Complete Shakespeare

It's about time I get myself a nice, complete edition of Shakespeare--but there are so many to choose from! Hopefully, you all can help me narrow it down a bit and make some recommendations.

I was pretty much raised on the Signet Classics editions and like them pretty well (so that you have an idea of where I'm coming from). I would like it to contain both the poetry and the plays. Also, I would like that it included Two Noble Kinsmen. It doesn't necessarily need to be a single volume, though that would be preferred.

Thanks in advanced for your help and input!

There are indeed so many to choose from, and no one of them is perfect. For myself I would choose the Arden series, but that's one play or poem per volume, and as the editors differ from volume to volume the quality can vary somewhat. (For some plays I might go with the Arden II over the still-in-progress Arden III.) For a one-volume complete works I would take the Riverside-- I like its choice of illustrative material, chronologies, etc. Neither of these recommendations is very adventurous-- probably a lot of people would agree. Both Arden and Riverside include all the poems and Two Noble Kinsmen. Other one-volume possibilities would include the Norton, the RSC, the Bevington, and the Wells-Taylor Oxford: these all are not without their virtues. And Cambridge and Oxford each have a good single volume series currently nearing completion. Good Luck!

Thanks for the feedback!

The new Norton Shakespeare (based on the Oxford edition but designed to be more accessible) is also a very good choice. It comes with a lot of good extra material and also tends to have very solid introductions (particularly those by Katharine Maus and Stephen Greenblatt). That is my complete Shakespeare of choice.

I have a couple of Complete Works. I picked up an old unannotated OUP version in my teens and it served me well. However, now I find myself pulling off the shelves the recent Bate & Rasmussen version, based on the First Folios. This is a wonderful edition with good basic notes. If I had to choose a single volume Shakespeare it would be this one.

Thank you for your suggestion!