‘So long lives this, and this gives life to thee’
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare allows you to enjoy, explore and understand these immortal works of literature as never before.
All 154 poems are performed to camera by an all-star cast including Sir Patrick Stewart, Kim Cattrall, Stephen Fry and David Tennant. The text highlights line by line as each sonnet is performed.
Arden Shakespeare notes
Complete scholarly notes from the Arden Shakespeare bridge the gap between Elizabethan English and our own.
Don Paterson’s commentary
Don Paterson's fresh and irreverent analysis asks what each sonnet may mean to the twenty-first century reader.
Full-screen performances
Watch specially-filmed performances of every sonnet from celebrated film, TV and stage actors, alongside Shakespearean scholars.
In addition, previously unseen interviews with leading experts provide insights into the backstory of Shakespeare's Sonnets and its author.
Share-a-Sonnet
Share the performance of your favourite sonnet, and a personal message, with someone special via Facebook, Twitter or email.
The original publication
Inspect Shakespeare's Sonnets as originally published with a complete facsimile of the 1609 Quarto edition.
The Sunday Times, Robert CollinsA masterly app ... It’s all so intuitively easy to use and so superbly thorough that you start to feel that this is precisely what a book should be. As accessible as it is scholarly, it’s an extraordinary achievement, that brings the sonnets bracingly to life and definitively sets the bar for the future of digital reading.