Works (Antony and Cleopatra / As You Like It / Hamlet / Julius Caesar / King Henry IV. Part 1 / King Henry V / King Lear / King Richard II / King Richard III / Macbeth / Measure for Measure / Merchant of Venice / Midsummer Night's Dream / Much Ado About Nothing / Othello / Romeo and Juliet / Sonnets / Taming of the Shrew / Tempest / Twelfth Night / Winter's Tale)

The Norton Shakespeare, often referred to as the standard scholarly edition for modern academia, was first published in 1997 to provide a definitive, textually rigorous collection of Shakespeare's works. This specific edition utilizes the Oxford Shakespeare's text, which famously chooses the earliest reliable versions of the plays rather than the traditional conflated texts, reflecting a significant shift in late 20th-century textual scholarship toward honoring the theatrical origins of the scripts.

The design and editorial philosophy were overseen by a prestigious group of general editors including Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, and Katharine Eisaman Maus. Their approach was to provide students and scholars with extensive historical context, cultural annotations, and essays that frame the plays within the socio-political realities of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. It has since become a cornerstone of university literature curricula worldwide, praised for balancing academic depth with accessible presentation.