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Hamlet

by William Shakespeare

4.00 · rating details · 131,299 ratings · 2,759 reviews

A young prince meets with his father's ghost, who alleges that his own brother, now married to his widow, murdered him. The prince devises a scheme to test the truth of the ghost's accusation, feigning wild madness while plotting a brutal revenge. But his apparent insanity soon begins to wreak havoc on innocent and guilty alike. Hamlet's combination of violence and introsp...more

Hardcover, 209 pages

Published March 1st 2011 by CRW Publishing Ltd (first published January 1st 1385)

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Mar 22, 2010

Madeline rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare, assigned-reading

Hamlet, abridged:

GHOST/DAD: Hamlet, your uncle killed me and married your mom. I want vengeance, so best get to murdering, plzthnx.

HAMLET: EEK!

OPHELIA: Hamlet, are you okay?

HAMLET: Get away from me, skankwhore!

OPHELIA: WTF? *goes from zero to crazy like that*

GERTRUDE: Kid, you need therapy.

HAMLET: And you need to be less of AN ADULTEROUS WHORE!

POLONIUS: OMG so rude!

HAMLET: Eavesdroppin...more

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Oct 13, 2010

Paul rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: misc, awopbopaloobopalopbamboom, hidden-gems

The Skinhead Hamlet - Shakespeare's play translated into modern English. By Richard Curtis. Yes, that Richard Curtis!

Note : those offended by the F word - LOOK AWAY NOW! And Georgia, if you've stumbled on this review by your funny old dad - this is ANOTHER Paul Bryant. Not me!

*********

ACT I
SCENE I
The Battlements of Elsinore Castle.

[Enter HAMLET, followed by GHOST:]

GHOST: Oi! Mush!

HAMLET: Yer?

GHOS...more

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Dec 30, 2011

Ian Graye rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011, reviews

A Young Lawyer’s Guide to "Hamlet":

Head Note

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark – Young Hamlet still mourns his father’s death – doesn’t like King Claudius marrying his mother, Queen Gertrude, so soon

Ophelia's brother, Laertes, warns her not to fall in love with Young Hamlet - her father Polonius fears she will be hurt

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern investigate Young Hamlet’s strange behavior – Polonius believes he loves Ophelia
...more

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Aug 22, 2011

Manny rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: why-not-call-it-poetry, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Jesus Christ what a year no way could this get worse now they're hacking away at each other with their swords and I'm supposed to look interested oh well done Hamlet despite everything he's still my son that was a lovely feint pretty worried about Laertes though he looks so crazy first his dad and then his sister wish I could do something to help oh come on who am I kidding it's Hamlet I'm worried about of course God what am I going to do that poor kid is totally fucked and he thinks it's all my...more

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Oct 29, 2011

Bird Brian rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: desert-island-top-ten-picks

[Edit: originally written Saturday 22 October 2011]

CELEBRITYHR DEATH MATHC REVIEWS [Edit: Link ]

HALMLET V. WINNIERTTHE POYHH

Ghost of marrry popplins: See ho! there be the hell-toad which dispatched me last round@! Be not indecisive! Make fair thine blasde!
Hamlet: (plunging swormd into Winne the Posh): Worms meat of you!~ VILLAIN!!!
Winnei ther Pooh: (much honey leaking out the swrod) OHMY GOD! CALUMNEY, SAVE ME WALT DISNEY!!!!
Walt Disney...more

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Jun 03, 2007

Keely added it · review of another edition

Shelves: drama, reviewed, uk-and-ireland

Shakespeare is an adept poet and master of the language. He layers on jokes, puns, and references everywhere. He has a massive output of work, and a number of different plots. When we compare him to other authors, it is difficult to find anyone who stacks up. This is usually because we compare him to the wrong people.

Shakespeare didn't write books or pamphlets or epics, he wrote plays. Short pieces of drama that were meant to be fast-paced and exciting. That they are mainly experienc...moreShakespeare is an adept poet and master of the language. He layers on jokes, puns, and references everywhere. He has a massive output of work, and a number of different plots. When we compare him to other authors, it is difficult to find anyone who stacks up. This is usually because we compare him to the wrong people.

