Get it - Rated 
This is a great buy. I fully endorse the comments made about the comprehensive content.I'm using this book currently for an Open University (Hons) Degree.
My only criticism is the thin pages in such a thick book. It really needs to be in several volumes and with comb bound or wire bound edition to allow it to lie flat on the desk or table whilst you are studying. Humping the all-in-one bound version is great for weight training but you need great resolve to attempt to take it on holiday! Good luck.
A Superior Complete Works - Rated
Let me list the winning features of this edition: * it is based on the reputable, and widely referenced Oxford Shakespeare, and although an 'American edition', follows the English spelling in all but the notes and introductions;
* the plays are in (conjectured) choronological order;
* most importantly, all glosses, explications and historical notes are on the text page itself (either as foot-, or marginal-notes) - no endless back-turning;
* furthermore, the quality of the notes is almost equal to that of the major multi-volume editions, although less verbose, and more relevant. Indeed it makes you appreciate that you are paying for a lot of scholarly fluff when you pay for an Arden or a single-play Oxford, with their endless quibbles on Latinisms and rewordings. Indeed, often the Norton has more direct glosses, and is more semantically illuminating and clarifying than those other editions, which assume too much in the reader. But the Norton also gives you scholarly references as well. You only lack the obscurest of literary references , which only the most scrutinizing of academics would ever need, and for that you would be working from a single-play text;
* textual variants are listed at the end of each play, showing editorial decisions clearly;
* spelling and names are modernised, and conventional/archaic spellings are rejected (e.g. banquet, for banket - which some Arden editors retain for not even academic reasons);
* consistently more stage directions, with assistance on who is addressing whom, who is front-stage, upper-stage, kneeling, armed, motioning etc.;
* genealogical tables, choronology, facsimiles of the frontispiece, introduction, commemorations and contents pages of the first Folio;
* copious illustrations in the 6-7 large-page, small-text introductions to each play;
* textual notes, and bibliographies for each play
* 20-page general bibliography on critics, history, performance, textual criticism, contexts;
* 3 versions of King Lear!;
* includes Two Noble Kinsmen, the Funeral elegy, and explanations/summaries of the missing works;
* 100-pages of Documents, and 80-page general introduction. This is truly a complete and comperehensive Shakespeare edition.
BUY!
The Best Available - Rated
I am new to Shakespeare and have started to read about him, his times, his works, and as a hobby try to become fairly knowledgeable about him and his place in our literary history. Starting from the basics I have reviewed a number of books and eventually I put together a "listmania" list of about 22-25 books on amazon.com. I am still not an expert nor do I claim such. Having said that, to get your feet wet there are a few good biographies and I like the Anthony Burgess book "Shakespeare" that is an easy read and just over 200 pages long. Also there are a few other books and tour guides such as the new DK guide with lots of maps and photos. Then there are books such as Boyce's book "Shakespeare A to Z". But I think the crown jewel of the books available is the present book almost 3500 pages long with CD which rises head and shoulders above anything else on the market. It is simply an excellent book by a group of highly qualified editors using the resources of Oxford. Obviously it can be improved but as of now it is the leader
Best on the market - Rated
The Norton Shakespeare is quite simply the best complete edition of Shakespeare currently available. Based on Taylor and Wells' already excellent Oxford edition, the Norton contains a mass of extra material, including extensive introductory essays by leading Shakespeare scholars. It contains everything by Shakespeare that anyone could ever want, from the general reader to graduate students.
The Bard - Rated
This is indeed a wonderful edition of Shakespeare. It is very accesible to the modern reader, even those who find his language daunting. The editors preface all the plays with the issues surrounding them and the period they were written in. The volume also contains an overview of all the events surrounding the times like the state of stagecraft and the attitudes towards withches. Overall, a very useful volume that will allow easy access to Shakespeare's masterpieces.
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