From the Royal Shakespeare Company – a fresh new edition of Shakespeare's most celebrated play.
This book includes:
* An introduction to Hamlet by award-winning scholar Jonathan Bate
* The play – with clear explanatory notes on each page
* A scene-by-scene analysis
* An introduction to Shakespeare's career and the Elizabethan theatre
* A rich exploration of approaches to staging Hamlet
The most enjoyable way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or participate in it. This book presents a historical overview of Hamlet in performance, recommends film versions, takes a detailed look at specific productions and includes interviews with three leading Directors – Michael Boyd, Ron Daniels and John Caird – so that we may get a sense of the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible - a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made 'our contemporary' four centuries after his death.
'Jonathan Bate is a passionate advocate of Shakespeare and his introductions are full of striking and convincing observations ... footnotes at the bottom of each page gloss unfamiliar items of vocabulary, paraphrase tricky meanings and uncover bawdy puns. There is a universe to be found in these annotations: the Renaissance world of power and fate, sex and death, language and philosophy.' - Times Educational Supplement
Introduction to the Play
Introduction to the Text
Key Facts
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Textual Notes
Second Quarto passages that do not appear in the Folio
Scene-by-scene Analysis
Hamlet in Performance: the RSC and Beyond
Four Centuries of Hamlet: An Overview
At the RSC
The Director's Cut: interviews with Michael Boyd, John Caird, Ron Daniels
Shakespeare's Career in the Theatre
Shakespeare's Works: a Chronology
Further Reading and Viewing
Acknowledgements and Picture Credits
JONATHAN BATE is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Warwick, UK, and the editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Yale and UCLA and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Cambridge, and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A prominent critic, award-winning biographer and broadcaster, he is the author of several books on Shakespeare, including The Genius of Shakespeare (Picador), which was praised by Sir Peter Hall, founder of the RSC, as "the best modern book on Shakespeare." In June 2006 he was awarded a CBE by HM The Queen 'for services to Higher Education'.
ERIC RASMUSSEN is Professor of English at the University of Nevada, USA, and the Textual Editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He is co-editor of the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama and has edited volumes in both the Arden Shakespeare and Oxford World's Classics series. He is the General Textual Editor of the Internet Shakespeare Editions project - one of the most visited Shakespeare websites in the world. For over nine years he has written the annual review of editions and textual studies for the Shakespeare Survey.
Description
From the Royal Shakespeare Company – a fresh new edition of Shakespeare's most celebrated play.
This book includes:
* An introduction to Hamlet by award-winning scholar Jonathan Bate
* The play – with clear explanatory notes on each page
* A scene-by-scene analysis
* An introduction to Shakespeare's career and the Elizabethan theatre
* A rich exploration of approaches to staging Hamlet
The most enjoyable way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or participate in it. This book presents a historical overview of Hamlet in performance, recommends film versions, takes a detailed look at specific productions and includes interviews with three leading Directors – Michael Boyd, Ron Daniels and John Caird – so that we may get a sense of the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible - a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made 'our contemporary' four centuries after his death.
Reviews
'Jonathan Bate is a passionate advocate of Shakespeare and his introductions are full of striking and convincing observations ... footnotes at the bottom of each page gloss unfamiliar items of vocabulary, paraphrase tricky meanings and uncover bawdy puns. There is a universe to be found in these annotations: the Renaissance world of power and fate, sex and death, language and philosophy.' - Times Educational Supplement
Contents
Introduction to the Play
Introduction to the Text
Key Facts
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Textual Notes
Second Quarto passages that do not appear in the Folio
Scene-by-scene Analysis
Hamlet in Performance: the RSC and Beyond
Four Centuries of Hamlet: An Overview
At the RSC
The Director's Cut: interviews with Michael Boyd, John Caird, Ron Daniels
Shakespeare's Career in the Theatre
Shakespeare's Works: a Chronology
Further Reading and Viewing
Acknowledgements and Picture Credits
Authors
JONATHAN BATE is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Warwick, UK, and the editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Yale and UCLA and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Cambridge, and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A prominent critic, award-winning biographer and broadcaster, he is the author of several books on Shakespeare, including The Genius of Shakespeare (Picador), which was praised by Sir Peter Hall, founder of the RSC, as "the best modern book on Shakespeare." In June 2006 he was awarded a CBE by HM The Queen 'for services to Higher Education'.
ERIC RASMUSSEN is Professor of English at the University of Nevada, USA, and the Textual Editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He is co-editor of the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama and has edited volumes in both the Arden Shakespeare and Oxford World's Classics series. He is the General Textual Editor of the Internet Shakespeare Editions project - one of the most visited Shakespeare websites in the world. For over nine years he has written the annual review of editions and textual studies for the Shakespeare Survey.
|