Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with marginal notes and explanations and full descriptions of each character.

The complete text with explanations and an easy translation to help you understand the play.

Explains the historical, legendary, and mythological background of 38 plays and 2 narrative poems.

As an instructor of English 102, First-Year Composition, for more than eighty-six times, I have read and taught Hamlet repeatedly. I have come to know the play extensively and, as a result, when we read the play aloud in class I have to stop the students repeatedly to explain various arcane references that are not explained in any single version of the play. For several years I have threatened to do my own complete version of Hamlet; finally, I have. The result is The Complete Hamlet: An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play. It has taken me years of study and application. My hope is that the play will, thus, be more accessible to the general reader.

This lively and informative guide reveals Hamlet as marking a turning point in Shakespeare's use of language and dramatic form as well as addressing the key problem at the play's core: Hamlet's inaction. It also looks at recent critical approaches to the play and its theatre history, including the recent David Tennant / RSC Hamlet on both stage and TV screen.