A Midsummer Night's Dream: Fully Dramatized Audio Edition

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.

Who am I to review Shakespeare?!

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.

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.

Hamlet is a phenomenal play. Just spectacular.

Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth are my favorite Shakespeare plays. I remember being bored to tears reading it in school and then being overwhelmed by the power of Hamlet seeing it performed shortly thereafter. How can you have kids read a play (alone and not aloud)?

I refuse to offer up a literary review on Shakespeare. I wouldn't presume. However, I will say that I enjoyed this dark story. Watching a man descend into madness, yet still retain enough sanity to accomplish his purpose is drama at its best. Half the fun for me is finding out where all the quotes one hears all the time come from.

I like other Shakespeare plays better, but I admit that this is Shakespeare's zenith.

This is probably the most famous play in the world. It is so well-known that I don't think I need to outline the plot.I can see why this play, and Shakespeare, have wowed audiences and readers through the ages.I find my reactions to the bard's work quite interesting. I don't know if I've gained in literary maturity, or if his writing is so uneven. In either case, while I've certainly enjoyed his works in the past, it isn't until I read Richard III recently that I understood why Shakespeare has been considered so great, so far above any other playwright since his time. I've certianly enjoyed his work, previously, but I had thought him slightly over-rated. Now I know that I was so wrong!In any case, I'm now a confirmed fan of The Bard, and look forward to reading more of his work!

I think I finally understand the fuss about Shakespeare. I've read and enjoyed his sonnets. I'm familiar with the basic storyline of most of his plays. But I've never found the plays themselves very accessible or coherent. There were some passing Shakespeare interludes in college, but they were surface at best. I tried a personal Shakespeare regime once, reading through my Complete Shakespeare on a somewhat-regular basis. The project fizzled; I just couldn't keep my head in it. But finally, audiobooks came to the rescue. Hearing the play, with all the characters voiced by different actors, is almost as good as seeing it. I think I've found my Shakespeare remedy. This audiobook is a BBC dramatization and features an all-star cast with Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet. I really enjoyed everyone's performances. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is probably Shakespeare's most famous work, a tragedy that explores madness, revenge, alienation, incest, and passion. It's an archetypal story that has been told and retold many times since (and before) Shakespeare's play, and will probably continue to be staged endlessly in various media. Disney's animated film The Lion King is a perfect example of how this story can be adapted to almost any medium and setting. One of the main objections many modern readers have to Shakespeare is the language. It can be tough, especially if you're slogging through it on your own, weighted down with the helpful but heavy annotations and footnotes of most print versions. So I was delighted when the language not only made sense to me, but astounded me with its beauty and strength. Though I struggled somewhat at times to understand, for the most part I was able to follow what was going on and appreciate the way it was written. This is probably funny, but my first thought on hearing the language of the play was that it sounded like C. S. Lewis's Narnian nobility, especially Prince Rilian in The Silver Chair. I never really made the connection, but this was entirely deliberate on Lewis's part. He describes Rilian: "He was dressed in black, and altogether looked a little bit like Hamlet." (Rilian is, of course, rather mad as well.) I have always loved the archaic dignity and grace of their speech—and it always seemed to me that there wasn't nearly enough of it in the Chronicles. Well, I've found the fountainhead now and I'm drinking eagerly. All unwitting, I was prepared for the language of Shakespeare by Lewis. Just one more reason to love Narnia and read it to my children!It's astonishing how many familiar quotes come from this play. The list seems endless: every dog has his day, to be or not to be, frailty, thy name is Woman, murder most foul, and many, many more. Half the fun of listening was to hear things I already knew, fresh where they began. Wikipedia attempts to sketch a broad outline of the authors and thinkers inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet; I don't think its influence can be measured. It's had an incredible impact on the imaginations of countless writers, and though I knew this theoretically going in, it's quite another thing to experience it for myself and hear all these everyday phrases in their original context. The theology is alternately wonderful and dreadful (with the wonderful parts being, I think, unintentional). The worst part is when Hamlet refrains from killing his uncle because he finds him at his prayers with his soul supposedly cleansed and ready for heaven—while Hamlet's father was murdered suddenly, without the chance of shriving his soul, and is therefore most likely in Hell. This is a very Roman Catholic, works-based view of salvation, and I think its innate illogic is obvious. But there are other parts that hit me hard with their spiritual resonance, like this passage:Use every man after his desert,and who should 'scape whipping?Use them after your own honor and dignity:the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty.It isn't in a religious context at all, but the spiritual import of this thought is so profound. The more I think about it, the more profound it becomes. In short: Hamlet is brilliant. I know some of it went over my head, but the pieces I grasped are sharply intelligent and pithy. And the best part of this entire experience? It leaves me hungry for more Shakespeare.

