This edition of Shakespeare's Complete Works contains all the plays and poems. The plays are arranged in the chronological order of their composition rather than gathered into comedies, histories and tragedies, the traditional method dating from the first folio; the volume also contains a sketch of Shakespeare's life, a biography of Sir John Gilbert, and an extensive glossary. The book is bound in real cloth, with head and tail bands, a ribbon marker, top edge gilt with a gold-blocked jacket, and has been completely reset.

It is illustrated throughout with Sir John Gilbert's superb woodcuts. As the Magazine of Art wrote when the edition was first published, 'It is a virtue of Gilbert's achievements in black and white that he takes his place among the few masters, not only of his own age and country, but of all time.'"