1Examining the universal and perennial topics of love, beauty, time and mortality, the 154 sonnets by William Shakespeare have been often quoted in the last 400 years since his death. Of them, 126 are addressed to a young man known as the 'Fair Youth', while the last 28 are addressed to a woman, the 'Dark Lady'. Over the years, there has been much speculation as to who these two figures really were, but no real answer has been found. The sonnets were first published in 1609, though probably written in the 1590s, but since their publication, there is hardly a language in the world into which they have not been translated. This handsome edition celebrates the glory of Shakespeare's language with the addition of color illustrations reflecting the life and times of the world's best-known writer.