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Hamlet: Prince of Denmark

Hamlet: Prince of Denmark

List Price: $26.98
Your Price: $17.00
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Exquisite
Review: My only complaint about this play is that Shakespeare kills the suspense of the actual play within the play that 'catches the conscience of the king,' with the inappropriate dumbshow. This play is a phenomenal masterpiece. While some plays deal with 2D good and evil characters like Albany and Goneril from "King Lear," "Hamlet" offers us a hero (Hamlet) with prevalent evil traits and a villain (Claudius) with several good points. Aside from the deep psychological insights into human nature it is an interesting situation. To be sure, Hamlet wants to revenge the murder of his father. But, Hamlet also wants to kill Claudius and get the crown too. Claudius wants to kill Hamlet and keep the crown too. But because they are both loved by the public, direct action is impossible. It is also interesting that Gertrude and Polonius are not intelligent enough to see the plainest point. Hamlet and Claudius on the other hand are both so highly intelligent, that it is like they are playing political chess. I also find it striking that Shakespeare at times presents the hero Hamlet with evil traits such as the brutal killing of Polonius. On the other hand, Claudius the villain shows himself to be a capable ruler, especially when he quells Laertes' raid with pure courage and intelligence. Also, he does not delight in what he had to do to get the crown. He clearly regrets it and suffers for it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hamlet edited by Susanne L. Wofford
Review: I have always loved Shakespeare's plays. I love his use of language ,along with his underlineing themes which give each play a Shakespeare's touch. Hamlet was a great play, filled with exciment of Hamlet's next move,mystery of the ghost,treason and finally death. Hamlet's procrastination is his tragic flaw; Laertes is a nice contrasting character to Hamlet and is a great example of Hamlet's tragic flaw directly effecting others in the play.Hamlet is filled with sorrow and grief, it is easy for the reader to sympathize with the characters of the play. I would recommend this play to every Shakespeare fan!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: To read, or not to read. There is no question.
Review: I absolutely love Shakespeare and Hamlet is my favorite Shakespearian play thus far. Besides Shakespeare's usual flare for the English language, Hamlet's quick wit, philosophical and artful masterpieces of soliloque, and a wonderfully tragic plot make Hamlet an engaging read (or viewing, I've done both). The characters arouse all the sympathy, hatred, and love they were intended to. I read this play in a matter of days because I couldn't put it down. If you don't have time to read this play, or comprehending the language is a trial PLEASE see it somewhere. Watching the actors and listening to their voice inflections will help a lot, I promise.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wit, Philosophy, Blood
Review: Hamlet is a very good play. It was the first Shakespeare play I ever read and I liked it. If you haven't read the play, don't read any thing in these: {la la la la la}. Hamlet is very good for quite a few reasons and here they are.

The characters, especially Hamlet are very witty. There are several jokes that you don't have to konw anything about Shakespeare's time to enjoy. My personall favorite is the one about Lady Fortune.

The characters are very realistic. My favorite is Horatio and Hamlet. They are both smart and witty. During that play, Hamlet goes under a tranformation. He was once a great man, a scholar, war hero, a lover. When the play begins, he has sunk into a deppression {because of his father's death and mother's marraige.}But by the end of the play, he is the man he once was, and it's good to see him back.

There is a lot of philosophical talk in this play. More so than in any other Shakespeare plya, in fact. Most of the slioquays are about suicide and death, but they're still good.

The way the plaot develops is very good. Most stories take time to build up the story, Hamlet throws you right into mystery and intrigue in the first page or so. In most stories, the book leasds up to the problems, the tension starts to rise to the climax, the climax happens, and then it ends. like a hill.

Hamlet works like a mountain that ends at the peak. Know what I mean? The whole play builds up to an amazing climax and then ends. The further the play goes, the better it gets. It's like a wheel. It just keeps going out of control and then blows into a million pieces.

WARNING: Most of the words in the book are managable. However, as the play carries on, there are harder words. Also, get an annoted version with the notes ant the bottom of the page.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hamlet tragic flaw
Review: I would like to review hamlet's tragic flaw. Hamlet as a tragic heroe

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Villainous Headbone Claphole
Review: In the past, I have never been too crazy about Shakespeare. The big words confused me, the plot lines bored me, just generally bad stuff, so needless to say I wasn't looking forward to reading Hamlet this year in my 12th grade English IV class. However (and dont ask me how) THIS year, things were different. Suddenly, I knew what all the words were, and I understood the plotline, and I must say, I now LOVE this play! But I am VERY annoyed at some of things I've heard that belittle Shakespeare and his works, so allow me to elaborate.