Shakespeare didn't write books or pamphlets or epics, he wrote plays. Short pieces of drama that were meant to be fast-paced and exciting. That they are mainly experienced today as bound books and not theatrical productions does not change their origins. If one wants to look at the achievements of Shakespeare, he should be compared to someone of a similar bent.

He should be compared with prolific writers known for catchy jokes and phrases. Writers who reuse old plots, making fun of their traditions. Writers of work meant to be performed. Writers who aim for the lowest common denominator, while still including the occasional political commentary. He should be compared to the writers of South Park; or Family Guy; or the Simpsons; or MAD Magazine.

Shakespeare was meant to be lowbrow and political, but now it only reads that way to those who are well-educated enough to understand his language, reference, and the political scene of the time. He referenced mythology because that was the popular thing to do. Family Guy references 1980's pop culture. Is that any less esoteric? How esoteric will Mr. T be after 400 years (assuming he doesn't find his way into the bible anytime soon)?

Additionally, all of Shakespeare's magnificent plots were lifted, sometimes whole cloth, from other books and histories, just like how sit coms have 'episode types' or steal the plots of popular movies.

Shakespeare was not as visionary or deep as he is often given credit for. Rather, he was always so vague with the motives and thoughts of his characters that two critics could give his characters two different and conflicting motives, but find both equally well-supported.

Is Shylock evil because he's a Jew, evil despite the fact, or evil because of the effects of racism on him? You can make a case for all three, while Marlowe (the more practised writer) never left it to chance, and where has it gotten him?

Shakespeare was an inspired and prolific author, and his effect on writing and talent for aphorism cannot be overstated. I think he probably wrote the King James version because it is so pretty. However, he is not the be-all and end-all of writing.

His popularity and central position in the canon comes mainly from the fact that you can write anything you like about his plays. Critics and professors don't have to scramble, or even leave their comfort zone. Shakespeare's work is vague enough that it rejects no interpretations. No matter your opinions, you can find them reflected in Shakespeare, or at least, not outright refuted.

His is a grey world, and his lack of agenda leaves us pondering what he could possibly have been like. His vague and endless interpretation makes his writing the perfect representation of an unsure, unjust world. No one is really right or wrong, and if they were, there would be no way to know it.

I don't know whether this makes him the most or least poignant of writers. Is the author's absence from the stories the most rarefied example of the craft, or is it just lighthearted pandering? I'm still not sure.(less)

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Sep 04, 2010

Elizabeth rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: in-theater, tam-lin, elizabethan-my-dear, the-strange-allure-of-airport-books, in-by-of-england, reviewed, danes

I read most of this on a plane last night. There is something quietly magical about closing your ears to outside distractions and reading under a small light while people all around you sleep or stare at computer screens or otherwise pretend that they are also alone in this small, tight space. We ignore each other as much as possible as a courtesy. It isn't a time to share a story with the stranger next to you; it isn't polite to get loudly drunk. It's quiet, no cell phones (yet), and dark, and ...moreI read most of this on a plane last night. There is something quietly magical about closing your ears to outside distractions and reading under a small light while people all around you sleep or stare at computer screens or otherwise pretend that they are also alone in this small, tight space. We ignore each other as much as possible as a courtesy. It isn't a time to share a story with the stranger next to you; it isn't polite to get loudly drunk. It's quiet, no cell phones (yet), and dark, and as long as the kids are passed out, a little like being spell-bound, you are removed from time. I love that excuse to turn everything off and just read.

Usually, my brain isn't up for anything more challenging than the latest offense to classic literature (with vampires!) or some similar form of nonsense. Yesterday, though, I wanted to read Hamlet. There wasn't anything else, including the silly book I'd brought from home as a ward against the siren-horrors of the airport bookstore, that I wanted to even look at. And for the first time ever, the Atlanta airport came through for me, having a copy on the shelf, although it was pitifully near their expanded erotica section.

