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William Shakespeare

Born

in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England

February 03, 1564

Died

April 23, 1616

Website

https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/

Genre

Theatre, Classics, Poetry

Influences

Ovid, Homer, Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, R ...more

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William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, W William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time". ...more

Combine Editions
William Shakespeare’s books

Average rating: 3.86 · 8,716,086 ratings · 243,082 reviews · 25,690 distinct works • Similar authors

	Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Paul Werstine (Editor), Barbara A. Mowat (Editor) 3.74 avg rating — 2,865,824 ratings — published 1590 — 150 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hamlet 4.03 avg rating — 1,076,875 ratings — published 1601 — 2605 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Carmen Kahn (Contributor), Jack Armstrong (Contributor) 3.89 avg rating — 1,043,630 ratings — published 1623 — 2571 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Midsummer Night’s Dream 3.94 avg rating — 587,510 ratings — published 1595 — 1900 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Othello 3.89 avg rating — 444,829 ratings — published 1603 — 2977 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Much Ado About Nothing 4.06 avg rating — 261,738 ratings — published 1598 — 3229 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	King Lear 3.91 avg rating — 241,603 ratings — published 1605 — 2496 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Tempest 3.78 avg rating — 231,726 ratings — published 1611 — 1527 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Julius Caesar 3.71 avg rating — 223,618 ratings — published 1599 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Twelfth Night 3.96 avg rating — 197,128 ratings — published 1623 — 3113 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by William Shakespeare…

Series by William Shakespeare

Wars of the Roses (8 books)
by

William Shakespeare,

Eric Rasmussen (Goodreads Author) (Editor),

John D. Cox (Editor)

3.81 avg rating — 225,206 ratings

Oxford Student Texts (1 book)
by

William Shakespeare,

Katherine Duncan-Jones (Editor)

4.25 avg rating — 113,739 ratings

Shakespeare's Minor Tetralogy (4 books)
by

William Shakespeare,

John Jowett (Editor)

3.82 avg rating — 86,586 ratings

Henry IV (2 books)
by

William Shakespeare,

David Bevington (Editor),

David Scott Kastan (Editor)

3.79 avg rating — 55,776 ratings

Henry VI (3 books)
by

William Shakespeare,

Eric Rasmussen (Goodreads Author) (Editor),

John D. Cox (Editor)

3.62 avg rating — 26,871 ratings

More series by William Shakespeare…

Imagine a Shakespearean retelling of The Godfather set in a small Southern town, and you’ll have an idea about what to expect in Shawn Andre...

Polls

April 2018 Revisit the Shelf Reread Poll

Persuasion by Jane Austen, 1817, 249 pages, Last Read Aug. 2015

56 votes, 15.0%

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, 1855, 521 pages, Last Read June 2015

45 votes, 12.1%

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, 1961, 453 pages, Last Read Nov. 2013

42 votes, 11.3%

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 1960, 324 pages, Last Read 2016

38 votes, 10.2%

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1818, 273 pages, Last Read Oct. 2016

37 votes, 9.9%

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, 1943, 496 pages, Last Read May 2013

24 votes, 6.4%

The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1922, 422 pages, Last Read Jan. 2014

24 votes, 6.4%

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, 1984, 320 pages, Last Read Dec. 2012

22 votes, 5.9%

Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë, 1847, 251 pages, Last Read Mar 2016

22 votes, 5.9%

King Lear by William Shakespeare, 1603, 316 pages, Last Read Oct. 2012

21 votes, 5.6%

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, 1878, 448 pages, Last Read Oct. 2015

15 votes, 4.0%

The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek, 1921, 752 pages, Last Read July 2012

14 votes, 3.8%

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, 1847, 867 pages, Last Read Sep. 2011

13 votes, 3.5%

373 total votes

73 comments

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