Hamlet (Study Texts S.) - Softcover

Shakespeare, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0582017335 ISBN 13: 9780582017337

Publisher: Longman, 1990

Synopsis

The "Longman Study Texts" are designed to cover a wide range of classics and modern writers and the full range of literary genres. They are geared to both examination and coursework requirements at GCSE level with many texts for A level study and they aim to avoid examination short cuts such as plot summaries or potted character sketches. This text of "Hamlet" is accompanied here by editorial introductions and notes and questions which aim to give GCSE students the opportunity to explore the characters, ideas and situations within the book. A personal essay by a writer who has close contact with the living theatre is also included.

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Longman
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0582017335
• ISBN 13: 9780582017337
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 415
• Editor: Loughrey Brian, Holderness Graham