---
product_id: 2064911
title: "The Norton Shakespeare"
price: "₱25451"
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reviews_count: 13
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---

# The Norton Shakespeare

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- **What is this?** The Norton Shakespeare
- **How much does it cost?** ₱25451 with free shipping
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## Description

Instructors and students worldwide welcomed the fresh scholarship, lively and accessible introductions, helpful marginal glosses and notes, readable single-column format, all designed in support of the goal of the Oxford text: to bring the modern reader closer than before possible to Shakespeare's plays as they were first acted. Now, under Stephen Greenblatt's direction, the editors have considered afresh each introduction and all of the apparatus to make the Second Edition an even better teaching tool.

Review: The Edition of Editions - Dearest reviewers, interested buyers, students, etc. etc, Hyperboles are usually pompous and pointless unless they're written like Kurt Vonnegut or Orwell would express them. They are exclusive and tend to say more about the person making them than about the thing being praised. But once in a while I think we have a right to make them, when the subject earns it. So it is with the Norton. I love Shakespeare. I have studied him (and works about him) for years now in most imaginable mediums, and have at one point or another owned every important edition of his complete works there is. But I keep on coming back to the Norton, which is an astonishing labor of love, devotion, respect and meticulous scholarship. The Norton and the Riverside, most people agree these are the two supreme editions. But I prefer the second edition of the Norton. This is why: -It is new. Published in 2008, it contains the most recent scholarship, along with the Bate's RSC and Bevington's sixth and seventh editions. It's based on Mr. Stanley Wells's Oxford Edition, which most (but not all) scholars consider the crowning achievement of twentieth century Shakespeare studies. It'll probably seem just as new in 2020 as now. -It is well-respected. Stephen Greenblatt, a brilliant fellow, is the chief editor of the Norton. His Will in the World was on the NY Times bestseller list for weeks and he's practically the father of one of the main branches of literary theory alive today. He probably knows what he's doing better than most of us. Harold Bloom (who's obviously insane) hates the Oxford Edition, which the Norton is based on, but Marjorie Garber used the first edition of the Norton for her bestselling book 'Shakespeare After All,' probably the most read book of Shakespeare criticism of the decade. If such an illustrious scholar thinks it's the edition to use, surely it's not so bad as the critics say. Besides, the Norton doesn't retain the Oxford's quirkier emendations. Hamlet has everything you could imagine; Falstaff is still Falstaff, thank God; Troilus and Cressida retains its epilogue. King Lear, like in the Oxford, comes in three editions. This is really great because there are two totally different editions of the play, and what most people have read until now was a conflated version. Now, the brave of the world can observe the play in two stages of Shakespeare's consciousness (or editorial process, which you will). Great stuff. -It is compact. Unlike the RSC, it does not fall apart after being opened twice. Its binding is not sewn, but it will last at least three decades with proper management, and more if you buy glue for five bucks from desertcart to patch it up when little cracks start to appear. -It is simple. The cover is classical and it doesn't scratch easily, and it comes with a slipcase, which is a great bonus. -The format is one-column. Makes reading easy and less daunting. It's like reading those individual Folger editions. -It is cheap. It's selling for only $40-something now; when desertcart doesn't have the slipcased edition ready, it sells for around $70, which is still a little less than Riverside and Bevington. -Its introduction is extraordinary. New Historicist mostly, with lost of cultural materialism and not a lot of metaphysics or actual focus on criticism, but it's the best introduction to Shakespeare's time in any complete works. The introductions to the individual plays are always enlightening, and there are bibliographies and film lists before each play, too. Nice pictures too. Who can ask for more? -The notes are superb. There are more than in the Riverside or the Pelican (the first 5 or so lines of Antony and Cleopatra have nearly twice as many notes in the Norton as in the Riverside). They are written on the same line as the text, with bubbles next to the unusual word, which saves a lot of time when you're reading. The first part of Henry IV took me about three hours to read in this one; in most other editions it takes four or five. -It has everything Shakespeare wrote, unlike the RSC, which lacks A Lover's Complaint based on Brian Vickers's argument that John Davies wrote it. The argument is impressive but unproven. It also has Kinsmen, unlike The Pelican. It has Shakespeare's Will and lots of cool documents related to his life. No Edward III, but its authorship remains unprovable, so a justifiable emission. -When all's said and done and you still don't like this book, just use it as a weight. You'll be fit for the next Olympics in no time and you'll save lots of gym money. There are some other things, but these are the main reasons why I love the Norton. There will always be naysayers and critics. Some will argue about the thinness of the paper, the strangeness of the text, the thickness of the book. But we must look at the advantages and compare them with the disadvantages. I am glad I came across the Norton and I consider it my most prized secular book. And so it should be in every English-speaking home. It is an edition worthy of The Poet's eternally inspiring and inspired works and of the library of any scholar, teacher or student of the human soul. I hope this helped prospective buyers. And so ends my catechism.
Review: Explanatory Notes Are Awesome! - I want to preface this by saying while I'm not qualified to evaluate the scholarship behind the notes and essays on the plays in this edition because I don't have any sort of background that would allow me to do so, to me it seems to be a highly useful edition. This is something I bought as a gift for myself, not for part of a class, because while I enjoy reading Shakespeare's plays, neither the digital edition nor the previous print edition I owned had much in the way of notes that explained differences in word connotations and denotations (meanings for somethings have shifted or mutated a bit over time) or cultural references that audiences in his day would have understood but are more obscure now. This edition has explanatory notes galore, and I feel like it has improved my enjoyment of reading these plays tremendously and it's like adding flesh onto a skeleton how different they look to me when I'm reading from this edition. I have found this edition is also very helpful to understand the "slang" of the day. I grew up in the '80's, right? So, I get "rad" and what it means, but there's a possibility someone who grew up 30 years later would have to google it. So I would say it's definitely a thing of value that has improved my understanding of this work. There is also a bit of an overview of the relevant history for the time period Shakespeare was writing at the beginning of this edition that I found helpful as well. I bought my copy used, and it came in great shape. So just from the perspective of a casual reader who enjoys great literature, I found this edition to be very helpful in enhancing my enjoyment and understanding of these plays and can definitely recommend it from that standpoint.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #940,933 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #114 in Drama & Play Anthologies (Books) #188 in English Literature #1,904 in European Poetry (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 181 Reviews |

