100+ OF THE BEST BOOKS ON SHAKESPEARE
By Jonathan Bate  

• Introduction
• Biographies & General Studies
• Shakespeare as Collaborator
• Shakespeare's Theatre
• Sources and Literary/Dramatic Contexts
• Historical & Political Contexts
• Language
• Verse-Speaking
• Dramatic Techniques & Forms
• Actors' and Directors' Interpretations
• Teacher's Guides
• Gender
• Comedies
• Histories
• Tragedies
• Poems and Sonnets
• Textual Questions
• Shakespeare in the Theatre from 1660 to the Present
• Shakespeare on Screen
• Key Interpretations Down the Ages
• Fictional Treatments

 

There are hundreds more fine books on Shakespeare, but anyone who reads The RSC Shakespeare: Complete Works from cover to cover and then devours a reasonable proportion of the above will have earned the right to consider themselves an exceptionally highly informed Shakespearean.