A complete and original copy of Shakespeare’s very first printed collection of plays made a record sale of Rs 73 crore. This was the first time in almost two decades a copy had hit the market. “A complete copy of the First Folio comes up more or less once in a generation,” said the International Head of Books and Manuscripts at Christie’s.
The sale establishes a world auction record for any printed work of literature. The folio was not only Shakespeare’s first collected edition of plays, but it was also the first time that 18 out of the 36 plays in it had ever been printed.
Among those 18 plays are masterpieces like Macbeth, The Tempest and Julius Caesar, all of which created a lasting hold on English literature. The First Folio printed in 1623 and containing 36 plays by the English master, is frequently described as the greatest literary work in the English language. It was published after the death of the Bard, who lived from 1564 until 1616, and was compiled by two of his friends, John Heminge and Henry Condell.
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