Shakespeare's major plays are not abridged or summarized in these editions, but are paraphrased line-by-line in modern English to create a prose narrative that also incorporates stage directions and dialogue. Inspired by Goethe's idea that Shakespeare's great plays should be read the way novels are read—"for their essence is located within the human mind, not on the auditorium stage"—this series removes the Elizabethan usage and poetic dressing in order to make the plays unfold as if they were novels, carried along by the intensity of Shakespeare's page-turning plots and the rich development of character, mood, and setting