Hamlet: No Fear Shakespeare Side-by-Side Plain English

by William Shakespeare, SparkNotes

This No Fear Shakespeare ebook gives you the complete text of Hamletand an easy-to-understand translation. Each No Fear Shakespeare contains The complete text of the original play A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday language A complete list of characters with descriptions Plenty of helpful commentary

411 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 30, 2018

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

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The inescapable questions, the ones that give insight into the human experience, reside and unfold within this play. Hamlet is the one for the job. In a sense, we all are. Made up of the endless fragments that define the human condition, Hamlet achingly embodies internal conflict. He struggles to know himself and trust those who appear authentic, always proving a facade. He is driven to madness, pushed to a point of no return. Whether we are appalled by his actions or his inaction, we can sympathize with what he's lost and recognize how he has been destined and crafted for this tragic and timeless ending. There is life after the silence. Hamlet is living proof of that.

"Let be."

"And in this harsh world, draw thy breath in pain to tell the story."

"The rest is silence."

[Jarrid Hawkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed some of it. Definitely something before it’s time. I could see how it would play out in a fun, shocking, entertaining way. I thought the mental illnesses were a bit over the top and very difficult to follow for no reason.