The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Volumes 1 and 2 are two-volume hardbacks published by Nelson Doubleday, Inc., New York, possibly 1950 or 1960, Book Club Editions.  The dust jackets have surface wear and volume 2 has a piece missing from the bottom of the spine.  Inside, the pages are clean and unmarked and the binding is tight.

Book Summary

The richest heritage of all English literature--the plays and the poems of the immortal Shakespeare--is gathered here in two special volumes.

Here are the great historical dramas--Richard II, King Henry VI, King John--pageants of English history which, even today, stir audiences the world over.  Here are the incomparable tragedies--Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear and Othello, illuminating man's life and destiny.  Here is the tender romance--Romeo and Juliet, the silvery fancy of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the humor of the boisterous comedies--the thirty-seven plays which have contributed so immeasurably to the culture of the world.

Included also are the hundred and fifty-four sonnets and the long poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece.

Each play has a special introduction adapted from the Shakespearean Primer of Professor Dowden.  There are no footnotes to interfere with the reader's enjoyment of every page, but a glossary is provided at the end to clarify obsolete words and phrases.