Dear Grumpy Nation:
DC1 hasn’t been getting enough Shakespeare. I would like to ameliorate that. I, myself, had a lovely hardback version of the complete works of Shakespeare that was beautifully annotated so that I could easily figure out what was going on while still seeing the natural beauty of the words themselves. I would read it on days I was home sick from school and had nothing else to do (also how I read Ivanhoe and several other classics my mother placed strategically in the small bookcase next to my bed). Sadly, all I remember about it is that it had a navy blue hard cover– it appears to have disappeared from my parents’ house in the 20 years I have been away from it.
I have gone to Amazon to seek a new anthology and I am overwhelmed by the options. I do not want a kindle version– I want something nicely edited and easy to read the annotations/explanations along-side the original words. Hardback would be nice, but that’s not a deal-breaker.
There are so many choices and so many different price points I don’t even know where to start. I’m willing to pay for the $75 Norton edition if it is, indeed, the best for our purposes. But if the $30 Oxford Works is better, by all means I’ll go with that!
I know we have experts on this topic in our readership, so help a lay-person out! What would you recommend?
Thanks in advance!