[Hamlet (Collins Classics) (Collins Classics: The Alexander Shakespeare)] [By: Shakespeare, William] [September, 2011]

by William Shakespeare

A complex, smart mystery filled with intrigue, drama, and more than a little danger awaits in Stephen L. Carter's engaging debut novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park. After the funeral of his powerful father (a federal judge whose nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court became a public scandal), Talcott Garland, an African American law professor at an Ivy League university, is left to unravel the meaning of a cryptic note and carry out "the arrangements" his father left behind. Armed with fortitude and familial devotion--though paranoid of his wife's fidelity--Talcott soon finds himself in an investigation that entangles him with a number of questionable Washington, D.C., denizens, including attorneys and government officials, law professors, the FBI, shady underworld figures, chess masters, and friends and family. All the while Talcott tries not to hurt his attorney wife's chance for a judicial nomination--and their fragile marriage--but the closer he comes to unraveling his father's dark secrets, the more dangerous things become. Clocking in at over 650 pages, the novel could easily have been streamlined; many of Talcott's thoughts are unnecessarily repeated. But Carter's storytelling skills are tension builds, surprises are genuine, clues are not handed out freely. The prose, while somewhat meandering, can be crisp and insightful, as demonstrated in Carter's description of the misguided paths of young attorneys who sacrificeall on the altar of career... at last arriving... at their cherished career goals, partnerships, professorships, judgeships, whatever kind of ships they dream of sailing, and then looking around at the angry, empty waters and realizing that they have arrived with nothing, absolutely nothing, and wondering what to do with the rest of their wretched lives. --Michael Ferch

Genres: Classics

Paperback

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[Amiee Alanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a cardinal sin that as an English graduate and English Teacher, I have never read Hamlet! Is it perhaps even more shocking that I'm not awarding 5 stars for this? I adore Shakespearean tragedies: Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Richard lll, Measure for Measure are all some of my favourite stories in literature. Hamlet just didn't do it for me. Perhaps the constant trumpeting of Hamlet being the greatest Shakespeare play of all has tainted my expectations and I went in with majorly high expectations. I didn't enjoy the character of Hamlet, compared to Macbeth he isn't as flawed or as Machiavelian as I'd hoped him to be. It's certainly more tragic as Hamlet does what he does for very noble and honourable reasons and when his downfall comes you are rooting for him to live. But I think I just enjoy the more complex duplicitous characters of other plays. I'm glad I read it, but I don't think this is one I'll be queuing up to see on the stage unfortunately. Macbeth in my eyes remains my favourite of all of his tragedies!

[Hafsareads · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was my second reading time of this outstanding tragic play. I first read it for my studies and now I've read for pleasure, and I can't express how great, and enjoyable it was for me, though it was such a nostalgic read. Nonetheless, I really did loved it ten times more this time and noticed that the movie adaptation of it didn't follow quite the play. Overall, I recommend it to anyone who has never read a Shakespearean'play to start by it, as it's just beautifully written.

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew there was gonna be a death.......BUT THIS ?????

[sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shocking ending.. Definitely didn’t expect it, like at all. Extremely tragic as well, and sad.