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    Hamlet
    Hamlet
    Hamlet
    Audiobook (abridged)1 hour

    Hamlet

    Written by William Shakespeare

    Narrated by John Gielgud

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Widely regarded as the definitive performance of Hamlet starring Sir John Gielgud and Pamela Brown
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSaland Publishing
    Release dateJan 10, 2010
    ISBN9781907818318
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

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    Reviews for Hamlet

    4/5

    6,861 ratings101 reviews

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    • 5/5
      We read this in my AP English Literature class. It is now my hands-down favorite Shakespeare play. Yes, everyone dies at the end. But it is complex, beautiful, full of great lines, and even funny in parts. Highly recommended for more mature readers.
    • 5/5
      My favorite Shakespearean play. Though there is one that may end up taking it's place.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite Shakespeare works.
    • 5/5
      There: you can all stop nagging me, I've finally read it. The plot was mostly as expected, though I think whatever version I read as a child was less kind to Ophelia, as I had a rather different image of her in mind. I had a whole book of Shakespeare retellings, now I think about it: I can't really remember many of them, but I suppose they haunt me a little in my vague ideas of what the plays are like before I read them...

      Anyway, Hamlet: justly famous, and full of phrases and quotations that even people who've never read a Shakespeare play can quote. It's always interesting coming to those in situ at last.

      Still terribly glad I don't have to study Shakespeare now. If I end up somehow forced to read Shakespeare in my MA, I may scream. Much happier to come to his plays now, in my own good time.
    • 4/5
      It was a very interesting story. It wasn't boring as I thought it would be.
    • 5/5
      One of the best things I've ever read. Hamlet's got it all. Shakespeare at his best, filling so few pages with so much story.
    • 5/5
      The Penguin edition remains the best edition for highschool students, undergrad students and actors. Not as dense as the Arden nor as casual as the RSC, but the perfect in-between for people in those categories.
    • 4/5
      Vertaling van Komrij. Uiteraard een tijdloos stuk met een ongelofelijke diepgang, maar geen gemakkelijke lectuur. Ligt me minder dan de iets eenduidiger stukken King Lear of Macbeth.
    • 3/5
      Why use this very bad quality Gielgud Hamlet? There are several high quality Gielgud Hamlet recordings on the market! Even though poor quality it's still good.
    • 3/5
      Lacks the excitement of the true play, but it did provide some new information. A good resource book.
    • 5/5
      Almost intriguing play, and not the easiest work to read. The tale of a young prince trying to come to terms with his father’s death is probably the best known of Shakespeare’s tragedies. There’s something for everyone here: high drama, low comedy, intriguing characters. I’d advise watching a video or move, or perhaps listening to an audio presentation either before or while reading this one. No matter how good your reading skills are, the enjoyment and understanding of any play is enhanced Psy seeing it performed. This time out I watched an old stage production starring Richard Burton. The highlight of that one is Hume Cronyn’s marvelously humorous take on Polonius.Highest recommendation possible.
    • 4/5
      It amazes me how many people like Hamlet, no exception here, when it's really hard to relate to, but yet it's just one of those plays once you get into it, you come to love it. I read it for the first time in 12th grade and everyone would talk about it even when they didn't have to. The characters in Hamlet are amazingly complex and it doesn't just state how they are, you learn it through their actions and what they say. It's just so unique, I know everytime I read it I get a different opinion of the characters and the overall play.
    • 5/5
      Imagine my surprise when browsing through Kernaghan Books in the Wayfarers Shopping Arcade in Southport for these editions when I stumbled across Hamlet somewhat working against the purpose of me utilising these Oxfords to discover literature. Edition editor G.R. Hibbard chooses the First Folio as the basis for his text on the assumption that it was produced from a clean, revised manuscript of the play by Shakespeare himself, a final revision of the material that increases the pace but also clarifies the story in other places. His argument is sound, but I do much prefer the much later Arden 3’s approach of suggesting that all the close textual analysis in the world won’t definitively confirm which of the versions is definitive, so it’s best just to present all three (unless like the RSC edition, the mission is to reproduce an edition of the folio in particular). More inevitably posted here.
    • 4/5
      You cannot give Hamlet, as written, a bad review. Starting out as a simple revenge tragedy, it just stretches out to a study of our attitude to life itself. The characters are well drawn, and while the conflict is clear, "Is Hamlet going to exact revenge for his father's death? And on Whom?" We readers soon are drawn to examining our own conflicts, and the solutions we have, or will have tried for them. At the end, after " ...carnal,Bloody and unnatural acts, of accidental judgements,casual slaughters,of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause...and purposes mistook fall'n on the inventor's heads"...the stage is filled with corpses, and only a messager character Horatio is left to explain to the eventual heir of the country what happened. As with almost all of the plays, you will find yourself reading aloud. The play was presented to the Lord Chamberlain in 1602. I seem to have read it nine times.
    • 3/5
      This was an OK production. An all American cast that at times feels like they are uncomfortably reading the lines. Some of the actors/actresses do very good jobs, others make the listening to and the flow of the story choppy and tough. Good enough for fans of the Bard, but I wouldn't use this for a classroom or early students of Shakespeare. Probably would turn them away...
    • 5/5
      I've read it about 3 times. Great play. Love the language.
    • 4/5
      On rereading classic plays - I found Hamlet to be, well Hamlet. As in any book that gives extra information, much of it is useful, a lot of it repetitious. I found the information about the folio's vs the quarto's and the difference between the two fascinating. For example, some of the editions were put together from actor's memories well after the last performance. So parts are added, removed, and expanded on. Putting this all together in the way Shakespeare intended it is always a lot of guessing and arguing.
    • 4/5
      More of the action seemed to happen off-stage than on! Excellent notes, and again many familiar lines I have seen referenced another literature and in everyday speech. Most of the cast dead by the end...
    • 4/5
      Hamlet, perhaps the best known of Shakespeare's tragedies, follows the title character as he seeks revenge upon his father's assassin--an uncle. The number of well-known lines from this work attests to its enduring influence. I chose to listen to the fully dramatized audio book produced from a performance of the Folger Theatre. It was well-done, but I do recommend either reading the book along with it or watching the recorded production to help sort cast members when you lack the name cues of the written format.
    • 4/5
      I feel I would have got more from this if I'd read it as a physical book instead on on my iPad, as there were a few times when I would haved liked to check back on things or make notes in the margins (I like to annotate books) so I will probably read this again at some point.

