Listening order for Shakespeare?

[kate_nepveu]

If I were planning to listen to full-cast recordings of all 38 of Shakespeare's plays, what order would you recommend I do it in? Chronological order, chronological order except with the histories in historical order, thematic, worst-to-best, something else?

If it matters, I've read Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, and part of King Lear (the class hated it so much we talked our teacher out of finishing it); and seen one version or another of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Winter's Tale. And The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged. I think that's it.

Comments

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

I've never listened to all of the plays (that sounds like fun!), but when I read them, I tend to do it thematically (comedies, tragedies, histories, romances) and chronologically within each theme. I do this with the histories even though that puts them out of historical chronological order, because the plays he wrote later (Richard II, Henry IV 1 and 2, and Henry V) are really better than the earlier set, and I find it disconcerting to go from those to the three Henry VI plays.

Do you have particular recordings in mind? I wonder if I could talk my husband into some of them for car trips.

[kate_nepveu]

This set: http://www.audiopartners.com/shakespeare/

Chronologically within theme sounds like a possibility too, and that's good to know about the quality of the histories, thanks.