The Arden Shakespeare complete works

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Complete Arden Shakespeare, published for the first time in 1998, is now available in an updated hardcover edition, offering the scholarly depth and reliability that characterises all Arden editions. It contains the texts of all Shakespeare's plays, edited by leading Shakespeare scholars for the renowned Arden Shakespeare series. This updated edition includes eight newly revised playtexts as published in the Arden Third Series since 1998.
A general introduction by the three General Editors of the ongoing Arden Shakespeare series gives the reader an overall view of how and why Shakespeare has become such an influential figure in Western literature and how perceptions of his work have changed in the intervening four centuries. The introduction summarises the known facts of his life, his reading and use of sources, and the nature of theatrical performance during his lifetime. Brief introductions to each play, written specially for this volume by the Arden General Editors, discuss the date and contemporary context of the play, its position within Shakespeare's oeuvre, and its subsequent performance history. An extensive glossary explains vocabulary which may be unfamiliar to modern readers.
Includes The Two Noble Kinsmen, the Poems, and the Sonnets.