Hamlet (The New Penguin Shakespeare) - Softcover

Barton, Ann; Spencer, T.; Shakespeare, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140707344 ISBN 13: 9780140707342

Publisher: Penguin, 1980

Synopsis

Part of "The New Penguin Shakespeare" series, this text looks at "Hamlet" with an introduction, a list of further reading, commentary and a short account of the textual problems of the play. The series is used and recommended by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

About this title

Review:

Undoubtedly the most famous of all of Shakespeare's plays, Hamlet remains one of the most enduring but also enigmatic pieces of western literature. The story of Hamlet, the young Prince of Denmark, his tortured relationship with his mother, and his quest to avenge his father's murder at the hand of his brother Claudius has fascinated writers and audiences ever since it was written around 1600.

For many years interest focused on both Hamlet's inability to avenge his father's death, claiming that "the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought", and, according to none other than Freud, his oedipal fixation with his mother. However, more recently critics have turned their attention to Hamlet's bold theatrical self-reflexivity (most famously reflected in the performance of "The Mousetrap"), its fascination with issues of theology and Renaissance humanism, and its dense, complex poetic language. What is so remarkable about the play is the way in which it tends to uncannily reflect the concerns of different epochs. As a result, Hamlet has been at different moments defined as a romantic rebel, an angst-ridden existentialist, a paralysed intellectual and an ambivalent New Man. Whatever subsequent generations make of Hamlet, they are unlikely to exhaust the possibilities of this most extraordinary play. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

Praise for "William Shakespeare: Complete Works: " A feast of literary and historical information. "-The Wall Street Journal""

"Gorgeous new Shakespeare paperbacks."
--Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1980
• ISBN 10: 0140707344
• ISBN 13: 9780140707342
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384