A compact edition of the complete works of William Shakespeare. It combines impeccable scholarship with beautifully written editorial material and a user-friendly layout of the text. Also included is a foreword, list of contents, general introduction, essay on language, contemporary allusions to Shakespeare, glossary, consolidated bibliography and index of first lines of Sonnets.

Hailed by "The Washington Post" as "a definitive synthesis of the best editions" and by "The Times of London" as "a monument to Shakespearean scholarship," this is the ultimate anthology of the Bard's work.

Oxford has launched- the ballistic image does seem apt- a second single volume version of its revolutionary edition, which first excited and outraged Shakespeareans in 1986. Oxford's Complete Works has a solid, traditional look but explodes into cutting-edge controversy inside.