The Complete Works is a collection of all the works of one artist, writer, musician, group, etc. Sometimes the Latin language equivalent, Opera Omnia, is used. For example, Complete Works of Shakespeare is an edition containing all the plays and poems of William Shakespeare.
Sometimes the complete works may be titled by a single word, "Works".
A "Complete Works" edition usually is accompanied with notes, introduction, biographical sketch, and other additional information.
A contrasting term is "selected works", which is a collection of works selected according to some criterion, e.g., by prominence, by being a representative selection, etc.
Famous quotes containing the words complete and/or works:
“As a wicked man I am a complete failure. Why, there are lots of people who say I have never really done anything wrong in the whole course of my life. Of course they only say it behind my back.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“His character as one of the fathers of the English language would alone make his works important, even those which have little poetical merit. He was as simple as Wordsworth in preferring his homely but vigorous Saxon tongue, when it was neglected by the court, and had not yet attained to the dignity of a literature, and rendered a similar service to his country to that which Dante rendered to Italy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)