The Bedford Shakespeare, Based on the New Cambridge Shakespeare Edition. Ed. Russ McDonald and Lena Cowen Orlin.

Reaching almost two thousand pages and priced at $ 84.99 (app. 77.00 €), this onevolume edition of Shakespeare’s twenty-five “most frequently taught plays” (none of his poems are included) may seem a little intimidating at first sight. Statistically, and as opposed to their North American counterparts, European students tend to go more for (cheaper) individual play volumes, but the trend is changing, and the Bedford Shakespeare, which in fact offers very good value for money, may help modify those habits. This edition is clearly aimed at the (North American) undergraduate market, although it may well appeal to other markets too. It reprints the text of the New Cambridge Shakespeare Edition, thus providing a carefully edited text. The originality of the volume lies first in its effort to cater to its readership and to offer the best-suited paratexts and reading aids available. To develop their edition, Russ McDonald and Lena Cowen Orlin have relied on an impressive network of hundreds of students and instructors and used techniques akin to “crowdsourcing”. Indeed, the material for the edition was tested beforehand and its intended readership consulted – a relatively uncommon but logical way of proceeding for an edition with avowed didactic and pedagogical aims. Interestingly, what came out of the survey was that students found “Shakespeare’s language challenging”, had trouble imagining “the action of a play on stage” and “wished they had a stronger grasp of early modern history”. The volume is geared to respond to those needs.