Sometimes you need a certain book at a certain time, one that you know has the (not comfort, no, definitely not comfort, but) ideas you need in it. The ones you haven't been able to sort through on your own. The BIG stuff: life, death, love, happiness, compassion, anger, madness, faith, passion, politics. I've read this play a lot of times. I've seen as many film interpretations. It's one of those works of literature that has come with me through my life. As I get older and look for different things in what I read, I can find the differences in this work. I get a new experience from it each time. It happens with all of Shakespeare's plays but this one is special, like the old friend you haven't spoken to in a couple of years but as soon as you call, there she is, still herself, but with new insight and new ideas, and happy to share with you, despite the absence. Having been influenced by Tom Stoppard fairly early on, I'd never been really angry at Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's betrayal of their childhood friend until this reading. I felt like they were betraying my old friendship as well.

I wanted to read this book, this week, because someone I knew a long time ago, walked in front of a train on Sunday, and I haven't known what to make of it. I know the usual things. Sorrow. Disbelief. Regret. But I felt shame, too, and anger, at myself, and belated compassion for him, fifteen years too late. So amidst the meetings and emails and lame facebook posts that I did this week, I was thinking about what it looked like to see people in pain, and what happened to you when you let your confusion about what the right thing should be consume your reason, and how you can fuck up your and everyone else's life in a few short acts.

Hamlet has always been my favorite Shakespeare character, despite what he does to Ophelia, and because of what he does to himself. I get the twisting in on oneself. The strange melancholy, that no one else seems to understand, but that corrodes your skin. To the medieval doctors melancholy was black bile, a physical illness, as well as a manifestation of dark anger, rather than the willowy-washy Byronesque emo guy image that began to appear in the eighteenth century. When Claudius says to Hamlet, that his is unmanly grief, Hamlet wasn't some wimpy weakling, who might develop a lisp at any moment. Hamlet was his competition for the throne, and likely a popular choice, possibly like Prince Hal, who grew into Henry V. One of the things that gets to me about this play is this conflict, between a man who knows his purpose (a man who is capable of sending people to their deaths with calculation) and his own inability to fulfill that purpose, and all the emotions that creates in him. I wonder if we assume that Hamlet was always this whiny brat that was sent away to school because that's what we'd do now (a Holden Caufield, please just get him out of the house, honey, he's driving me crazy with the moping and the maudlin music) rather than an heir in training, who needs every intellectual advantage to deal with his war-like and bitter neighbors. (Claudius certainly makes a hash of those relationships).

In all of it, in the whole play, the only person who seems to truly care for him is Horatio. Ophelia is seriously conflicted about her own things, but dutiful to her father before this guy, even if he is a Prince. We never see her trying to comfort Hamlet as he goes loudly mad, only setting him up for observation. His mom is clueless too. If it were the nineteen-seventies, I'm pretty sure that woman would have been checking into Betty Ford a few times before caving and having just one last drink in Act V. I wonder where the compassion is? How brutal is this world that no one will reach out to someone falling apart, visibly and invisibly? We get fix him and get rid of him but no compassion for him. I think that's why we all do love Horatio; he is the only one to behave the way I would hope I would in this situation. When he isn't supporting Hamlet, he looks after Ophelia, and it's when he leaves that she runs off to gather flowers by the slippery river bank.

