Bloomsbury has announced the new editors for The Arden Shakespeare’s Fourth Series. Editions of The Arden Shakespeare, whose name was inspired by As You Like It’s Forest of Arden, is widely considered as the most prestigious of the critical Shakespeare texts, thanks to the quality of editing, thorough introductions and commentary. They are my personal favorite, and I’m even hoping to get one for my birthday tomorrow.
The newly appointed editors are Shakespeare scholars and teachers Peter Holland (University of Notre Dame), Tiffany Stern (Oxford University), and Zachary Lesser (University of Pennsylvania), who have accepted the mantle of envisioning the features of a 21st century Shakespeare edition.
If you were to open an Arden Shakespeare edition you would notice that the footnotes frequently take up half of the page. These extensively researched editions pack in so much scholarly information on each page that it’s no wonder they are hailed as the gold standard by Bard enthusiasts. Personally, I own over half of the canon in Arden Shakespeare editions. I enjoy scouring used book stores for that overlooked gem of an Arden Second Series edition. The Third Series, which began in the ’90s, is set to be completed in 2016. The first volumes of the Fourth Series, edited by Holland, Stern, and Lesser, will appear in the 2020s.
The Arden Shakespeare 3rd Series
