Buying a Complete Works of Shakespeare

During this course, we will use one book, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, every single day, all year long.

It will be provided to you free of charge as part of a free, public education. However, it is strongly recommended that you buy your own copy of this book. I can't require you to buy it but if I could I would, it's that important.

In summary, research shows that students who annotate their own copy of a book retain more information, are more interested in their reading, and are more likely to succeed in class. Period. I'm also hoping that this will be a memorable and life-changing class for you, so you'll want to treasure this book for a lifetime.

Different options:

• New, large, cheap in town: Barnes and Noble

• Used, super cheap, varying quantity and availability: Bookhounds (best used bookstore in Bakersfield!)

• Vintage leather copy online, try any of these searches on Amazon, very portable complete works edition:

  • "Complete Shakespeare Peter Alexander" (look for leather cover pictures) like this or this or this

  • "Complete Shakespeare Walter J. Black" (look for brown leather pictures) like this or this or this

• New, large not very portable Complete Works edition, expensive, lots of notes, buy online:

  • I have done an exhaustive comparison of the top editions available. You can read the full report here. There are numerous pros and cons to each option. I recommend you read the report for yourself and make a decision based on your own needs. I also have all of these editions if you would like to inspect and compare in person.

  • If you'd like to simply buy my recommendation, click here.

• New, online, very portable, multiple volumes (my personal favorite to simply read out of with a fair amount of notes: "Shakespeare Everyman's Library" on Amazon. Unfortunately, it's 8 volumes and expensive, but you could buy the cheap used copies of each and probably get them all for under $50.

• New or used, buy online, very portable, multiple volumes with a RIDICULOUS amount of explanatory notes. "Arden Shakespeare". Do not buy the complete works edition by this company, it is not the same. You have to buy the individual volumes to get the notes. The new editions (Third Series) you can buy for $10-20 a book or you can buy the old edition (2nd series or second series) used for much cheaper per book. These are the books that I use every day and study from. They have an overwhelming amount of notes and commentary and scholarly introduction to the play. These are the books for future English majors, they may be too much for most people.

Ask Mr. Chilton if you have questions. Email him at andrewchilton123@gmail.com