Critics have varied in their enthusiasm for this play over the centuries. In many ways Hamlet is a typical "modern" - a relativist, caught in perpetual indecision, uncertain of his place in the world, frozen by his anxieties. It also contains some of the best-known lines and soliloquies in all of Shakespeare. It can be, and has been, read and performed from a religious perspective, an existential perspective, a Freudian perspective, or a feminist perspective.

I have loved this play since I first read it in high school. I find it both very tragic (but in a heroic kind of way) and very funny. I remember laughing at the fishwife dialogue in the library and my class mate thinking I was terribly odd. It doesn't matter, I still think this book is beautiful to read and very funny.

Love listening to Classical!!!

It read it on my Great Books class in college, at first I thought it was going to be boring but it is very interesting. I have read it a few times and this edition was for sure the best one.

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...

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark!” (1.4) Indeed!I thoroughly enjoyed a recent reread of Hamlet, and was much impressed with its layers of illusion, ambiguity, and deception – absolutely brilliant! And I had forgotten how many great lines, still used today with regularity, had their origin in Hamlet; “To be or not to be …” is the most obvious and unforgettable, of course, but there are many more! How about “This above all: to thine own self be true” (1.3), or “What a piece of work is man!” (2.2). And, in some modern English equivalent, who has not said, “Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t” (2.2). The wise old adage about the danger of doing business with friends is from Hamlet, too: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be,/For loan oft loses both itself and friend” (1.3). But alas, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks” (3.2). Finally, I couldn’t but marvel at Shakespeare’s continued influence some four hundred years after his time; and this lead me to wonder who, if any, among our contemporary writers, will we (well, not you and I, but others) be quoting four centuries hence?

I’ve seen quite a few Shakespeare productions and have read several other works. Surprisingly, in all my years, Hamlet has escaped me. Don’t ask me how—despite never missing a day of high school, and attaining a degree in English and a Master’s in writing, and being alive—I have never read or seen a production of Hamlet. I decided to remedy that.No surprises here. It’s typical Shakespeare. Betrayal, mistaken identities, honor, incest, duels, poison, death, death, and death. The story itself didn’t make much of an impact on me, but what did was the language. Of all of Shakespeare I am familiar with, this one stood out as having the most memorable lines. Sure, I knew the whole “To be or not to be” monologue was present, but there are so many others that were not only familiar, but memorable with reason. An obvious classic despite being very run-of-the-mill in terms of Shakespeare’s work.

This is, I believe, my absolute favorite of Shakespeare's tragedies. Primarily because Hamlet is a thinker throughout most of the play. When we first meet him, he is thinking of the inevitability of death and the loss of his father. Then he is tasked to dispatch his uncle when he learns from his father's ghost that Claudius poisoned him for his crown, and he spends the rest of the story considering the logistics of actually doing the deed.Many of my favorite Shakespeare lines also come from Hamlet, not only the brilliant soliloquies, but also little bits like "neither a borrower nor a lender be," "sweets for the sweet," and "goodnight, sweet prince." Also, Hamlet provided the inspiration for one of my favorite modern plays, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead."This particular edition also includes a series of essays on the play and Shakespeare's writing, my favorite of which is an in-depth look at Gertrude by Carolyn Heilbrun in a piece titled "The Character of Hamlet's Mother." It also ends with a look at Hamlet on stage and screen, breaking down the various and varied performances of Hamlet through the years, ending with the Laurence Olivier film version (fitting since that is what inspired me to reread the play this time around).I'm pretty sure this exact copy was my sister's in high school, it is also filled with several notes written by her hand, in pencil, in the margins.

My fav editions of the Bard.

Magnificent.Like nearly all plays, it has to be acted. Just reading won't bring out the emotions. I played Rosencrantz (or was it Guildenstern, better toss a coin!!) I also saw Hamlet at the Exchange Theatre in Manchester. This modern theatre built as a square inside the old Victorian building gave me a tremendous insight. It is theatre in the round. Sitting on the top tier looking almost vertically down I noticed that when Hamlet spoke his soliloquoys he was not actually speaking to anyone in the audience. He was speaking as if to an empty space in front of him and his speech turned inwards to himself. Then I noticed the dialogues. The two actors were not speaking one to the other: each was speaking as if to an empty space between them. This is the magic power of Theatre altogether. The Empty Space between the actors and the audience. Wonderful.

