Just a disaster, and I'm appalled by the people who gave this a five-star review. There's a fantastic review by the ever-reliable Jeanne Addison Roberts in Shakespeare Quarterly 1979 which is worth quoting: "the motivating spirit behind this spectacular non-book is clearly commercial".

Despite being published in 1978, A.L. Rowse's edition of Shakespeare breezily reprints a 1904 text (itself a copy of 19th century texts) which is itself an unusual decision, in light of the many worthy Shakespeare editions released in those intervening years, from the Arden to the Riverside. The introductions to each play are, as Roberts notes, "drawn almost entirely from [Rowse's] own earlier work" and are of the tossed-off variety, aiming to pontificate on a half-dozen received facts about the play without, it seems, much engagement with contemporary criticism. The margin glosses are surprisingly few and, while yes, Rowse can often be delightfully eccentric, as others note, he is also sometimes just passing the time. When pages pass with only three or four glosses, one feels that this can hardly be the Shakespeare for every household in the land. Sometimes, Rowse even uses "correct" as if he is just telling the reader what word should be there, rather than asserting his opinion in the crowded field of editors from 1709 to the present day.

The only reason this edition merited two stars was because there are many hundreds of pictures, most of them nineteenth-century, meaning at least there is some historical value to this work. Given the grotesque size of the thing, this is hardly worth the purchasing, particularly not with another forty years having passed in the interim.

To quote Roberts once more, "do we laugh or cry?" ( )

3 Volumes in one, with 4200 b/w illustrations and 12 color plates.

Heh. Well, here it is. I used to own the Norton First Folio Shakespeare. It was an amazing piece of work for Shakespeare reading groups. But I eventually had to sell it (poverty sucks!). So now I have this ( which many people in the SRG I belonged to had), and it is perfectly adequate for the study of the plays. The annotations and illustrations are quite entertaining. Excellent stuff!! Now to find a Shakespeare reading group! ( )

I love Rowse. I love his eccentric and opinionated annotations. When I want Shakespeare, I go to my old copy of A.L.Rowse's "The Annotated Shakespeare". I always found Rowse’s edition to be a bit easier and more flavorful than the other annotated versions out there. Once I got deep into Shakespeare, I found that there were lots of ongoing feuds in the footnotes. I couldn’t care less. The main reason I bought this edition was not because it was “eccentric, opinionated, easier and more flavorful”, but because my first “encounter” with it was through Star Trek TNG! (you didn't expect that, did you??)

If you're into Shakespeare and Star Treak, read the rest of the review on my blog. ( )

Does it really weigh 8 pounds? I'm not going to get my scale out. It seems the lover of Shakespeare or the reluctant newcomer would be inspired by this heavily (pun intended) illustrated edition. Each Comedy, Tragedy, History, Sonnet or Poem includes an introduction.

Too large to read but it has hundreds of great old out-of-copyright illustrations, mostly from the 19th century.