Absolute Shakespeare

Like it or not, at some point in life anyone who speaks British English is going to have to read, study, reflect on, and sometimes even act in, a Shakespeare play. Even some Americans are expected to read at least a little of it, so I am told, in recognition of the unique contribution to world literature of The Bard's huge canon of work. So this is definitely a site to bookmark if you're about to plunge into the dark psychology of Macbeth, say, or march with the noble but outnumbered English working classes against the fancy-pants French aristocrats at Agincourt (England: 1 French: 0).

All the plays and sonnets are here, along with study guides, history and everything Shakespearean. Presentation is simple and you can just jump in. The Bard's biography is here, with pictures and even a list of his best movies.

One thing I would like to have seen, or heard, is a selection of audio files that conveyed what Shakespeare sounds like, or would have sounded like in the day. The plays, after all, are meant to be performed, not read, and although it wouldn't be feasible to present entire audio versions of the work, a few snippets to give a feel for the sound of the language would have been useful. Another, but only minor, annoyance, in my opinion anyway, were some silly spelling and grammatical mistakes. But then, since spelling and grammar were far from fixed in Shakespeare's day anyway, I guess we can overlook that.