Story of Medieval Europe Shakespeare’s Hamlet 12thC Denmark Prince Iceland Saga

Description: Hamlet by William Shakespeare (Unabridges) with Glossary and Reader’s Notes. DESCRIPTION: Softcover: 134 pages. Publisher: Prestwick House, Inc; (2006). Hamlet is a legendary prince of Denmark, and central character in a play of the same name by William Shakespeare. The Hamlet character corresponds to the figure of Amleth, whose story is narrated in books three and four of Saxo Grammaticus’ late twelfth century history of Denmark. It is possible that Saxo drew on a lost Icelandic saga of Amlodi, mentioned by a tenth century Icelandic poet, for his information. One scholar suggests that the Hamlet play had its origins in the East, being similar to the eleventh century “Book of Kings” by the Persian poet Ferdowsi. Other scholars have posited a Celtic origin, pointing to the warrior Amhlaide, who is named as the slayer of King Niall Glundub in the Irish Annals of the year 917. The Hamlet story was told in volume five (1570) of Francois de Belleforest’s “Histories Tragiques”. Shakespeare’s play, which was first performed in 1600 or 1601, was evidently preceded by another play on Hamlet, now lost and usually referred to as the “Ur-Hamlet”, of which Thomas Kyd is a conjectured author. “The Hystorie of Hamblet”, an English version of Belleforest’s work, was published in London in 1608. None of these sources provides a clue to explain Hamlet’s tragic flaw, his famous hesitation (whether it be from reluctance or unreadiness) to avenge his father’s murder. This element is central and peculiar to Shakespeare’s conception of Hamlet, and has long fascinated both directors and critics. Most post-Shakespearean writers, including Alfred Doblin, Elmer Rice, and Archibald MacLeish, have written works concerning Hamlet. Notable is Tom Stoppard’s play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966). Shakespeare’s “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” is a tragedy in five acts, first published in a quarto edition in 1603. As the play opens, Hamlet is mourning his father, who has been killed, and lamenting the behavior of his mother, Gertrude, who married his uncle Claudius within a month of his father’s death. The ghost of his father appears to Hamlet, informs him that he was poisoned by Claudius, and asks Hamlet to avenge his death. Hamlet hesitates, desiring further evidence of foul play. His uncertainty and inability to act make him increasingly melancholy, and to everyone around him, Hamlet seems to be going mad. To the pompous old courtier Polonius, it appears that Hamlet is lovesick over Polonius’ daughter Ophelia. Despite the apparent guilt of Claudius, Hamlet still cannot bring himself to avenge his father’s wrongful murder. He nevertheless terrorizes his mother and kills the eavesdropping Polonius. Justly fearing for his own life, Claudius sends Hamlet to England with Hamlet’s friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who carry orders to have Hamlet killed. Hamlet discovers the orders, however, and alters them to make his two friends the victims instead. Hamlet returns to Denmark, and thereupon hears that Ophelia has killed herself, and that her brother Laertes seeks to avenge Polonius’ murder. Claudius is only too eager to arrange the duel. Carnage ensues. Both Hamlet and Laertes are struck by the sword that Claudius has had dipped in poison. Gertrude, also present at the duel, mistakenly drinks from the cup of poison that Claudius has placed near Hamlet to insure his death. Nonetheless, before Hamlet dies, he manages to stab Claudius. CONDITION: New, never read. PLEASE SEE IMAGES BELOW FOR SAMPLE PAGES FROM INSIDE OF BOOK. PLEASE SEE PUBLISHER, PROFESSIONAL, AND READER REVIEWS BELOW. PUBLISHER REVIEW: REVIEW: In Shakespeare’s most famous play, a young prince, alienated and betrayed, struggles to make a decision; in a court where every friend is a spy, and every loving act somehow leads to murder, the sanest person is he who pretends to be mad. A brilliantly controlled plot, complex and convincing characters, and, above all, wonderful poetry have won Hamlet a deserved place as Shakespeare’s most popular and frequently-performed play. Any young person who has been deceived or disappointed by an adult has been the young prince; anyone who has ever felt alone in the modern world has wandered the castle at Elsinore. Thus Hamlet, who asks, "Why am I here?" is a hero for our times, as well as his own. To make Hamlet more accessible for the modern reader, our Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary of the more difficult words, as well as convenient sidebar notes to enlighten the reader on aspects that may be confusing or overlooked. In doing this, it is our intention that the reader may more fully enjoy the beauty of the verse, the wisdom of the insights, and the impact of the play. REVIEW: The quintessential Shakespearean tragedy, whose highly charged confrontations and anguished soliloquies probe depths of human feeling rarely sounded in any art. Many consider the tragedy of "Hamlet" to be Shakespeare's masterpiece and one of the greatest plays of all time. It has entertained audiences for centuries and the role of Hamlet is one of the most sought after by actors. It is the story of Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark who learns of the death of his father at the hands of his uncle, Claudius. Claudius murders Hamlet's father, his own brother, to take the throne of Denmark and to marry Hamlet's widowed mother. Hamlet is sunk into a state of great despair as a result of discovering the murder of his father and the infidelity of his mother. Hamlet is torn between his great sadness and his desire for the revenge of his father's murder. REVIEW: “Hamlet" is a work of great complexity and as such has drawn many different critical interpretations. Hamlet has been seen as a victim of circumstance, as an impractical idealist, as