Product Description

This revised Norton Critical Edition of one of the series' most widely read texts is based on the second quarto (1604-05). Where necessary, the editor has also drawn from the folio text, recording all departures from the quarto in the Textual Notes. Punctuation and stage directions for the play have been refined, and textual annotations have been revised and expanded. The Intellectual Backgrounds and Extracts from the Sources sections, both highly praised, remain as germane as ever. Intellectual Backgrounds includes important readings on melancholy, demonology, the nature of man, and death, including works by Peter de la Primaudaye, Timothy Bright, Lewes Lavater, G. Gifford, Michel de Montaigne, and Heironymous Cardanus. Extracts from the Sources provides pre-Shakespearean accounts of the story of Hamlet, reprinting substantial excerpts from Saxo Grammaticus's Historia Danica and Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques. Criticism has been revised to accommodate the most significant recent interpretations of Hamlet while retaining the seminal essays of the First Edition. Twenty-three critical analyses are featured, including those by Samuel Johnson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Hazlitt, A. C. Bradley, D. H. Lawrence, T. S. Eliot, G. Wilson Knight, C. S. Lewis, Harry Levin, Peter J. Seng, Rebecca West, Arnold Kettle, Margaret W. Ferguson, Jacqueline Rose, and William Empson. An updated Selected Bibliography is also included.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13538 in Books
• Published on: 1992-01-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 297 pages

Customer Reviews

Contains Invaluable Information about Hamlet
This is worth buying for the critical essays and background information alone. Most interesting is the 'true' story of AMLETH, chronicled around 1100 by Saxo Grammaticus. This piece is bona fide history, albeit with some retouching. It was written about 500 years before Shakespeare took up his pen to write his mighty play, and is very interesting to contrast with the play. Much more is contained in this Critical Edition, particularly essays by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and other famous literary figures.

A wonderful resource for students!
This book is a great buy for someone who is doing an essay or project involving review or criticism of Hamlet, or for someone who would just like to know more about this wonderful play. The essays and background information are very helpful and informative.

Great play, amazing edition
Essentially, this Norton Critical edition is the best out there. While the notes may need some polishing, they are sparse to preserve the ambiguity of the play. The critical essays in the back are absolutely superb.