First staged around 1600, Hamlet is widely held to be not just one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays but the most fascinatingly problematic tragedy in world literature. This gripping, exuberant drama of revenge is built on contrasts and conflicts throughout: violence gives way to introspection, melancholy to humour, subtlety to spectacle. At its centre stands Prince Hamlet himself, a complex and divided figure whose introspection about death, morality and the very nature of humanity has earned him the label ‘the first modern man’. Countless stage productions, together with numerous film and television adaptations, testify to the continuing cultural relevance of this vivid, enigmatic, profound and engrossing drama. Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex, this edition belongs to the Wordsworth Classics’ Shakespeare Series, which presents a newly-edited sequence of Shakespeare’s works; the textual editing takes full account of recent scholarship while giving the material a careful reappraisal.
ISBN 13: 9781853260094
Author: William Shakespeare
