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

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.

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.

Very poor performances

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

Bad audio

These are professionally performed and done well, but it sounds like it was recorded on stage instead of the studio. It’s hard to understand half of what they say. It’s better to read the plays.

Finally a complete Audio Book!!!!

my only complaint would be the Default Volume which could be just a tad bit higher.

Where is King John Act V?

Overall, I've been quite enjoying my journey through Shakespeare. However, as others have pointed out, it isn't complete, nor the chapters in order of acts. I've been working through King John this week and Act V isn't included. Why? Where is it? Is it mixed in with another play? I have no idea. Overall, this has been a worthwhile purchase. But they need to clean up their organizing of it and make sure all the works have all their acts and that they're in order.

probably would have been better if I could hear it

sound quality low portions of certain sections were so quiet I couldn't hear them I feel like I missed key plot points

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.