Review of William Shakespeare: The Complete Plays in One Sitting

A few years ago I went to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and saw this cute little book containing information on all of Shakespeare’s plays. I decided to pick it up and have been meaning to read it ever since. While this book is very compact, it fits easily in my hand, every play is summarized within its tiny pages. 

Cover page to Histories in Herr's book

The small volume contains “summaries for all 38 of Shakespeare’s plays” adapted for the modern reader (Herr, 2012, 10). If you have ever wanted to read the plays but struggled with the language, or sheer length, this little book is for you. Joelle Herr does a delightful job in condensing each play to a few short paragraphs providing highlights and key characters. The book is divided into three sections, one for each type of Shakespearian play: Histories, Tragedies, and Comedies. 

Herr begins the book with a basic introduction to the impact which the plays have had on modern language and culture. She states “[e]ven if you’ve never read a play by Shakespeare, you’ve probably quoted him countless times without even knowing it” (Herr, 2012, 8). The importance of Shakespeare in modern language is seen in this introduction, even though it is not as obvious in the summaries. Many of the plays also contain often quoted lines which are placed before and after the play summaries, some even have been often misquoted or only partially quoted. 

The second section contains a brief history of the life of William Shakespeare. I had already read about much of this information but for one who did not know about Shakespeare’s life Herr’s section on his life is good.

Characters & Story from Julius Cesar

I truly enjoyed reading each of the play sections, while this book is called a “One Sitting” book I actually read it more slowly as I had time. Some of the plays’ summaries were shorter only a couple small pages while others were a bit longer. Each play began with an image and quote from the play, this was followed by a brief character summary, and then the main bulk of the play. 

First page of Twelfth Night Summary

I enjoyed each brief reading this book because of the modern style commentary used for each play. Herr interjects modern ideas into the summary of Shakespeare’s plays making them accessible for those who do not understand the Elizabethan language. I highly recommend picking up this small volume for your collection, especially if you have always wanted to know about the plays but never quite understood them. Read this before seeing a play and be able to understand what is taking place on the stage.

References

Herr, J. (2012). William Shakespeare: The complete plays in one sitting. Philadelphia: Running Press.

Images of the book were taken by me.