William Shakespeare Plays in Order

Shakespeare wrote at least thirty-six plays across a quarter-century, working in four modes — comedy, history, tragedy, romance — and the order they were written in is the order of a career you can watch change: a journeyman turning out hits, a master of the darker middle years, and at the end a writer inventing a new form where everyone is forgiven. The First Folio printed them by genre; modern editions print them by date. This page uses date. (1564–1616).

Where to start

A Midsummer Night's Dream is the classic entry — funny, magical, and short. Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar are the two most-taught and both read fast. For the deep end, go straight to Hamlet or King Lear, the two summits. The early histories (the Henry VI plays, Richard III) are for the already-converted.

Does the reading order matter?

Two orders compete. Chronological (the table below) lets you watch the craft develop — and the dates are scholarly approximations, since several plays were revised and none were published in his lifetime with his supervision. Genre order (the First Folio's: comedies, histories, tragedies) is how his first readers met them. For reading pleasure, most people do best with a genre they love first, then the career arc later.

Which one is the best?

Hamlet is the consensus summit; King Lear is the one many poets and novelists name privately. Twelfth Night for the comedies, Macbeth for the short chills.

Covered in depth here

An 8-question quiz, reading time, club questions and verified quotes for Romeo and Juliet (how long), Hamlet (how long), Macbeth (how long).

Related guides

Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: Jane Austen books in order, Charles Dickens books in order, George Orwell books in order. Every guide follows the same format — the shelf, the entry point, the honest answer about order.

Make it a project

Pick a session size and let the days accumulate — at the pace our reading speed test measures, most shelves above clear in a few weeks of half-hours. Every guide on the books in order shelf follows this same format, and when a book lands, its 8-question quiz is waiting on the original book quiz.