William Shakespeare's "Sonnets" are offered to the reader in translations of Alexander Finkel – the talented linguist and bright poet. Finkel equally convincing and inspired in any genre, whether it is a strict philological work or an abstract parody like which he wrote for the well-known collection «Parnassus on end» (1925). However, Sergey Radlov – the author of the detailed textual comment and an essay on "Sonnets"’ life history in world culture – tells about works of Russian translators of different ages. The complexity and fascination of their problems are shown in the edition by two variants of the English text of a cycle – modern, accepted in present-day England, and 1609th, in which the contemporaries of the poet have read these ingenious verses for the first time. William Shakespeare speaks in "Sonnets" from the first person. For this very reason a popular dispute on the question who was their author isn't ignored here. The image of Shakespeare exists in a context of unconditional circumstances of biographic character, instead of numerous striking theories.
The edition is illustrated by engravings of the XVI-XVII centuries. An overwhelming majority of them are published in Russia for the first time.