Books in Shakespeare, Signet Classic series

Fiction: historical, play: The play, set in the Kingdom of Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius, firstly for murdering the old King Hamlet (Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father) and secondly for then succeeding to the throne and marrying Gertrude (King Hamlet's widow and mother of Prince Hamlet). The play vividly portrays real and feigned madness – from overwhelming grief to seething rage – and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.

""The Winter's Tale" is high fantasy, a tale to be told by the fire! The play belongs to the type known as "tragicomedy", but Shakespeare has separated the tragedy from the comedy. The first part has the same kind of tragic development as "Othello"; the second part is pure idyllic comedy. "The Winter's Tale" is a far better play to hear and see than to read; it needs the voice of the actor to give it life." - G.B. Harrison, editor of texts for The Shakespeare Recording Society.

This new edition focuses on the Sonnets as poetry - sometimes strikingly individual poems, but often subtly interlinked in thematic, imagistic and other groupings. Gwynne Evans and Anthony Hecht also address the many questions that cast a veil of mystery over the genesis of the Sonnets: to what extent are they autobiographical? What is the nature of the 'love', strongly expressed, between the 'poet', the 'youth' and the 'Dark Lady'? Can they, apart from the poet, be identified? Who is the 'rival poet'? When were the Sonnets written and in what order? What were the circumstances surrounding their publication?

Twelfth Night, Or What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, based on the short story "Of Apolonius and Silla" by Barnabe Rich. It is named after the Twelfth Night holiday of the Christmas season. It was written around 1601 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The main title is believed to be an afterthought, created after John Marston premiered a play titled What You Will during the course of the writing.

A wide-ranging selection from the most recent criticism of Antony and Cleopatra, beginning with seminal work from the 1950s onwards and culminating in a series of radical reappraisals of the play's content, form and appeal to modern readers. The essays, together with a substantial Introduction, offer a controversial, lively re-reading of one of Shakespeare's major tragedies.