It seems like a simplistic thing to note, but this is the first time I've read a single analysis of all of the sonnets that are attributed to Shakespeare, and not just the 154 that we generally think of. All the Sonnets of Shakespeare presents familiar material in a new light, with a modern view of context. It's comprehensive, which allows for a different kind of analysis than I'm used to in Shakespeare books. The language and format is approachable, fit for casual readers, but also well thought out enough to appeal to dedicated Shakespeare readers. It serves as a general history of the form of the sonnet, as well, which is an added bonus. It's a balanced book, with effective and interesting literary criticism. A good fit for any collection!

I love Shakespeare's work and when I saw this book. I immediately requested it. Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher Cambridge University press for an e ARC in exchange for my honest review.

There is no other reference text that comes close to this book. It analyses all of Shakespeare's Sonnets and are in chronological order. It has contemporary paraphrasing which is very useful to readers who find old English difficult to read and understand. Such a vast resource and helpful notes make it a lovely read.

Perfect addition to any home, library or for an literature student. Highly recommend it. It also has sketches of each of the 154 Sonnets. I am definitely adding it to my collection. Can't wait to receive a physical copy.

All the sonnets of Shakespeare is a book which have comparative aspects in language from then and now which is night and day really ! It also comes in a rhyme and reason style. It is written very poetically. Which makes it fun ! It also includes notes of what other experts have observed over the centuries about Shakespeares writing etc.

I was given this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I've always loved Shakespeare; it is such a delight to see all the sonnets collected into one book and accompanied by fascinating observations.

Who knew that Shakespeare wrote so many sonnets? Professor Stanley Wells, the doyen of Shakespeare studies has co-authored this new edition of the Sonnets with Paul Edmondson and brought some striking new poems into the collection.

The authors/editors present the thesis that Shakespeare composed sonnets for over thirty years, often embedding them in the plays and other texts. He played repeatedly with them, shifting between intimate and literary/rhetorical forms. This edition seeks to “encourage a more integrated reading of the sonnets within Shakespeare’s wider creative output”. To “defamiliarise the sonnets" by siting them inside this output offers rich and sensitive insights into the imaginative schema of the texts.

In avoiding the “traditional biographical tropes” Wells and Edmonson suggest that gender is “open, playful and unstable” and that there is no “single determinate narrative”.

The volume also incorporates thumbnail sketches of each of the 154 sonnets that they have excavated from Shakespeare’s texts, and for each, “an impression of its content, direction and mood” and an opinion of the nature of the addressee.

The chronological ordering of the texts also throws up a few surprises. The chorus to Henry V follows on from Sonnet 86 and is succeeded by Orlando's “foreshortened” sonnet in As You Like It. Sonnet 104 dated 1600 follows on. The scholarship involved in this sequencing is fully discussed in the text and represents an immense amount of work .

Readers should be grateful for this amazing reference text. There is no other version of The Sonnets that comes near to this. Please read it allowing plenty of time to savour the layers of potential contexts it uncovers in each of these poems and in the larger poem that encompasses the creative trajectory of Shakespeare’s achievement.

Everyone should have a reference book of Shakespeare, especially one like this that categorizes and analyses all of his sonnets and puts them in chronological order. Since language has changed so much from Shakespearean times it's a useful addition to have contemporary paraphrasing of what is now outmoded English.

A great addition to one's library.

I thought that this was a great collection of Shakespeare's poems. They were all easily formatted for reading and I thoroughly enjoyed them.