I'm making a hash of this review, which hurts me, for this is Hamlet and I really do love it. It's just that it was everything I needed, this time. That may be the important part of this one, that it is so much about all those very many and very human failings that you can read it for almost any purpose and it will give you something back. It is never just an intellectual exercise. It isn't to play with the possible politics or to get lost within the play within the play (although I do, every time); it touches on that undiscovered country without letting you cross into it. I mean that it gives you a perspective on someone else's crossing and what would lead him there. It hurt to read this time. I love that about it.(less)

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Nov 04, 2011

Sandybanks rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, british-literature, classics, ebook, tudor, brushing-up-on-the-bard

For the Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament, Hamlet vs Winnie-the-Pooh

…

Sometimes Winnie-the-Pooh likes a game of some sort
when he comes downstairs, and sometimes he likes to sit
quietly in front of the fire and listen to a story. This eve-
ning—
"What about a story?" said Christopher Robin.
"What about a story?" I said.
"Could you very sweetly tell Winnie-the-Pooh one?"
"I suppose I cou...more

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Oct 29, 2011

Chester Brown rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: life-changing

A CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH REVIEW AND CONFESSIONAL

Hamlet vs. Winnie the Pooh
by Alex DeLarge

____________________________

Sit back and be comfortable, oh my Droogs, and I will pour out a history for you so wretched it will make your heart heavy with sighs and groans. Those of you who know me well may have come to regard me as a sort of demon, possessed of no sympathy or compassion. And very well this is too! For this gulliver of mine is filled with the stories ...more

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Dec 16, 2009

Jeanette rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: all-fiction, classics, plays, five-star-fiction

Final body count = 8

Got the hots for your sister-in-law? Wanna be king? Just bump off your brother and marry his wife! Then your nephew will be your stepson, but you will call him "cousin." Very soon, you and everyone around you will be dead, and some Norwegian dude will plop his dimply butt in your throne.

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Jan 08, 2012

Anastasia rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classici, teatro, per-scuola

Ma che cos'ho che non va.

Ma porca miseria, se continua così comincerò a credere alla possibilità che il mio DNA sia stato alterato, per cui non sono come il resto dei lettori. Non so, magari ho un cromosoma che mi sballa tutto e non mi permette di impazzire per Shakespeare come fa il resto del mondo. Se è veramente così, dovrò dimenticare l'educazione e dirne tante a mamma e papà.
Non è che l'Amleto non mi sia piaciuto, è che, appunto, non sono riuscita ad innamorarmene, come v...more

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Feb 09, 2008

Trevor rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: humans

Shelves: literature

I’ve always meant to talk to my mate George about Hamlet and I guess this is as good an opportunity to do so as any.

There are different things I would say to different people about Hamlet – and as this is the near perfect play I guess there ought to be many and various things one could say about it.

The oddest thing about Hamlet is that people always tend to say the same thing – they always say, “Oh yes, Hamlet, the man who hesitates”. I’ve said it before and I’ll say i...more

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Oct 29, 2011

Troy DeNuthe rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: badda-bing

CELEBRITY DEATHMATCHES!!!

THIS WEEK'S EDITION:

HAMLET TAKES ON WINNIE THE POOH AND HIS GANG!!!

It’s 100 Acres Wood Grand Slam Slapdown!!!

ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLEEEEEE???

Winnie jumps at Hamlet, with his bear claws flashing through the air.

Suddenly, ABBA appears and starts grooving out to their 1974 hit “Honey, Honey”.

Winnie the Pooh is mesmerized, and Hamlet’s blade goes straight through him!
...more

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Oct 07, 2011

Mariel rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone is already born knowing it

Recommended to Mariel by: probably before I was even born

Shelves: babywecouldbefamous, letsgotothemovies, the-neon-gas-gets-free, celebrity-deathmatch

Celebrity Death Match tournament review versus The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. (Once I thought I was out...) Edit- Whoops accidental alternative pairing! It was supposed to be MACBETH versus Sherlock. Oh well, those wins are givens anyway.

"To do anything, is there even a point? To die, to eat and sleep, is that all there is? Fuck. No, to sleep, to dream, to fuck, there it all goes down the fucking toilet. Bitches, liars and whores. Assholes, fucktards and sons of bitches. I'm...more

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Jan 19, 2011

Brad rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classic, shakespeare, played-a-part

Is there a better artistic expression of death's myriad manifestations than Shakespeare's Hamlet? I say no. In my counter-factual universe I see William Shakespeare as a Lieutenant at the First Somme. Imagine the war poetry that Shakespeare could have written. Perhaps one such war sonnet would have gone something like this:

My subaltern’s eyes will ne’er again see the sun,
Exposed hearts are more red than whores lips are red;
If we go o’er the top we are sure to face the gun; ...more

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Oct 11, 2007

Dmitry rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: you

Just taking a stab here. Feel free to comment or dismiss.