the sufferer of an Oedipus complex, as an opportunist wishing to kill his Uncle not for revenge but to ascend to the throne, as the sufferer of a great melancholy, and as a man blinded by his desire for revenge. The true motivations of Hamlet are complex and enigmatic and have been debated for centuries. Read this classic tragedy and decide for yourself where Hamlet's true motivations lie and how they influence his ultimate demise. REVIEW: William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language, as well as one of the greatest in Western literature, and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. Starting in the late 1580s and for several decades that followed, Shakespeare's plays were popular entertainment for London's theatergoers. His Globe Theatre was the equivalent of a Broadway theater in today's New York. The plays have endured over the course of 400+ years. PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS: REVIEW: Distressed by his father’s death and his mother’s hasty remarriage, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is haunted by a ghostly courier bearing a grim message of murder and revenge. The young prince is driven to the edge of madness as he struggles to understand the situation he finds himself in and to do his duty. Many others, including Hamlet’s beloved, the innocent Ophelia, are swept up in his tragedy. Shakespeare’s most famous play remains one of the greatest stories in Western literature. REVIEW: One of the greatest plays of all time, the compelling tragedy of the tormented young prince of Denmark continues to capture the imaginations of modern audiences worldwide. Confronted with evidence that his uncle murdered his father, and with his mother's infidelity, Hamlet must find a means of reconciling his longing for oblivion with his duty as avenger. The ghost, Hamlet's feigned madness, Ophelia's death and burial, the play within a play, the "closet scene" in which Hamlet accuses his mother of complicity in murder, and breathtaking swordplay are just some of the elements that make “Hamlet” an enduring masterpiece of the theater. REVIEW: The Prestwick “Touchstone Classics” series allows readers to fully understand and enjoy the rich plays of the world's greatest dramatist. One of the most frequently read and performed of all stage works, Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is unsurpassed in its complexity and richness. This annotated version of "Hamlet" makes the play completely accessible to readers in the 21st century. It has been carefully assembled with students, teachers and the general reader in mind. READER REVIEWS: REVIEW: Hamlet is, by far, the most complex of Shakespeare's many plays. Many of the themes covered are love versus hate, action versus non-action, revenge, and jealousy. Hamlet discovers that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark" when he encounters the ghost of his father, the King, who has recently been killed in battle. From here, Hamlet goes on a search for the discovery of what happened to his father. However, Hamlet not only uncovers secrets of the past, but also the depths of his own being. REVIEW: Hamlet is considered by many to be the greatest story in the English language. At any rate, it is one of the most famous of all of Shakespeare's works, only Romeo and Juliet really comes close. I recently finished reading the book in my Honors English class and I truly believe that it stands the test of time, and that its reputation is well deserved. But I would also like to comment on this edition. It provides a lot of helpful notes on vocabulary and notes about the period in which it was written. If you are reading Hamlet on your own and/or this is your first time reading it, I suggest using this edition. REVIEW: I'm not writing a review of Hamlet the play here - that would be superfluous. Next to the Bible, it is the greatest piece of literature of all time. There really is no way to review a masterpiece like this. Shakespeare is considered by most to be the greatest writer of all time, and Hamlet is almost universally considered to be one of his best works. There are so many immortal phrases and lines in this play, the most famous being "to be or not to be." The play contains seven soliloquies by Hamlet which provide an interesting look at his character. If you consider these soliloquies side by side, you can see a sort of 'backstory' dealing with the development of Hamlet's character, from suffering to suicidal to vengeful ("My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth"). It is impossible to study Shakespeare without studying Hamlet. This is certainly one of the cornerstones of English literature. Hamlet is an excellent place to start if you want to become acquainted with Shakespeare. REVIEW: I hated Shakespeare in high school, partly because I could only understand about one word out of every three. Recently, that is, thirty years post-high-school, I forced myself to read it again, and was dumbfounded at how different my response was. As an adolescent I asked myself why the hero didn't just kill Claudius right of the bat and have done with it. The reason, it seemed to me, is that there wouldn't have been any play. Hamlet refuses to use his sword on his uncle for the same reason the Indians don't shoot the horses when they're chasing the stagecoach. What a change time has wrought. I guess when you're a kid you don't know the meaning of the term "moral doubt" because so many things seem black and white. It takes a certain degree of maturation to realize that murdering a king because some ghost told you to is a bit morally…well, fuzzy. For instance, can you be absolutely certain that you're doing it to avenge your father instead of being jealous about your mother's affections? Questions like that, which a thoughtful adult might ask himself, are enough to give anyone pause. It's a fascinating tragedy. Probably the best film about it is still