Hamlet ( Folger Library Shakespeare). This item is unavailable.Hamlet ( Folger Library Shakespeare)

The bestselling, authoritative Folger Shakespeare Library edition of Hamlet—a tragedy of family, murder, ghosts, and revenge—featuring Shakespeare's complete original text, expert annotations, scene-by-scene summaries, and trusted scholarship for students, teachers, and general readers.

For more than seventy years, the Folger Shakespeare Library editions have been the standard classroom and reading editions of Shakespeare's plays. Used in high schools, colleges, universities, and theaters around the world, each volume combines the complete original text with expert editorial guidance that makes Shakespeare's language more accessible while preserving every nuance of the play.

Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most popular, and most puzzling, play. It follows the form of a “revenge tragedy,” in which the hero, Hamlet, seeks vengeance against his father’s murderer, his uncle Claudius, now the king of Denmark. Much of its fascination, however, lies in its uncertainties.

Among them: What is the Ghost—Hamlet’s father demanding justice, a tempting demon, an angelic messenger? Does Hamlet go mad, or merely pretend to? Once he is sure that Claudius is a murderer, why does he not act? Was his mother, Gertrude, unfaithful to her husband or complicit in his murder?

Whether you're reading Hamlet for school, teaching it in the classroom, preparing for AP English Literature, studying Shakespeare in college, performing the play, or simply returning to one of the greatest works of English literature, this edition provides the context and guidance to help you read Shakespeare with confidence.

This Folger Shakespeare Library edition includes:

• Shakespeare's complete original text, carefully edited from the best early printed version of the play
• Clear explanatory notes conveniently placed on facing pages
• Scene-by-scene plot summaries for quick review and study
• An introduction to Shakespeare's language and dramatic style
• A guide to the play's most famous speeches, quotations, and memorable lines
• A scholarly introduction exploring the play's historical background, themes, characters, and enduring significance
• An essay by acclaimed Shakespeare scholar Michael Neill
• Illustrations and images from the Folger Shakespeare Library's world-renowned collections
• An annotated guide for further reading and study

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works and one of the world's leading centers for Shakespeare scholarship, performance, and education. Every Folger Shakespeare Library edition combines authoritative scholarship with practical classroom support, making it an ideal choice for students, educators, actors, book clubs, and anyone seeking an accessible, reliable edition of Shakespeare's original plays.

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.