I'd like to suggest that "Hamlet" was the first work of "high" or "serious" literature, by which I mean the first publically disseminated text written in a common language that was difficult for its contemporary audience (as opposed to, for example, texts like DaVinci's notebooks, written in code, Thomas Acquinas's "Summa Theologica," written in Church Latin, and texts like "The Bib...moreJust taking a stab here. Feel free to comment or dismiss.

I'd like to suggest that "Hamlet" was the first work of "high" or "serious" literature, by which I mean the first publically disseminated text written in a common language that was difficult for its contemporary audience (as opposed to, for example, texts like DaVinci's notebooks, written in code, Thomas Acquinas's "Summa Theologica," written in Church Latin, and texts like "The Bible," or "The Iliad" that became difficult over time.)

I think "Hamlet" was difficult the first time it was performed. To show why, I'd like to propose a definition of "literature" as opposed to "genre."

Let me define "genre" first. A genre work is a work that openly and unproblematically acknowledges its influences. Itis easy to read and to market. For example, there are now hundreds of books in the genre of "The DaVinci Code." They do not hide that fact, but put it on the cover. Doing that, they pay back both to the reader, and to Dan Brown: the reader gets the joy of recognition, and the "original" grows in stature.

This open acknowledgement of influence is the defining feature of "genre." A work is "science fiction" if it openly acknowledges the influence of other works of "science fiction"; the same goes for "mystery," "western," and so on. The influence can be lateral, as well as longitudinal. Michael Connelly and Robert Crais are contemporary authors of mysteries; their detectives, Harry Bosch and Elvis Cole live in the same canyon, and nod to each other from their balconies.

Genre is old. Storytellers have always, without any anxiety, used tropes and structures from earlier works. Virgil took ideas from Homer. The author of "The Pearl Manuscript" took imagery from "The Book of Revelation." It's possible that before the invention of printing, the act of copying was so labor intensive, that the notion of plagiarism as transgression did not exist.

In a work of "literature," the author feels anxiety about using other people's stuff, aka "generic conventions." I'm riffing here on Harold Bloom's "Anxiety of Influence." Bloom posits that new works of literature are created when authors willfully, yet subconsciously, misread the works of their predecessors. They don't "feel free" to take, and so what they take becomes transformed by their anxiety.

That anxiety (I may be willfully misreading Bloom) causes the literary work to become alienated from the very "conventions" that instantiate it. And that's precisely why it's difficult to read. As the tropes that should be familiar turn foreign, the anxiety transfers to the reader, and if it's felt acutely enough, the merely alien becomes wholly Other and completely new.

This is what happened with "Hamlet," a revenge play in which Hamlet's anxiety over avenging his father's death mirrors Shakespeare's anxiety over writing a "revenge play." Shakespeare's princ(e)ipal innovation, which created literature, was to focus his energies on the anxiety. The play cracked open, and stuff poured in--philosophy, cosmology, insanity, the human condition, the craft of acting, the fear of death, and so forth--alienating "Hamlet" from the very generic conventions that caused it to be. That alienation was also felt by the audience, and made their experience of "Hamlet" difficult. Even after four hundred years people argue over what "Hamlet" is about, and the one thing everyone agrees on is that it's NOT about what it seems to be about, which is whether Hamlet will kill Claudius.

