Maurice Evans' G.I. production of Hamlet.

Acting ed., with a pref. by Mr. Evans. Designer's sketches by Frederick Stover.

by William Shakespeare

No cover — William Shakespeare: Maurice Evans' G.I. production of Hamlet. (1947, Doubleday)

187 pages

English language

Published Jan. 24, 1947 by Doubleday.

(266 reviews)

In this quintessential Shakespeare tragedy, a young prince's halting pursuit of revenge for the murder of his father unfolds in a series of highly charged confrontations that have held audiences spellbound for nearly four centuries. Those fateful exchanges, and the anguished soliloquies that precede and follow them, probe depths of human feeling rarely sounded in any art. The title role of Hamlet, perhaps the most demanding in all of Western drama, has provided generations of leading actors their greatest challenge. Yet all the roles in this towering drama are superbly delineated, and each of the key scenes offers actors a rare opportunity to create theatrical magic. As if further evidence of Shakespeare's genius were needed, Hamlet is a unique pleasure to read as well as to see and hear performed. The full text of this extraordinary drama is reprinted here from an authoritative British edition complete with illuminating footnotes. (back …

50 editions

Antonis reads reviewed Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Review of 'Hamlet' on Goodreads

4 stars

It all boils down to the fact that 'One can no more think like a baby than one can think like a bee.'

An imaginative and inventive investigation into what makes children's minds seems so strange and alien to adults. What if that strangeness was preserved and not smoothed into "adulthood", "reason" and "common sense"? All it takes is a small fictional device and the story's two children are never shoehorned into our plain common reality with its common restrains and rules.

Antonis reads reviewed Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Review of 'Hamlet' on Goodreads

5 stars

How does guilt mold and guide you? How do your memories prevent you from reconciling with your present? How do you get stuck focused on what's behind, missing what's right next to you? How does your family sculpt you despite your fierce desire against it? Promises you end up not keeping, against others, against yourself. How long do you wait until you move on, and how do you move on?

Where do you find meaning and who do you appoint as your guiding light? What if you you're the only one who sees that light?

What happens when you force yourself to blend in, abandoning your true identity?

A dark story with enough characters to explore all of the above and then some. Exquisite drawings that capture both the deep characters and the living city they inhabit. They confidently veer off their arresting realism when the story demands it, from …

texttheater reviewed Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Review of 'Hamlet' on Goodreads

4 stars

Rather annoyingly, the showdown in the ConStuff lab unfolds with needless haste, leaving quite a few obvious plot holes. Otherwise, super imaginative and wildly funny read.

texttheater reviewed Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Review of 'Hamlet' on Goodreads

4 stars

The language is quite demanding, and that makes it interesting: much slang, and the book’s neologisms are seldom explained when introduced, the reader is left to figure out what they mean.

Antonis reads reviewed Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Review of 'Hamlet' on Goodreads

5 stars

Mind-bogglingly brilliant in the most caustic and addictive way. Explosively funny in a lusciously vulgar but deeply real and prescient (religiously prophetic even) manner. Spider Jerusalem is the uber-journalist that we really need, his "fantastic" stories sound disturbingly real and his tactics even seem strangely realistic and apt to our world.

This is cyberpunk at its absolutely best: dangerous, funny, real and immediate. Do yourself a favor and read the series.

Antonis reads reviewed Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Review of 'Hamlet' on Goodreads

5 stars

It was bitterly fascinating to watch K. letting himself being pulled down by the amorphous monster of bureaucratic absurdity. Every step he took was leading himself through the many different-but-same faces of the incomprehensible non-logic of the world around him. At no point was he able to realize and accept the futility of his own self.

It seemed slightly verbalistic at some points, but only to further the sense of absurdity and paranoia. K. needed to clarify and and confirm the illogical fragments of advice given by those around him, from the lowliest servants to the cathedral priests.

J. J. Zepfanman @book reviewed Hamlet (The Sourcebooks Shakespeare; Book & C D) by William Shakespeare

Review of 'Hamlet (The Sourcebooks Shakespeare; Book & C D)' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

Since I am a Shakespeare newb, I'll refrain from clicking on a star and throwing off the Goodreads ratings. I appreciate Shakespeare's influence and brilliance, but after seeing several of his plays performed and then finally reading one of them (this month, Hamlet), my brain doesn't easily jump into his world.

That's not to say that I didn't like it. A friend recommended I use this Folgers edition along with an audio reading (I found the Arkangel copy). The actors certainly help with the pacing and emphasis on certain words - I would have had trouble with both without the audio. It's also nice to finally be in on some of the famous quotes that people reference almost daily.

Now I want to watch some of the Hamlet films...