Shakespeare folios expected to fetch more than £3.5m at auction

Independent.ie - 01:01
William Shakespeare’s four folios published more than 300 years ago are to go on auction where they are expected to fetch between £3.5 million and £4.5 million.

The books, which compile Shakespeare’s plays, will go on sale at Sotheby’s in London on May 23, a month after the Bard’s birthday on April 23.

Experts say the first folio, which contains 36 of Shakespeare’s plays, is “the most significant publication in the history of English literature”, adding that without it up to half of the writer’s plays would have been lost, including Macbeth, Twelfth Night and Julius Caesar.

The four books are expected to sell for more than £3.5 million (Sotheby’s/PA)

Alongside the King James Bible, the auctioneers say the book has had “the greatest impact on the development of the English language itself”.

The first book’s initial print r...
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