The Works of William Shakespeare: The text of the First Folio with Quarto variants and a selection of modern readings

New York / London: Random House / Nonesuch Press, 1933. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Quarto, 7 volumes. A fresh, lovely set in the publisher's full niger morocco, with some light darkening to some areas of the leather, as in all sets, but generally quite bright and handsome. A few small smudges to boards. Internally stunning. A very near fine set. This is number 146 of 1050 limited sets issued for the British and American markets. The high watermark of the numerous efforts by the Nonesuch Press, this set represents not only a distinctive and handsome object, but also a carefully-researched and bibliographically significant edition of Shakespeare's works. From the introductory Note: "The textual student will, it is hoped, find few needs left unsatisfied by an edition which follows the First Folio faithfully in its many misprints and even in the intermittent use of a comma for a full stop at the close of an uninterrupted speech; which notes all the significant variants of the pre-First Folio Quartos; and which reprints in full the text of those Quartos which differ so substantially from the First Folio as to defy collation. Nevertheless, this is a readers' edition— an edition based on the belief that fidelity to the author's original intention, so far as it can be ascertained, is as important in the production of a book as in the production of a play—an edition prepared for those who feel that they miss something of the quintessential flavour of a work of literature if it is translated into alien spelling and punctuation, just as they may feel that they miss something of the quintessential flavour of Hamlet in a top-hat or Prospero with his shirtsleeves rolled up like a conjurer at a children's party.