Julius Caesar

by William Shakespeare

Published 1 January 1920
Part of The New Penguin Shakespeare which offers a complete edition of the plays and poems by Shakespeare. Each volume has been prepared from the original texts and includes an introduction, a commentary and a short account of the textual problems of the play.

"SparkNotes Literature Guides" is an invaluable series tackling some of the most important novels ever written and studied. Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, these indispensable study aids are thorough and informative. They feature explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols, detailed analyses of major characters and important quotes, plot summaries and analysis, an exploration of historical context, plus key facts and potential essay topics - everything a student needs to be thoroughly prepared!

The Comedy of Errors

by William Shakespeare

Published 1 January 1794
Hilarious fun, this early comedy is filled with the merry violence of slapstick and farce. When two sets of twins, separated and apparently lost to each other, all end up in the rowdy, rollicking city of Ephesus, the stage is set for mix-ups, mayhem, and mistaken identity—plus the timeless puns, jokes, gags, and suspense that makes this play a wonderful theatrical frolic and a brilliant tour de force of language and laughter.

The Winter's Tale

by William Shakespeare

Published December 1931
The Newly Revised Signet Classic Shakespeare Series The work of the world’s greatest dramatist edited by outstanding scholars


The Winter’s Tale


Unique Features of the Signet Classic Shakespeare


•An extensive overview of Shakespeare’s life, world, and theater by the general editor of the Signet Classic Shakespeare series, Sylvan Barnet

•Special introduction to the play by the editor, Frank Kermode, Fellow of the British Academy


•Source from which Shakespeare derived The Winter’s Tale—a generous selection from Robert Greene’s Pandosto


•Dramatic criticism from the past and present: commentaries by Simon Forman, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, E.M.W. Tillyard, G. Wilson Knight, Carol Thomas Neely, and Coppelia Kahn


•A comprehensive stage and screen history of notable productions of The Winter’s Tale, then and now


•Text, notes, and commentaries printed in the clearest, most readable type


•Up-to-date list of recommended readings


The Tragedy of King Lear

by William Shakespeare

Published 31 December 1957
This is the first fully annotated, critical edition of King Lear to appear for forty years. It includes a comprehensive account of Shakespeare's sources and the literary, political, and folkloric influences at work in the play, a detailed reading of the action, and a substantial stage history of major productions. Jay Halio is concerned to clarify, for those approaching the play for the first time, the vexed question of its textual history. Unlike previous editions, his does not present a conflation of the Quarto and the Folio. Accepting that we have two versions of equal authority, the one derived from Shakespeare's rough drafts, the other from a manuscript used in the playhouses during the seventeenth century, Professor Halio chooses the Folio as the text for this edition. He explains the differences between the two versions and alerts the reader to the rival claims of the Quarto by means of a sampling of parallel passages in the introduction and by an appendix which contains annotated passages unique to the Quarto.