Hamlet (Sourcebooks Shakespeare) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 140220776X ISBN 13: 9781402207761

Publisher: Sourcebooks Mediafusion, 2006

Synopsis

The Sourcebooks Shakespeare Edition of Hamlet features an integrated audio CD with 25 performances by different actors throughout the twentieth century, narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi. Detailed essays, commentary and photos accompany our newly edited text of the play with insights from a noted Shakespeare scholar.

Hear 12 classic scenes with Hamlet played by:
--John Barrymore (1928)
--John Gielgud (from a 1948 recording made for radio)
--Laurence Olivier (from his 1948 movie soundtrack)
--Richard Burton (from Gielgud's 1964 "rehearsal" production on Broadway)
--Derek Jacobi (from a 1980 production for BBC-TV)

See images from notable productions:
--At the Joseph Papp Public Theater with Martin Sheen, Kevin Kline, and Liev Schreiber as Hamlet.
--Simon Russell Beale in New York City, Roger Rees at the Royal Shakespeare Company
--Stills from Kenneth Branagh's 1996 film and Michael Almereyda's 2000 version
--Set designs and costume renderings from a 1934 production directed by Sir John Gielgud

Read essays and commentary with insights from:
--Russell Jackson, editor of The Oxford Illustrated History of Shakespeare on Stage, on Kenneth Branagh's 1996 film.
--Douglas Lanier, editor of Shakespeare and Modern Popular Culture on Hamlet as inspiration for contemporary media
--Text editor Terri Bourus on productions of Hamlet throughout history

Additional essays dissect a contemporary performance, offer a modern cast's insights into their characters, and uncover the history of Shakespeare's world.

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"

Edition details

• Publisher: Sourcebooks Mediafusion
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 140220776X
• ISBN 13: 9781402207761
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368
• Editor: Bourus Terri, Bevington David M., Holland Peter