## Images

![The Norton Shakespeare - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/717aXIekCaL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Edition of Editions
*by P***C on March 14, 2013*

Dearest reviewers, interested buyers, students, etc. etc, Hyperboles are usually pompous and pointless unless they're written like Kurt Vonnegut or Orwell would express them. They are exclusive and tend to say more about the person making them than about the thing being praised. But once in a while I think we have a right to make them, when the subject earns it. So it is with the Norton. I love Shakespeare. I have studied him (and works about him) for years now in most imaginable mediums, and have at one point or another owned every important edition of his complete works there is. But I keep on coming back to the Norton, which is an astonishing labor of love, devotion, respect and meticulous scholarship. The Norton and the Riverside, most people agree these are the two supreme editions. But I prefer the second edition of the Norton. This is why: -It is new. Published in 2008, it contains the most recent scholarship, along with the Bate's RSC and Bevington's sixth and seventh editions. It's based on Mr. Stanley Wells's Oxford Edition, which most (but not all) scholars consider the crowning achievement of twentieth century Shakespeare studies. It'll probably seem just as new in 2020 as now. -It is well-respected. Stephen Greenblatt, a brilliant fellow, is the chief editor of the Norton. His Will in the World was on the NY Times bestseller list for weeks and he's practically the father of one of the main branches of literary theory alive today. He probably knows what he's doing better than most of us. Harold Bloom (who's obviously insane) hates the Oxford Edition, which the Norton is based on, but Marjorie Garber used the first edition of the Norton for her bestselling book 'Shakespeare After All,' probably the most read book of Shakespeare criticism of the decade. If such an illustrious scholar thinks it's the edition to use, surely it's not so bad as the critics say. Besides, the Norton doesn't retain the Oxford's quirkier emendations. Hamlet has everything you could imagine; Falstaff is still Falstaff, thank God; Troilus and Cressida retains its epilogue. King Lear, like in the Oxford, comes in three editions. This is really great because there are two totally different editions of the play, and what most people have read until now was a conflated version. Now, the brave of the world can observe the play in two stages of Shakespeare's consciousness (or editorial process, which you will). Great stuff. -It is compact. Unlike the RSC, it does not fall apart after being opened twice. Its binding is not sewn, but it will last at least three decades with proper management, and more if you buy glue for five bucks from amazon to patch it up when little cracks start to appear. -It is simple. The cover is classical and it doesn't scratch easily, and it comes with a slipcase, which is a great bonus. -The format is one-column. Makes reading easy and less daunting. It's like reading those individual Folger editions. -It is cheap. It's selling for only $40-something now; when amazon doesn't have the slipcased edition ready, it sells for around $70, which is still a little less than Riverside and Bevington. -Its introduction is extraordinary. New Historicist mostly, with lost of cultural materialism and not a lot of metaphysics or actual focus on criticism, but it's the best introduction to Shakespeare's time in any complete works. The introductions to the individual plays are always enlightening, and there are bibliographies and film lists before each play, too. Nice pictures too. Who can ask for more? -The notes are superb. There are more than in the Riverside or the Pelican (the first 5 or so lines of Antony and Cleopatra have nearly twice as many notes in the Norton as in the Riverside). They are written on the same line as the text, with bubbles next to the unusual word, which saves a lot of time when you're reading. The first part of Henry IV took me about three hours to read in this one; in most other editions it takes four or five. -It has everything Shakespeare wrote, unlike the RSC, which lacks A Lover's Complaint based on Brian Vickers's argument that John Davies wrote it. The argument is impressive but unproven. It also has Kinsmen, unlike The Pelican. It has Shakespeare's Will and lots of cool documents related to his life. No Edward III, but its authorship remains unprovable, so a justifiable emission. -When all's said and done and you still don't like this book, just use it as a weight. You'll be fit for the next Olympics in no time and you'll save lots of gym money. There are some other things, but these are the main reasons why I love the Norton. There will always be naysayers and critics. Some will argue about the thinness of the paper, the strangeness of the text, the thickness of the book. But we must look at the advantages and compare them with the disadvantages. I am glad I came across the Norton and I consider it my most prized secular book. And so it should be in every English-speaking home. It is an edition worthy of The Poet's eternally inspiring and inspired works and of the library of any scholar, teacher or student of the human soul. I hope this helped prospective buyers. And so ends my catechism.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Explanatory Notes Are Awesome!
*by A***I on July 28, 2017*

