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Summary: An ambiguous play, the reason for countless years of study.
Review: After reading this play, playing the part of Hamlet on stage, and after reading countless numbers of critical material and comments, I still am baffled as to why Shakespeare, a master of play writing could display to the world one of the most confusing tragedies ever to take centre fold in literature today. Even after watching the performance on stage, or having seen film adaptations, not one could ever be certainly correct. However it is a fabulous play, and may be brought to life in so many varieties and styles. I love Shakespeare's work and I will keep reading it until I have a perfect picture of what he was trying to achieve.
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Summary: Hamlet review
Review: Hamlet is a book you have to repeat some dialogs to completely understand Shakespeare's language, unless you are a genius. His language is beautiful and descriptive. I personally consider it directly and indirectly decribes its means. The speeches in the play are beautiful and most of them are well known. It is a book has the most deaths of characters among the books I read follows World War II. Its cause and effect structure brought up the linkly circumstances and lead the joyfullness of the play. It is a pretty hard book to read, I recommand you to use notes as you read it inorder to fullfill your joyfullness of the language.
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Summary: An everyday man struggles with the decision to kill.
Review: Hamlet is a classic in every possible way; he is in all of us, and will never die. Although some claim this play to be flawed, that is the beauty of it--it is not perfect, as Hamlet certainly is not. Also, The New Folger Library is the best translation I have ever found...it contains clear explanations and a summary of each scene. The only thing that would be more helpful would be a "real life" scholar. Congratulations to this publisher for making Shakespere more understandable.
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Summary: Thumbs Up!
Review: Hamlet `tis a most noble and moving play, that e'en the most wretched rogues and knaves might be inspired by its fare and wondrous words. Never before nor since didst a man put such poetry true to stage and page. Didst Hamlet boink Ophelia, I know not. `Twas a consummation devoutly to be wished! Didst Hamlet actually lust after his mother (Laurence Olivier sayeth so!)? Such are the contradictions and conflicts and shades within the play that make it one that shall endure. But, I bid you all adieu, for I must away!
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Summary: An intriguing masterpiece!
Review: Hamlet is most certainly one of Shakespeare's best! Everytime I read it, I find new hidden meanings in it. It is aimed at both the "simple" observer and the most critical or analytic! I love the use of "double meaning" in this play as well as the very smart transformation of Hamlet's personality which leaves it up to us to decide whether he really was crazy or was carrying a charade. In it, are the most sophisticated and wise of words, interwoven in a lunatic-sage manner that dazzles the senses with mind tangling and challenging notions. Although it is not easy to read, it sure is well worth the time spent.
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Summary: the greatest shakespeare tradgey ever
Review: this is a great play by william shakespeare i would recomend it to anyone. It is a tale of power love revenge and death. a great read any tim
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Summary: Classic
Review: Murder, madness, incest, love, an betrayal. It's not the summers hottest movie, it's Shakespear's classic Hamlet. A play that has thrilled and baffled audiences for centuries. Is Hamlet crazy, or is he just cunning beyond comprehension? You decide
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Summary: A marvellous new book from a master of 20th century criticis
Review: If each book in the Bloom's Notes series is as interestingand useful as this volume (on William Shakespeare's Hamlet)Bloom's Notes should be as well known and as frequently used as the popular Cliff's Notes series. As I see it, Bloom's notes has two advantages over Cliff's Notes. The first is that this new series with it's glossy black, gold and white cover is so much more elegant looking than CLiff's crass yellow and black. This is one instance where if you do judge a book by its cover, your judgement will be correct. Bloom's Notes looks and is smart. Smartest of all is that Harold Bloom, the highly esteemed author has written the introduction to each volume. No student can read his essays without catching a bit of the fever for reading that the critic has so frequently written about.
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Summary: Brilliant Performance.....
Review: This review refers to the Caedmon Audio/Full Cast Recording edition(HarperCollins) of "Hamlet"....The first thing I need to clarify is exactly which audio edition this is. If you are on the product page with a light purple box pictured, this is the 1963, full cast recording, complete play in 5 acts, starring Paul Scofield as "Hamlet.It is not, as the audio file editorial states the one with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. And if the Scofield performance is what you'd like to hear, you are in for a real treat.(You can enlarge the product picture to see a better view of the box) The entire cast including Diana Wynyard as Gertrude,Roland Culver as Claudius, Donald Houston as Laertes and Zena Walker as Ophelia turn in powerful performances and will captivate your imagination no matter how many versions of this brilliant play you have heard, or seen. Paul Scofield("A Man For All Seasons") is masterful as the complex Hamlet, wanting revenge for his father's death, yet torn by his own conscience. There are so many different versions of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", and on this taped set you will find a performance worthy of his genius.It is one you will want to listen to many times and well worth the price. After listening to it at home, I now bring it with me in my car to keep me company in traffic and on long trips. This three tape set(6 sides) has the entire play, Ronsencrantz and Guildenstern included,in five acts. The entire play runs about 3 1/2 hours, each side of the tapes running between 30 to 45 minutes. The scenes are nicely seperated by music and the sound quality remastered(1995) in Dolby B is excellent.Although the tapes are not enclosed in their own cassette cases, there are individual cardboard holders inside the box for each. A brilliant performance that you will remember, and one we are fortunate to have on these fabulous recordings. Enjoy...Laurie
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Summary: Hamlet, glossed.
Review: I hated Shakespeare in high school, partly because I could only understand about one word out of every three. Recently -- that is, thirty years post-high-school -- I forced myself to read it again, in the Signet edition, and was dumbfounded at how different my response was. All the difficult terms were explained at the bottom of each page in footnotes. I learned the difference between the two terms of address, "Sir" and "Sirrah," and a lot of other things as well. As an adolescent I asked myself why the hero didn't just kill Claudius right of the bat and have done with it. The reason, it seemed to me, is that there wouldn't have been any play. Hamlet refuses to use his sword on his uncle for the same reason the Indians don't shoot the horses when they're chasing the stagecoach. What a change time has wrought. I guess when you're a kid you don't know the meaning of the term "moral doubt" because so many things seem black and white. It takes a certain degree of maturation to realize that murdering a king because some ghost told you to is a bit morally -- well, fuzzy. For instance, can you be absolutely certain that you're doing it to avenge your father instead of being jealous about your mother's affections? Questions like that, which a thoughtful adult might ask himself, are enough to give anyone pause. It's a fascinating tragedy. Probably the best film about it is still Olivier's from 1947 or 1948, which won an Academy Award if that still means anything. The signet edition is extremely helpful too in providing brief critical essays that review the play from differing perspectives, the Freudian, the feminist, and so on.
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