Well, what can you say about this book that has not already been said.

it was good :3

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.

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.

This was a great performance! The voice actors really brought the play to life!

Story:
Everyone knows Hamlet. Okay, maybe not everyone, but most people do. Now, if you were to ask me if I liked Hamlet, my short answer would probably be 'no.' Really, though, it's not fair for me to encapsulate my feelings on Hamlet into such a simple answer. If Hamlet and I were in a relationship on facebook (assuming he it could ever decide whether to be in one...punned!), it would most definitely be complicated.

Here's the thing: Hamlet is a great play. There's no denying it. When I think about the play objectively, there's a lot of amazing stuff in there. Shakespeare's wit is fantastic; gotta love all of those dirty jokes he makes in here. And, of course, the language is completely gorgeous.

The characters I have never been particularly tied to, which is one reason Hamlet does not rank among my favorite plays; the tragedies often lack the sassy heroines you can find in the comedies. Hamlet's indecisiveness frustrates me endlessly. Whine, whine, whine, think about doing something, wimp out, wine more. Cry moar, anon. Yoda judges you. Hamlet's uncle father and his aunt mother are not especially likable, even if you don't think they're guilty of what Hamlet's ghosty father accused them of (namely, turning him into a ghost). Ophelia isn't the brightest; plus, her end does not for admiration make. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are probably my favorites, and that's only because of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard.

Truly though, the reason that I don't really like Hamlet is how prevalent it is. I just get so tired of always hearing this same play over and over. I mean, who didn't have to read this in high school, and again in college?

Performance:
This audiobook is the recording of a stage version of the play, performed by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival cast. They do a good job, and I imagine it was quite a fun performance that they did. It sounds like they did some interesting things with the characters, such as changing gender in some cases and some modernizing (thus the leather jacket Hamlet's wearing).

Unfortunately, listening to a play and watching it just aren't the same. Had I not already been very familiar with Hamlet, I have little doubt that I would at time have been confused by some of the quick scene changes or by which voice belonged to which character. Some of the actors did have rather similar sounding voices.

Between scenes, there is creepy dramatic music, which definitely set a mood, but I don't think I liked. Nor did I care for the fact that the players rapped everything. That was kind of weird. At least Ophelia didn't rap her crazyface songs. Speaking of Ophelia, she was my favorite part of the performance. Her voice and manner definitely reminded me of River Tam (Summer Glau's character in Firefly, who has a couple of screws loose). What an awesome way to portray Ophelia. Now I kind of want to try to write some fan fiction with the characters from Firefly performing Hamlet. Maybe not.

Ghosts, murder, madness, revenge, suicide, incest, spiced with a little bit of black humor – Hamlet has it all. Once again I was struck by the number of “cliches” that originated with Hamlet: “too solid flesh”, “reserve thy judgment”, “the apparel oft proclaims the man”, “to thine own self be true”, “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, “the time is out of joint”, and “not a mouse was stirring” (which, sad to say, does not apply to my house since I've been trying unsuccessfully to catch one for the last week). I'm in that generation that can't hear Polonius's monologue without thinking of the song from the Gilligan's Island episode where the castaways staged a musical version of Hamlet. (Sorry if I've given anyone an earworm by mentioning it!)I was a little disappointed with the LA. Theatre Works audio version. Most of the performers were OK, but the audio effects were a bit odd and seemed too modern to suit the setting. I had trouble buying Stephen Collins as Claudius after his decade spent playing a minister on Seventh Heaven. Josh Stamberg played Hamlet, and his voice quality is similar enough to Stephen Collins that I sometimes had trouble telling which one of them was speaking. On the other hand, I thought Alan Mandell's Polonius was outstanding.This is one of Shakespeare's works that should be on everyone's reading list. Listening to an audio version can enhance modern readers' understanding of archaic language without interrupting the narrative flow like an annotated reading copy would do. There are probably better audio versions than this one to be found, though.

Me gusto mucho lo tragico que es el drama. Hamlet que engañaba con padecer de locura para poder vengar la muerte de su padre termino por generar esa enfermedad en la mujer que amaba. La codicia y traición del Rey Claudio a su hermano, refleja algunos de los 10 mandamientos.

One of the greatest works ever written.

This is a mature play of Shakespeare's, blending all the elements of drama, psychology, gutter humor, passion, ambition, doubt. The Playbook version is unique, but valuable. I haven't seen anything approaching it.

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”

“The course of true love never did run smooth.”

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”