I want to preface this by saying while I'm not qualified to evaluate the scholarship behind the notes and essays on the plays in this edition because I don't have any sort of background that would allow me to do so, to me it seems to be a highly useful edition. This is something I bought as a gift for myself, not for part of a class, because while I enjoy reading Shakespeare's plays, neither the digital edition nor the previous print edition I owned had much in the way of notes that explained differences in word connotations and denotations (meanings for somethings have shifted or mutated a bit over time) or cultural references that audiences in his day would have understood but are more obscure now. This edition has explanatory notes galore, and I feel like it has improved my enjoyment of reading these plays tremendously and it's like adding flesh onto a skeleton how different they look to me when I'm reading from this edition. I have found this edition is also very helpful to understand the "slang" of the day. I grew up in the '80's, right? So, I get "rad" and what it means, but there's a possibility someone who grew up 30 years later would have to google it. So I would say it's definitely a thing of value that has improved my understanding of this work. There is also a bit of an overview of the relevant history for the time period Shakespeare was writing at the beginning of this edition that I found helpful as well. I bought my copy used, and it came in great shape. So just from the perspective of a casual reader who enjoys great literature, I found this edition to be very helpful in enhancing my enjoyment and understanding of these plays and can definitely recommend it from that standpoint.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Best Value in a one-volume Shakespeare
*by A***. on July 24, 2010*

Let's get the simple stuff out first: this is a beautiful book; the introductions are smart and lively; all the plays are by Shakespeare. Based on these alone, how can I rate it only four stars and not five? I'd venture to say that this is all the Shakespeare most people will need and then some. And it's 30% less than the Riverside, so I heartily recommend buying it. So now for the minor quibbling. When Riverside updated its collected Chaucer in the 1990s, it produced a book that looks very much like this Norton Shakespeare. It had all new introductions and notes, a cleaned up text, more pictures, and was actually about twice as large as the previous standard Chaucer (which was just Riverside's own earlier edition). But the Riverside Chaucer tracks recent Chaucer scholarship closely, in notes and not just the introductions. Someone writing about Chaucer could start their research with that text and follow its very credible recommendations for further reading. That element is much weaker in the Norton Shakespeare, which tackles general themes well but doesn't do the same close work of tying in Shakespeare criticism. Yes, this is a nitpicky point, but for a text that's clearly being positioned to take over the market, I had hoped it would do a little more to keep the teaching and research strands more fully in conversation. This is still the one-volume Shakespeare I would buy for myself, now. If you want even less apparatus, try the Oxford Shakespeare (same texts of the plays, $26). If you need more background any one play, I like the Arden editions of individual plays.

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*Last updated: 2026-05-21*