William Shakespeare

Unabridged & Original version with all 352 pages Includes: 15 Illustrations and Biography The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is instructed to enact on his uncle Claudius. Claudius had murdered his own brother, Hamlet's father King Hamlet, and subsequently seized the throne, marrying his deceased brother's widow, Hamlet's mother Gertrude. Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others." The play seems to have been one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime 2] and still ranks among his most-performed, topping the performance list of the Royal Shakespeare Company and its predecessors in Stratford-upon-Avon since 1879. 3] It has inspired writers from Goethe and Dickens to Joyce and Murdoch, and has been described as "the world's most filmed story after Cinderella". The story of Hamlet ultimately derives from the legend of Amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum, as subsequently retold by 16th-century scholar Fran ois de Belleforest. Shakespeare may also have drawn on an earlier (hypothetical) Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-Hamlet, though some scholars believe he himself wrote the Ur-Hamlet, later revising it to create the version of Hamlet we now have. He almost certainly created the title role for Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare's time. In the 400 years since, the role has been performed by highly acclaimed actors from each successive age. Three different early versions of the play are extant, the First Quarto (Q1, 1603), the Second Quarto (Q2, 1604), and the First Folio (F1, 1623). Each version includes lines, and even entire scenes, missing from the others. The play's structure and depth of characterisation have inspired much critical scrutiny. One such example is the centuries-old debate about Hamlet's hesitation to kill his uncle, which some see as merely a plot device to prolong the action, but which others argue is a dramatisation of the complex philosophical and ethical issues that surround cold-blooded murder, calculated revenge, and thwarted desire. More recently, psychoanalytic critics have examined Hamlet's unconscious desires, and feminist critics have re-evaluated and rehabilitated the often maligned characters of Ophelia and Gertrude.

'If music be the food of love, play on,Give me excess of it'Separated from her twin brother Sebastian after a shipwreck, Viola disguises herself as a boy to serve the Duke Orsino. Wooing a countess on his behalf, she is stunned to find herself the object of her affections. Amorous intrigues, practical jokes, sexual confusion and riotous disorder ensue in this lyrical, hugely popular romantic comedy, which shows both the delights and the perils of desire. Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by M. M. MahoodIntroduction by Michael Dobson

'At one and the same time the greatest of all works of English patriotism and a searing critique of warfare' Jonathan BateYoung King Henry wages war on France. Tainted by his family's past crimes and with enemies among his own men, he must face the difficult responsibilities of kingship, unite his country and rouse his 'band of brothers' to battle at Agincourt. An heroic coming-of-age story and a work of stirring patriotic oratory, Henry V also has darker undercurrents that ultimately question the price of military victory. Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by A. R. Humphreys with an Introduction by Ann Kaegi

'Unable to rely on heaven, we look to Shakespeare as a contemporary conscience' Peter ConradCoriolanus, a famed warrior turned politician, is driven from Rome as a traitor when he arrogantly speaks out against popular rule and loses the good will of the starving people. Banished and embittered, he allies himself with his former enemies and begins to plot a merciless revenge on Rome. Shakespeare's politically ambiguous late tragedy of a great soldier who fails to be a great leader questions the notion of heroism and what power really means. Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by G. R. Hibbard Introduction by Paul Prescott

This Shakespeare poetry collection features the following Shakespeare poetry exerpt: From off a hill whose concave womb re-worded A plaintful story from a sistering vale, My spirits to attend this double voice accorded, And down I laid to list the sad-tun'd tale