Olivier's from 1947 or 1948, which won an Academy Award if that still means anything. This particular edition is extremely helpful too. REVIEW: The reading of Hamlet and Lear in high-school helped me understand my father. Or rather my father helped me understand them. All the hesitation and delay and indecision, all the great outpourings of feeling in soliloquy , all the great sense of life as tormenting and impossible and yet somehow great and sublime, all this echoed and reflected from my own childhood family life world back and forth to Hamlet. The great language reaching out to metaphor no ordinary mind could find. This too. Of the plot and the story of the father murdered and the son who needed to revenge and delayed and the mother who betrayed and enticed, this was far, far from me. More I loved the language the great speeches even when we were taught that they were ironic and self-condemning. I loved and memorized much of Hamlet's solitary crying and felt in the pain of Hamlet my father's pain and poetry. I know for most this is the greatest play ever written, and I know too how down the generations critics have given their own long theories explaining why Hamlet delayed and what the ultimate meaning of the play is. But what each of us is given in his own way is another story. And if I have here said a few private words it certainly will not harm or change very much that vast sea of readings which have accumulated around this work, and which will grow still larger and larger in time. One of the great works unquestionably, one mankind will go on reading and rereading as long as mankind keeps reading. And for me a hint that my father's life and suffering somehow related to a higher world called Literature where it might have its echo, and who knows one day truly find its meaningful expression. I always ship books Media Mail in a padded mailer. This book is shipped FOR FREE via USPS INSURED media mail (“book rate”). The shipment will include free USPS Delivery Confirmation (you might be able to update the status of your shipment on-line at the USPS Web Site and free insurance coverage). If you are concerned about a little wear and tear to the book in transit, I would suggest a boxed shipment - it is an extra $1.00. Whether via padded mailer or box, we will give discounts for multiple purchases. International orders are welcome, but shipping costs are substantially higher. Most international orders cost an additional $12.99 to $33.99 for an insuredshipment in a heavily padded mailer, and typically includes some form of rudimentary tracking and/or delivery confirmation (though for some countries, this is only available at additional cost). There is also a discount program which can cut postage costs by 50% to 75% if you’re buying about half-a-dozen books or more (5 kilos+). Rates and available services vary a bit from country to country. You can email or message me for a shipping cost quote, but I assure you they are as reasonable as USPS rates allow, and if it turns out the rate is too high for your pocketbook, we will cancel the sale at your request. ADDITIONAL PURCHASES do receive a VERY LARGE discount, typically about $5 per book (for each additional book after the first) so as to reward you for the economies of combined shipping/insurance costs. Your purchase will ordinarily be shipped within 48 hours of payment. 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Send it back, I will give you a complete refund of the purchase price (less our original shipping costs). Most of the items I offer come from the collection of a family friend who was active in the field of Archaeology for over forty years. However many of the items also come from purchases I make in Eastern Europe, India, and from the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean/Near East) from various institutions and dealers. Though I have always had an interest in archaeology, my own academic background was in sociology and cultural anthropology. After my retirement however, I found myself drawn to archaeology as well. Aside from my own personal collection, I have made extensive and frequent additions of my own via purchases on Ebay (of course), as well as many purchases from both dealers and institutions throughout the world - but especially in the Near East and in Eastern Europe. I spend over half of my year out of the United States, and have spent much of my life either in India or Eastern Europe. In fact much of what we generate on Yahoo, Amazon and Ebay goes to support The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, as well as some other worthy institutions in Europe connected with Anthropology and Archaeology. I acquire some small but interesting collections overseas from time-to-time, and have as well some duplicate items within my own collection which I occasionally decide to part with. Though I have a collection of ancient coins numbering in the tens of thousands, my primary interest is in ancient jewelry. My wife also is an active participant in the "business" of antique and ancient jewelry, and is from Russia. I would be happy to provide you with a certificate/guarantee of authenticity for any item you purchase from me. There is a $2 fee for mailing under separate cover. Whenever I am overseas I have made arrangements for purchases to be shipped out via domestic mail. If I am in the field, you may have to wait for a week or two for a COA to arrive via international air mail. But you can be sure your purchase will arrive properly packaged and promptly - even if I am absent. And when I am in a remote field location with merely a notebook computer, at times I am not able to access my email for a day or two, so be patient, I will always respond to every email. Please see our "ADDITIONAL TERMS OF SALE." TRANSLATE Arabic Chinese French German Greek Indonesian Italian Hindi Japanese Korean Swedish Portuguese Russian Spanish

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