      I like reading plays. They go to show that a story still works when all you have is dialogue. Writers of huge novels with reams and reams of unnecessary discription should take note.

      Anyway, I really enjoyed Hamlet. It was full of interesting characters and events and I don't really think the story could have ended any other way! And the way Shakespeare wrote his plays was superb.
    • 3/5
      It will be one of life's mysteries, I think, how Hamlet can be likeable.
    • 5/5
      Well, what can you say about this book that has not already been said.

      it was good :3
    • 5/5
      Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
    • 5/5
      I was expecting Hamlet to be more like the Lion King, but Hamlet ended up being one of the most enjoyable Shakespeare plays I've read. He really is a pun master.
    • 4/5
      I find it much easier to listen to Shakespeare than to read it.
    • 4/5
      Love listening to Classical!!!
    • 5/5
      Harold Pinter Theatre, London. Glorious, an electric production.
    • 4/5
      The only Shakespeare plays I had read before this were Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth, Macbeth being my favorite. Having now read Hamlet, I can honestly say that Macbeth is still my favorite.

      Let's discuss.

      So, Hamlet himself is an emo icon, and also a misogynist, who basically goes crazy, murders someone, and essentially ruins everything.

      The ending came a little too quickly for me, tbh. There wasn't enough time to really develop any other characters. It was pretty quotable, though. Really, it gave me more Romeo and Juliet feels than Macbeth feels.
    • 5/5
      This is a re-read, in anticipation of seeing Hamlet live on the stage later this week in Stratford, ON. Reading the play it is easier to savor and appreciate the phrasing that goes by all too quickly on the stage. And In my mind, I could see Kenneth Branagh as the lead, though I have not seen his film version.
    • 4/5
      It amazes me how many people like Hamlet, no exception here, when it's really hard to relate to, but yet it's just one of those plays once you get into it, you come to love it. I read it for the first time in 12th grade and everyone would talk about it even when they didn't have to. The characters in Hamlet are amazingly complex and it doesn't just state how they are, you learn it through their actions and what they say. It's just so unique, I know everytime I read it I get a different opinion of the characters and the overall play.