Judging A Book By Its Cover: Pelican Shakespeares

This is my weekly post where I highlight beautiful books from my collection. We all judge book covers to some extent (don’t lie, you totally do!) I created this feature to showcase and admire the art and design elements of some of the books I own. If covers didn’t matter, publishers wouldn’t make so many wonderful editions!

I’ve known about these editions for quite some time. At first, I wanted them real bad. Look how cool they are! But eventually, I took them off my wishlist because I remembered that I don’t actually read Shakespeare. Then, time passed and Out of Print was having a sale and I had a coupon or something and I ended up snagging the five editions they had for super cheap. Now that I’ve started collecting them, I’m cursed with the constant, low-key, anxious need to complete the damn set! I don’t know why I do this to myself. I’m also collecting a specific set of vintage Pelican Shakespeares too – so I guess they’d be a cool collection if I can ever manage to collect them all! It’s kind of like my Penguin Drop Caps collection. I really want the full set (that I’ll never read) and I’m filled with worry that they will go out of print before I can get them all and then I won’t be able to complete the set!

Why am I like this!?

Anyway, here are the book stats:
They’re all published by Pelican, obviously, with art by Manuja Waldia
Hamlet – edited by A.R. Braunmuller, published in 2016, ISBN: 9780143128540
Merchant of Venice – edited by A.R, published in 2017, ISBN: 9780143130222
Macbeth – edited by Stephen Orgel, published in 2016, ISBN: 9780143128564
Romeo and Juliet – edited by Peter Holland, published in 2016, ISBN: 9780143128571
The Tempest – edited by Peter, published in 2016, ISBN: 9780143128632

I’d get that as a tattoo.

I’d get this as a tattoo too…

Also this!