The difficulty of literature has nothing to do with abstruse language or complicated ideas (which can be present in genre.) The difference is literature alienates the familiar, and genre familiarizes the alien. Literature takes a generically handsome prince, his college buddies, a love interest, a villainous murderer, a castle, and a spooky ghost--familiar generic elements all--and anxiously misreads it all into a hopeless muddle.(less)

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Jan 27, 2011

Bill Kerwin rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 16th-17th-c-brit, weird-fiction

I don't really have any important insights to share from this last of god-knows-how-many readings, but this time through I was really struck by: 1) what a damn fine piece of stagecraft this is, from the suspenseful, moody opening on the castle battlements to the solemn dead march carrying the prince offstage, and 2) how Shakespeare seems to want Hamlet's personality--particularly the wellsprings of his actions (and lack of action)--to remain an enigma, and that he achieves this by infusing...more

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Oct 03, 2011

Marvin rated it

· review of another edition

Written for the Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament

Atticus Finch waited quietly in front of the sheriff's office. The word as out that a vigilante mob would attempt to take his client out of the jail and lynch him. Atticus was sipping his lemonade when he heard a rustle in the bushes.

"Who is that." He shouted.

"It's just Me." replied Scout.

"Why Scout. What are you doing here. You should be in bed. This is no place for yo...more

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Jun 03, 2010

Rebecca rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classics

Exposes the ultimate conclusion of female passivity as death. However, I'm suspicious of Ophelia's fate. How did Gertrude know she was singing? That bitch must have been witness. At least. ;)

*engages angry mob for justice*

'Angry Mob for Justice' is gonna be the name of my organisation.

*nods*

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Nov 30, 2011

Simona Bartolotta rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classici, favorites

"O Amleto, mi hai spaccato il cuore."

O sono io che in questo periodo sto sviluppando un folle amore per il teatro, o è che questo Amleto mi ha davvero toccato l'anima.
Da amare per la profonda disperazione che emerge dai suoi versi, una disperazione cieca, nera come l'oblio, ma pur sempre velata d'ironia; per l'intensità dei sentimenti dei personaggi, per la loro forza e la loro deboleazza, e per la loro storia, storia di intrighi, peccati, vendette: ed infine per la loro...more

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Dec 03, 2011

Jonathan rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Shakespeare admirers (as in of his work)

Shelves: classic-literature, personal-favourites, plays

I've read a few of the more popular Shakespeare texts and still have many more to read. I would love to fully complete his entire collection due to the brilliance of the bard. But you didn't want to read about my meetings with Shakespeare did you? You want a review of Hamlet. And a review you shall have as soon as I...

Here we are. Review generated.

When I first picked up Hamlet I thought to myself: 'This will be just like every other of Shakespeare's plays. I'll enjoy the ...moreI've read a few of the more popular Shakespeare texts and still have many more to read. I would love to fully complete his entire collection due to the brilliance of the bard. But you didn't want to read about my meetings with Shakespeare did you? You want a review of Hamlet. And a review you shall have as soon as I...

Here we are. Review generated.

When I first picked up Hamlet I thought to myself: 'This will be just like every other of Shakespeare's plays. I'll enjoy the story and find the prose detractive.' I was proved otherwise.

Hamlet has the usual archaic prose of Shakespeare yet the brilliance of the story shone through despite the time difference. Where Romeo and Juliet was too romantically tragic; Midsummer Night's Dream was too fanciful and light; and Macbeth was too dark and gritty Hamlet struck a fine balance between the three. It was dark, but not too dark. It was fun and flighty but not too airy-fairy. It had romance and tragedy but not too much romance and the tragedy was perfectly composed. In short Hamlet was the perfect amalgamation of the other plays' themes, motifs, ideas and symbols.

Hamlet was gritty and yet at the same time it was enjoyable. Where I enjoyed the language used in Macbeth I found it too grim. Where I enjoyed the language in Hamlet I found it perfectly balanced between hauntingly reminiscent and grim and dark. It's obviously no secret from the five stars and my review that yes I very much enjoyed Hamlet. A good thing too since I actually bought the book.

