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 works, complete and/or works:
“Much that is urged on us new parents is useless, because we didn’t really choose it. It was pushed on us. It—whether it be Raffi videos, French lessons, or the complete works of Brazelton—might be just right for you and your particular child. But it is only right when you feel that it is. You know your family best; you decide.”
—Sonia Taitz (20th century)
“Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone—but not the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding.”
—Bette Davis (1908–1989)
“We thus worked our way up this river, gradually adjusting our thoughts to novelties, beholding from its placid bosom a new nature and new works of men, and, as it were with increasing confidence, finding nature still habitable, genial, and propitious to us; not following any beaten path, but the windings of the river, as ever the nearest way for us. Fortunately, we had no business in this country.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)