The book reduced the archaic English and complicated storyline of Shakespeare to a simple level that children could read and comprehend. However, as noted in the author's Preface, "his words are used whenever it seemed possible to bring them in; and in whatever has been added to give them the regular form of a connected story, diligent care has been taken to select such words as might least interrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which he wrote: therefore, words introduced into our language since his time have been as far as possible avoided."

The following plays were selected and adapted into tales:
The Tempest (Mary Lamb)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mary Lamb)
The Winter's Tale (Mary Lamb)
Much Ado About Nothing (Mary Lamb)
As You Like It (Mary Lamb)
Two Gentlemen of Verona (Mary Lamb)
The Merchant of Venice (Mary Lamb)
Cymbeline (Mary Lamb)
King Lear (Charles Lamb)
Macbeth (Charles Lamb)
All's Well That Ends Well (Mary Lamb)
The Taming of the Shrew (Mary Lamb)
The Comedy of Errors (Mary Lamb)
Measure for Measure (Mary Lamb)
Twelfth Night (Mary Lamb)
Timon of Athens (Charles Lamb)
Romeo and Juliet (Charles Lamb)
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Charles Lamb)
Othello (Charles Lamb)
Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Mary Lamb)