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

Great collection marred by a few missing sections

This is a great collection of most of Shakespeare's works. The only play that is missing is 'The Two Noble Kinsmen', a collaboration attributed to Shakespeare and John Fletcher. However, there are a few missing section in this collection as of the date I'm writing this review (26 Feb. 2021). Act V of 'King John' is missing as are Acts IV and V of 'Pericles'. Hopefully this is just an oversight and will be corrected.

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.

Listing for 9 Part Download

The works are ordered alphabetically.
If you opt to download by parts, they are divided as follows (unfortunately Audible is not preserving my formatting) -


***PART 1***
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Lover's Complaint and the Phoenix and the Turtle
All's Well That Ends Well
Anthony and Cleopatra
As You Like It
Coriolanus (Part 1)

***PART 2***
Coriolanus (Part 2)
Cymbeline
Hamlet
Henry IV Part 1
Henry IV Part 2 (Part 1)

***PART 3***
Henry IV Part 2 (Part 2)
Henry V
Henry VI Part 1
Henry VI Part 2
Henry VI Part 3 (Part 1)

***PART 4***
Henry VI Part 3 (Part 2)
Henry VIII
Julius Caesar
King John
King Lear
Love's Labour's Lost (Part 1)

***PART 5***
Love's Labour's Lost (Part 2)
Macbeth
Measure for Measure
Much Ado About Nothing
Othello
Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Part 1)

***PART 6***
Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Part 2)
Richard II
Richard III
Romeo and Juliet
Sonnets 1-71

***PART 7***
Sonnets 71 - 154
The Comedy of Errors
The Merchant of Venice
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Rape of Lucrece
The Taming of the Shrew (Part 1)

***PART 8***
The Taming of the Shrew (Part 2)
The Tempest
The Twe Gentlemen of Verona
The Winter's Tale
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus
Troilus and Cressida (Part 1)

***PART 9***
Troilus and Cressida (Part 2)
Twelfth Night
Venus and Adonis

Ignore comments saying the books aren’t listed, they are.

I had been put off buying it as reviewers had said the individuals plays aren’t listed. I have just downloaded it and they are. The whole collection is divided into 9 sections so you don’t have to download all 100 or so hours, but once you then select one of the 9 sections click on “chapters” and it lists all of the plays separately that are in that section. My only criticism is that it would be useful in the audible book detail to list which plays are in each of the 9 sections. But apart from that it’s a great production and wonderful value for money.

The plays are listed now!

I downloaded this, slightly concerned that I’d have to wade through every play to find what I needed. But the plays are listed once you download the book on the app (it’s split into 9 parts, and each part is divided into chapters, with the beginning and end of each play being clearly marked). It would be handy to have a master list of plays, in order to locate the part you need to download if you don’t have room for everything, but they are in alphabetical order so it’s easy to make an educated guess. Wonderful value to have all the plays together like this.

some chapters not in right order.

technical issues. much ado about nothing. chapter 4 is the start of the play..... chapter 1 is half way through! good job i knew the play or would have got very confused! hope I don't come across any more problems!

Still, by a mile, the best!

These are outstanding performances of the greatest poetic drama of all time. The texts are complete and the actors, some of whom became household names, are almost without exception outstanding speakers of verse. Most recent productions suffer because the actors are used to appearing in soaps: their voices lack the projection, clarity and familiarity with the flexibility of Shakespeare's prose and verse rhythms to make the plays intelligible. Rylands was outstanding in the way he got his actors to realise the music upon which the strength of Shakespeare's writing depends. Glorious that at long last these outstanding recordings are once again widely available!