The Complete Shakespeare Sonnets

By William Shakespeare

Book Overview

William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present Argo Classics, a historic catalogue of classic prose and verse read by some of the world's most renowned voices. Originally released as... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: B000EEOXQY
• Release Date: January 1966
• Publisher: New York: Airmont Publishing Company, Inc
• Length: 203 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A befitting tribute to The Bard of Avon...

The sonnet is one among the many forms of poetry. It is a difficult form of verse with a FIXED rhyme scheme. The other trivia about writing it is that the verse should be 14 lines long. 154 sonnets written by Shakespeare have been read/recorded in this collection. There are actually two cd's in the box - the first cd contains sonnets 1 through 75 and the second, sonnets 76 through 154. The accompanying book of sonnets is a plus - it saves our time spent in scurrying to locate the sonnet being read next, since all the sonnets are in one place, in the order that they are being read. The book also has two indexes of the sonnets: 1. Track number / First line of sonnet/ Artist and 2. First line of sonnet / Track number / Artist Since the rhyming scheme is fixed (abab bcbd cdcd ee), listening to them all at a time can sometimes make it sound monotonous, but that issue has been fixed in this audio book, by varying the tone, voice, and reader. When it comes to reading The Bard's works on an audio CD, who can do it better than experienced and well known thespians and theatre personalities who have made a mark in their own style? Here is the list of personalities who have read the sonnets for us: 1. Gerry Bammon 2. Roberta Bella 3. Claire Bloom 4. Lindsay Crouse 5. Ossie Davis 6. Ruby Dee 7. Brian Dennehy 8. Denise Dumont 9. Jill Gascoin 10. Amy Irving 11. Anne Jackson 12. Jordan Lage 13. Brian Stokes Mitchell 14. Alfred Molina 15. Al Pacino 16. Natasha Richardson 17. Patric Stewart 18. Allyson Tucker 19. Kathleen Turner (who, along with Charline Spektor, is also the producer for this audio-collection) 20. Eli Wallach 21. Fritz Weaver Some of the sonnets have been rendered by more than one person, and both of them have been published in this cd, since both of them are good to listen. There was no point in time while I listened to the CD that I felt bored. In fact, some of them have been rendered so well that I wanted to listen to them again, just for the rendition. For those who are interested in Shakespeare, this is an important addition to their collection. Some of the sonnets therein are well known ("Let me not to the marriage of true minds/Admit impediments.../If this be error and upon me proved/I never writ, nor no man ever loved"), and there are so many others to be read for the first time. Some of them bring vivid imagery, even if they are unknown ("Thus in his cheek the map of days outworn"), whereas others have wonderful metaphors ("So are you to my thoughts as food to life,/or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;"). Almost all of them are treasure houses of wisdom (remember, Shakespeare was 45 when they were published, and he had lived life then). Now, coming to majors who have to read the sonnets for their academic purposes - it is well known that it helps if we can quote lines from the sonnets amidst our theory answers; to that end, listening to the cd before, after or while reading the sonnet in print helps memorizing the lesson