The Plays of William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello

By: William Shakespeare

Narrated by: Jonathan Waters

Enjoy the most notable plays of William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello. Shakespeare was known for his writings on tragedies and these four works are known to be some of the finest tragedies ever written. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello remain popular and are studied, performed, and reinterpreted through various cultural and political contexts around the world.

Public Domain (P)2019 Combray Media

Index fails to list when each play starts/ends

The problem is simple, the index only lists the contents by chapter so you never know when one play ends and another begins or even when an acts ends within each play. As I bought this production for a child with a learning disability, the inability to find the plays or acts was extremely frustrating.

There is a partial “key” that I figured out so I’m going to list it here for everyone else considering the book. Each play is read in the order listed on the “dust jacket” of the book. To find the play you want to hear, scroll forward in the chapter index until you find two sequential chapters that are 4-5 seconds long. Each 4-5 second chapter sequence designates the end of one play and the start of the next play listed on the dust jacket. For example, Chapter 30 (5 seconds) is the end of Romeo and Juliet and Chapter 31 (4 seconds) is the start of Hamlet. However, I have no solution for the other problem which is you cannot tell when an act begins or ends. Therefore, you will have to manually scroll forward and listen to each chapter briefly to find a specific act within each play. Overall, the index’s lack of clarity is inexcusable and should be immediately corrected. Until then, I cannot recommend this Audible production for parents or students who wish to use this as a study aid. However, if you plan on treating this production like a regular novel, then my criticisms are not germane.

Outside of that, I like the narrator and it is Shakespeare so the stories are timeless.