Anand's Reviews > Hamlet

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Hamlet
by

William Shakespeare,

Ann Thompson (Editor),

David Scott Kastan (Series Editor),

H.R. Woudhuysen (Series Editor),

Richard Proudfoot (Series Editor),

Neil Taylor (Editor)

Anand's review

Feb 25, 2015

it was amazing

bookshelves: shakespeare

Read 7 times. Last read April 2, 2020 to April 22, 2020.

(1/24/2017): A second reading of Hamlet has given me a better appreciation of this "cardinal work of Western literature" next to the Homeric epics. So many great speeches, and Hamlet's a noble yet broken tragic hero. The poetry comes off as more brilliant, redolent with disease and brokenness and chaos, yet also with its verbal eloquence and orchestral genius. This is a "poem unlimited". Simply, it has it all. This is perhaps Shakespeare's greatest and grandest play ever (though some might call King Lear better; my preference is for Lear and Macbeth, but Hamlet deserves its due).

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Reading Progress

February 25, 2015 – Shelved

February 25, 2015 – Shelved as: to-read

February 2, 2016 –

2.0% "Beginning Shakespeare's longest and greatest play."

February 3, 2016 –

6.0%

February 6, 2016 –

9.0% "Act I has been done. I figured out the source of some memorable phrases: "List, list, o list" "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark""

February 11, 2016 –

16.0%

February 20, 2016 –

18.0% "I notice that there's a lot of prose/poetry mixture, even more so than the great play Macbeth."

February 25, 2016 –

23.0%

March 4, 2016 –

65.0%

March 7, 2016 –

83.0%

March 9, 2016 –

100.0%

Started Reading

January 18, 2017 – Finished Reading

January 24, 2017 –

100.0%

January 26, 2017 – Shelved as: shakespeare

July 9, 2018 – Started Reading

July 9, 2018 –

page 257

37.35% "Reading Hamlet again in the Arden edition. Much of my focus now is on the importance of ears and hearing, as well as of the stories that are told throughout the play, the reports in poetry, and of the past, and more."

July 11, 2018 –

page 363

52.76%

July 11, 2018 –

page 363

52.76%

July 11, 2018 –

page 391

56.83% "The lovely Act 3 is beautiful. As is the closet scene, the three soliloquies of Hamlet within Act 3, and the opening scenes of act 4.

Excellent to revisit the play again."

July 12, 2018 –

page 504

73.26%

July 12, 2018 –

page 504

73.26%

July 12, 2018 – Finished Reading

October 11, 2019 – Started Reading (Other Paperback Edition)

October 19, 2019 – Finished Reading (Other Paperback Edition)

April 2, 2020 – Started Reading

April 2, 2020 –

page 1

0.15% "I’m going to try the three-text Hamlet thing. I loved the “traditional” conflated Hamlets given to us since the days of Theobald and Pope. Let’s see how this three-text thing will do for me."

April 2, 2020 –

page 72

10.47% "The Arden 3 intro is very fascinating. Detailed. A different mood than Jenkins’ great introduction. But it’s also brilliant."

April 2, 2020 –

page 97

14.1%

April 2, 2020 –

page 111

16.13%

April 2, 2020 –

page 125

18.17%

April 3, 2020 –

page 171

24.85%

April 3, 2020 –

page 177

25.73%

April 4, 2020 –

page 194

28.2% "The first scene is as rich and great as it has been on my readings. Thing/nothing (later shown in King is a thing of nothing), “tremble and look pale” is later picked up by Hamlet after the chaos of slaughter at Elsinore, the portentous element of the Ghost’s appearance, evocation of an “epic” and classical world in this first scene."

April 6, 2020 –

page 257

37.35% "Act 1 is as brilliant as ever. The notice of the “-st” sounds at the endings of words in the Ghost scene strengthened the haunting eloquence in that great scene. Also, noticing the words around acting, appearance, shape, etc. (per Maynard Mack) are worthwhile. The doublings are noteworthy.

Q2 by itself is a somewhat strange feeling from the “traditional” text."

April 8, 2020 –

page 309

44.91%

April 11, 2020 –

page 385

55.96%

April 15, 2020 –

page 402

58.43%

April 16, 2020 –

page 439

63.81% "The second half of Act 4 is preoccupied with the planning of the King, the unraveling of his safety. And the emotional core comes from the songs of Ophelia, and from her death."

April 18, 2020 –

page 463

67.3%

April 19, 2020 –

page 495

71.95% "Completed Act 5 of Hamlet. What a powerful ending, as always. A noble, tragic ending."

April 21, 2020 –

page 541

78.63% "The technical writing on the texts at the back of this section is pretty solid, and arrives at a reasonable conclusion."

April 22, 2020 –

page 577

83.87%