4). They are little and blue and fit perfecting in your pocket. I looked online for it, but I couldn't find it. The picture actually makes it look bigger than it is.

Can't tell you where to buy it, but at least you know it exists, and at one point, B&N made it.
posted by milarepa at 7:25 AM on August 17, 2006

The Yale Shakespeare was produced in this format. It might only be available used now, but the price listed on Amazon is actually decent for 40 hardcovers.
posted by OmieWise at 7:25 AM on August 17, 2006

oy vey. perfectly, not perfecting.
posted by milarepa at 7:26 AM on August 17, 2006

Best answer: I think that this is what you're looking for, though I can't verify the sizes of the books (though they look as if they're pocket-sized).
posted by Prospero at 7:26 AM on August 17, 2006

Better than decent, actually, less than $3 per book. It's just a lot of books. I was just fondling a couple of these last weekend at the Bookthing here in Baltimore, where they were free but there were only two, and they were great, shorter than your standard mass market pb, good bindings, nice printing (if a bit small). I'd say the Yale is exactly what you want.
posted by OmieWise at 7:28 AM on August 17, 2006

Here's an ebay auction of the set which I found because I was looking for information on the size of the volumes. Bookfinder calls them 8vo=5x8 inches, but in the picture on ebay they are smaller. (Incidentally, the price is really cheap on ebay in an auction ending in two days.
posted by OmieWise at 7:49 AM on August 17, 2006

If you don't like the Yale versions, I've always appreciated the Folger editions (lots of pictures): Folger Library Shop. These were the ones I used in high school before upgrading to the Norton Complete Weightlifting Edition. Footnotes on facing pages, mass market size. Pulpy, thick pages but probably with larger text than the Yale ones.

Plus, Yale doesn't need more money. I had a friend who interned at the Folger Library and she said their basement archives flood. ; - (
posted by cowbellemoo at 9:01 AM on August 17, 2006

There is a sweet set at Costco right now - good deal, and it sounds like what you're looking for.
posted by Maia at 9:38 AM on August 17, 2006

(They sealed off the basements recently at the Folger, btw.)

I'll second the Folger editions, especially if you're going the "one book at a time" approach (like me).
posted by arco at 9:44 AM on August 17, 2006

(Sealed off as in, they no longer flood. The Folger basements, that is. I'll shut up.)
posted by arco at 9:44 AM on August 17, 2006 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: This is starting to look good.

1. Those "Folger Library Shakespeare editions" are described as "Mass Market editions" here. That means paperback, doesn't it?

2. What is Costco? Is that this place?

3. Unless I'm looking for any old garbage copy of something, I don't trust used books via mail -- I hate when I have to read some idiot's "Man vs Nature?!" and "Read by Friday!!!" notes in the margin and put up with the highlighting they always do for the first few pages until they get bored or drop the course. Also, I don't think used books ship here. Not from Amazon, anyway.

4. The Pelicans look tempting.
posted by pracowity at 11:19 AM on August 17, 2006

1)Yes, the Folger editions are mass market paperbacks. I personally like them because the accompanying notes are very good, the texts themselves are well edited, I can take them everywhere, and I can write all over them. I have several "real" editions (Norton, Arden, etc) at home for major reference (and because they look cool on the shelf), but the Folger editions are my most used versions.

2) Yup, that's Costco.
posted by arco at 11:54 AM on August 17, 2006

I wish the little Oxford Shakespeare I have was small enough for you. It's hardback, very small, very nice, but not quite pocketable. I got it in 1981, I don't know if it's still in print. For pocketable Shakespeare, I have everything on my Palm (Modern Library editions from eReader.com).
posted by lhauser at 8:59 PM on August 17, 2006