I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in Shakespeare or perhaps curious as to what the Bard can say to modern audiences. For the powerful allure of his writing is that the narratives he composes are perfect for both audiences then and now. So give Hamlet a try, perhaps while eating an omelet on a piece of toast-let. (That's just bad... oh look now I'm commenting on my own work.)

Review terminated.

The last was added at a later date:

In further musing (I have been watching the excellent David Tennant version of Hamlet) I realised that I omitted to mention that Hamlet is in my eyes a very strong exploration of mortality and life. In many ways it questions what it is to be human. It features the ghost of a King, an untrustworthy uncle, and the famous scene when Hamlet remarks upon the skull of a man he once knew to be living. In many ways Hamlet as a play challenges that men are not all they appear and in others it analyses the brevity of existence. It is one of the more morbid of all Shakespeare's plays but also one of the most fascinating.(less)

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Nov 29, 2007

Jim rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: plays, read-and-kept, required-reading, reviewed

I've discovered the Signet Classics Shakespeare editions to be satisfying versions of the Old Man's stuff. They're thoroughly glossed and annotated, the editorial decisions are explained and reasoned out for the reader, and the supplementary criticism is insightful. I found the Signet Classics editions of The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Twelfth Night to also be of this high quality.

I've never read Hamlet -- ah, bless my public education -- and I fell asleep about forty-five minutes...moreI've discovered the Signet Classics Shakespeare editions to be satisfying versions of the Old Man's stuff. They're thoroughly glossed and annotated, the editorial decisions are explained and reasoned out for the reader, and the supplementary criticism is insightful. I found the Signet Classics editions of The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Twelfth Night to also be of this high quality.

I've never read Hamlet -- ah, bless my public education -- and I fell asleep about forty-five minutes into the Kenneth Branaugh juggernaut. Reading the play, I discovered I was familiar enough with the plot, but also surprised how many of my expectations were upset.

The hoary chestnut of Hamlet is that it's four acts of wondering what to do, and a fifth of doing it. Not true! Sure, Hamlet mopes about Castle Elsinore wringing his hands, but the plot does not stall. Shakespeare imbues Hamlet not with indecisiveness -- he swears revenge at the end of Act One so stoutly, how can you not believe him? -- but with thoroughness. Hamlet does not want to make a move against Claudius until all the bubbles on the Scantron have been filled in.

Ghost is not Satan attempting to trick me -- check. Get rid of Ophelia, the woman I love, to stay true to my quest -- check. Convince everyone I'm mad and harmless -- check. Tell off mom for being such a tramp -- check. Ditch these snooping Rosencrantz and Guildenstern kiss-asses off in Britain -- check. Kill Uncle Claudius in such a way as to reveal his treachery and insure his eternal damnation -- check.

The genius of Hamlet, of course, is that everything I've just written could be reasonably argued down. It's as rich a read as all the stuffed-shirts say it is.

As another reviewer here on Goodreads points out, the play is not really about whether Hamlet will kill Claudius; it's about the journey to the final scene, the pondering and self-questioning, the contradictions in Hamlet's character that are so human. That's true, but it cannot be overlooked: this is a revenge tragedy. The central question Hamlet faces is, what price revenge? He finds it to be an expensive proposition.

The monologues are all they're cracked up to be, in particular "what a piece of work is a man", which I reread about eight times out of sheer joy of the language. Try reading it with a sneering or sarcastic tone; it has the muscular flexings of the hard-boiled school about it.

The Signet Classics edition features a good discussion of the two extant quartos and the folio versions of Hamlet. For grins, check out the "to be or not be" speech from the first quarto. It reads like a parody of the version we've all learned. Better yet, compare it to the Shakespeare parody the Duke and the Dolphin muff in Huckleberry Finn. Twain, as usual, is spot-on.(less)

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Jun 16, 2007

Steven rated it

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Shelves: thebard, theplayisthething

Obviously the plot is so well understood that there is nothing I can add. Some of my favorite lines are as follows:

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

This above all — to thine ownself be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,...more

