Shakespeare: The Complete Works

Argo Classics

By: William Shakespeare

Narrated by: Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, Diana Rigg, Roy Dotrice, Prunella Scales, Timothy West, full cast

Length: 98 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

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 vinyl records, these expertly remastered stories are now available to download for the first time.

For the first time, the complete works of Shakespeare are available to download as one. This collection includes all 37 plays, four narrative poems and the sonnets.

Performed by an incredible array of the 20th century’s greatest actors, Ian McKellen, Timothy West, Diana Rigg, Derek Jacobi, Roy Dotrice, Prunella Scales and many others can be heard in these recordings.

All of the Shakespeare plays within the Argo Classics catalogue are performed by the Marlowe Dramatic Society and Professional Players. The Marlowe was founded in 1907 with a mission to focus on effective delivery of verse, respect the integrity of texts and rescue neglected plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and the less performed plays of Shakespeare himself. The Marlowe has performed annually at Cambridge Arts Theatre since its opening in 1936 and continues to produce some of the finest actors of their generations.

Public Domain (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

A great idea for an audiobook

The file does not work well and constantly crashes. I even tried to download it to my device, but that didn’t make a difference.

Technical Issues

Just started listening. These are remastered old recordings. The sound thus is full of echoes of the soundstage. Annoyingly, King John, Act V is missing. And this is the first play I listened to, so hoping the rest of the plays are complete. The actors are exceptional and I wish a pdf of each play's list of actors was included. Nice to listen along while reading the Riverside Shakespeare.

poor quality

very difficult to understand due to poor recording. sounds like sitting in the doorway of a high school auditorium.

Good, but some files are out of Order.

Some of the entries are out of order on the track list. the main one I noticed Was Much Ado About Nothing. The first Act is labeled Chapter 4.

Very poor performances

Very dull, flat acting. There are much better productions. Look elsewhere. Of course, the writing is fantastic. Duh. Shakespeare.

Author, Actors 5 star, technical 3 star

Others have detailed various matters missing, and sound echoes hissing. One credit for 99 hours is a great deal, worthy of tolerating by horn's blare an ear weal.

Bad editing and missing sections.

Poor coalition and editing having left it less than what it could be. Not recommended until it is fixed.

Great resource but with problems

I love reading the plays while listening to this audiobook. It’s the best way for reading the plays, second only to watching a live performance.
However, I stumbled upon some issues. There are parts missing. I was listening to King John and the play jumps from the end of Act IV to the end credits.
Also I would like to know who the performers were for each play. I would also like to have a table of contents for each part of the audiobook to avoid having to guess when I want a specific play.

So absurd! 98+ hours and no way to navigate

Amazing narration on these classic works. But without ANY way to navigate and move to specific writings, it is a BIG disappointment.

Frustrating.

Unable to hear them speaking words.

I love Shakespeare. I am going to fix this recording.

This rendition is almost impossible to hear with clarity. Some characters sound like they are actually far from a recording mic or device; they are elsewhere in the room. Maybe. It causes an attenuation issue where you can turn it up to hear them, but desperately turn it back down when people closer to the mic start speaking. I usually couldn't tell what they were saying. I checked a couple of areas in the recording which I was familiar, and I can't really make out the words.

It's a lovely idea for a release.