Yes, we all realize that it is difficult to read, but if you dont like it, dont read it! Dont sign online and spend the money you worked so hard at the gas station to earn, just so you can show your complete lack of intellect during the 3-minute break between "World's Deadliest Swarms" and "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol." You come off as a childish, whitebread yokel who probably tries to break anything you dont understand. However, realize that this review doesn't apply to everyone. I understand there are those out there who HAVE an education, who UNDERSTAND Hamlet, and for their own reasons, they dont like it. Though my thoughts surely differ, at least their opinions are valid, and they know who they are (such as the person who read Hamlet several times, and has seen countless productions of it.).

This review only applies to the uneducated, trailer-trash, intellectually devoid souls out there who connected to this here newfangled internet thingy just to flap their gums and prove how ignorant they are about the ways of the world. If you are one of these people, you'd best turn around, cuz the new Fox lineup is just starting! Yee-haw!

Now in summation, let me state again that I firmly believe that William Shakespeare is one of the greatest playwrites in history, and Hamlet, in my opinion, is his greatest work.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Reluctant prince eventually avenges his murdered father
Review: If your father's ghost dropped by one day and told you to kill your uncle would you do it? It's a pretty big step. Can you picture yourself killing your uncle? And he's the king no less. Alright, there are no kings in America. So say your uncle is the governor. Would you kill him? Hamlet had a lot to think about before going into action. So would I. Well, what the hell, blow him away.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Key Tool for Students and Teachers
Review: All in all (not all and all, as one reviewer has it; people who write such things [and then place unnecessary commas between subjects and verbs] have no credibility), "Hamlet" is one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, a sophisticated play which, among many other things, casts an ironic eye on those tragedy-of- blood conventions which the Bard had embraced wholeheartedly in "Titus Andronicus." Its witty, urbane, generous hero, whose struggle to balance his father's demand for bloody revenge (one of those conventions) with his own humanistic sensibilities forms a major conflict of the play, has intrigued audiences and readers for four centuries. Unfortunately for Shakespeare and his creations, the English language has changed over the past four hundred years, and people have gotten out of the habit of reading and understanding poetry. This is where Alan Durband's edition of "Hamlet" in the Barron's Books "Shakespeare Made Easy" series comes to the rescue of the inexperienced reader. Its modern "translation" of Shakespeare's text is readable and clear, making this masterpiece approachable for those who find Elizabethan English too thorny. Having watched college freshmen struggle with "Hamlet" for some twelve years, and having discovered the Barron's edition during the summer, I strongly recommended the book this past fall as a supplement to the assigned literature anthology. About half the students in my Freshman Comp classes bought the book, either from the university book store or from amazon.com. (Amazon's price was better.) To my great pleasure, I found that more students than at any time before were asking questions in class, answering my own questions with knowledge and insight, and even debating points of interpretation among themselves. It was the most fun I have ever had teaching "Hamlet," outside of a Shakespeare course. So now my syllabus suggests this book as an important supplement, and now I look forward to teaching "Hamlet" with confidence that many of the students will be able to experience the enthusiasm for literature that educators so dearly love to communicate. Any book that can facilitate such enthusiasm is high on my list, and I hope it will be high on yours as well.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: WORTHLESS, PRENTENTIOUS TRASH
Review: All and all this play is atrocious. Though it is acclaimed as the greatest work of drama ever, it is hardly that. People who say such things, have absolutely no credibility. Hamlet's only purpose is to confuse the reader. Any intelligent person can see through his character and realize that he is little more than a feeble mind with a large vocabulary. He is almost the mirror image of Lennie in OF MICE AND MEN, Barnaby Rudge in the Dickens' book of the same name, Benjy in THE SOUND AND THE FURY, or Dogberry in Shakespeare's own MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. The rest of the main characters (Claudius, Gerturde, Polonius, Ophelia, Laertes, The Ghost, Horatio, Rosencrantz, Guildensern, The Player King, Fortinbras, The First Gravedigger, Barnardo, Reynaldo, and Osric) are ridiculous and annoying caricatures. HAMLET would have been a much better play had these characters been eliminated entirely. Their only contribution lies in the fustian and obfuscating nature of a horrid play. Take my advice: if you want some real entertainment, read Shakespeare's TITUS ANDRONICUS with the great intellect Aaron the Moor, the forerunner of Iago, or THE SPANISH TRAGEDY, containing the sublime Hieronimo, the forerunner of Jane Austen's Anne Elliot. You will find these plays far superior to the "aesthetic failure," as T.S. Eliot commented, otherwise known as HAMLET.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Folger Library Books- Shakespeare
Review: I am writing this review not so much as in reference to any one particular title, rather to the Folger Library editions of Shakepeare. I find this company's books to be of most value when reading Shakepeare because the book reviews terms no longer used,and helps to make plots clearer. It is often hard for some to understand the complexities of Shakeperean work, and I have seen the way Folger's organizes their books help readers to understand them better. Any book you order from this company will be enlightening and helpful, providing you with a more enjoyable exposure the Shakespeare's great works.


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