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Apr 12, 2009

Gztaylor5 rated it

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Shelves: english-7701

What could I say of Hamlet that hasn't already been said? It's place in the literary canon is absolutely necessary. Hamlet, the prince, is the deepest, most complete character in literary history, unsurpassed previously and ever since. What makes Hamlet so special is his ability to see the world around himself, and to question his own existance within that world:

To be, or not to be, — that is the question: —
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The s...more

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Jan 27, 2009

Alex rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: loomis

Shakespeare's masterpiece. What sets Hamlet apart from other WS plays I have read is its realistic flow: the plot in not contrived (ala Macbeth), the time-frame not quickened (ala Romeo and Juliet), the climax not hollow (ala Julius Caesar). Even the ghosts scenes work. The depth of Hamlet's character, expressed so poignantly in his numerous soliloquies, and the intricacy of the supporting roles further solidify this masterpiece's greatness.

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Jan 25, 2011

Andreea added it · review of another edition

Shelves: english-lit-1b

The more times I read Hamlet the more unhappy I become with the idea of a weepy suicidal Hamlet crippled by indecision that we've been so accustomed to.

And at the same time I can't help asking myself more and more who does Hamlet belong to? Does it belong to me because I'm white and European (by some standards, in any case) so Shakespeare and I are in many ways related? Does it belong to me because I can speak English and thus understand and are able to relate to the play in a manne...more

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Jan 05, 2012

Stella ☢FAYZ☢ Chen rated it

· review of another edition

Update: I'm changing this from 4 stars to 5 because I did well on the assigned essay. ;) Just kidding.

I thought someone should have told Mr. Shakespeare to cut a whole chunk out of this play. I recommend someone to rewrite this play with the ghost actually a demon. Oohhhh~

This play had some highs and some lows. Overall, a decent play.

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Sep 28, 2011

Elliot rated it

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Shelves: freshman-year-2011-12, drama

Hamlet is an extraordinarily frustrating text, a play whose fundamental ambiguities (and, occasionally, contradictions) say more the literal content of the work ever could. We expect Hamlet to confront standard themes of revenge, or the corruption of the state, or whatever, but, upon close reading, I find it hard to justify those interpretations.

The principle movements in the play are distractions from the revenge supposedly so significant to plot, and the revenge itself was impossib...more

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Jul 22, 2011

Austin Ratner rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: literature, shakespeare, drama

"Hamlet is the finest of all the plays in the English revenge tradition," says Roma Gill, editor of the Oxford School Shakespeare edition of Hamlet. Some would call that an understatement, since Hamlet is frequently invoked as the greatest play in any tradition. (Flaubert said, "The three finest things God ever made are the sea, Hamlet, and Mozart's Don Giovanni.") Hamlet is, however, a revenge play, a fact which often seems to go unappreciated by directors and actors and ...more

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Jan 13, 2010

Mark Romano rated it

· review of another edition

The longest play by the greatest playwright is his most famous work. Everything in this play means something, from the opening stance of the soldier through it's conclusion. It is ultimately about identity: trying to understand who you are in the world. The opening scene for example, is a soldier disturbed by a noise. He questions the darkness with the opening words:
"Who's there?"

This is a play filled with questions but perhaps none more thematically relevant than th...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Ophelia- character with depth or simply a simple?	2	10	18 hours, 32 min ago
The best film version	61	200	Feb 05, 2012 11:49am
AP-Lit-A-Thon: Act 1	11	2	Jan 17, 2012 06:26am
AP-Lit-A-Thon: Act 3	8	2	Jan 15, 2012 04:31pm
AP-Lit-A-Thon: Act 2 and its abounding hilarity	2	2	Jan 15, 2012 10:15am
Rated YA-MA: Why adults read Young Adult fiction?	99	182	Nov 27, 2011 07:07pm
Hamlet: Hero or Villian?	7	41	Nov 27, 2011 12:16pm

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About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. Hi...moreWilliam Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
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Quotes from Hamlet

“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.” — 3,117 people liked it

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” — 1,012 people liked it

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