The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

by William Shakespeare · audio summary, about 16 min

The plays and poems gathered in this edition, in one tour: murdered kings, mistaken twins, girls disguised as boys, and a magician who gives up his magic. Forty-four works, each in a few breaths.

Key ideas

• Revenge, once started, rarely stops at the person who deserves it -- it spreads through whole families and kingdoms.
• The history plays form one long story of the English crown, where each seizure of power sets up the next.
• In the comedies, disguise lets people say what they could not say as themselves, especially the women dressed as men.
• The late plays turn from loss to reunion: lost children are found, the 'dead' come back, and wrongs end in forgiveness.
• Several comedies end in ways many readers find troubling: Shylock's forced conversion, Silvia handed from one man to another, and Isabella's silence when the Duke proposes.

This summary and its voice are made with AI from the public-domain book. They can be wrong.

Listen in the Read Me A Book app - coming soon to Google Play