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Title: Hamlet: The Arden Edition of the Works of William Shakespeare (The Arden Shakespeare) by Harold Jenkins, William Shakespeare ISBN: 1-903436-67-2 Publisher: Arden Shakespeare Pub. Date: December, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Simply Indispensable
Comment: When Henry James sat down to write on his Venetian travels for what later became the Italian Hours, he began with a disclaimer: "It is a great pleasure to write the word; but I am not sure there is not a certain impudence in pretending to add anything to it." Turning to Shakespeare, we might amuse ourselves by writing on, say, Hamlet, but can anything be said that's not already been said, and better, a dozen times, by superior critics and closer readers? In the appropriate spirit of humility (and in utter submission to the Bard and his great gift to civilization), I offer a few thoughts on the Arden 2nd Edition of Hamlet, and not on "the greatest work in the history of literature."
Hamlet is by far the longest of the Ardens at 574 pages. It breaks down thusly: the prefatory material of editor Harold Jenkins - one of the Arden Series general editors and a Hamlet authority of great renown - alone takes up 164 pages. Three-quarters of this is bibliographical and historical. In his 40-page critical introduction, Jenkins addresses many of the plays thorniest problems, with the Talmudic attentiveness of the closest reader. Then comes the play itself, spread over 264 pages (in terms of sheer length relative to the Bard's other plays, the text is a monster, coming in at more than 3800 lines). Each page of the Arden includes an average half-page of Jenkins' detailed, argumentative, authoritative, and uncommonly helpful footnotes. The final 146 pages consist of longer (end)notes that Jenkins simply could not physically fit onto the bottom of a page. Many of these are short essays (including an appendix that glosses an earlier discussion on the dating of the play).
Each of the Arden Hamlet's three sections might merit separate publication (after a modest bit of repackaging), but as a totality, Jenkins' edition must be the greatest value on the Shakespeare market. Jenkins' ruminations on the provenance of the story and the many sources Shakespeare might have drawn on, the "Ur-Hamlet" that might have come from the quill of contemporary Thomas Kyd (The Spanish Tragedy), the complexities of determining an authoritative text, the drama's inconsistencies and unanswered questions, the import of the great soliloquy of III.i (which is emphatically NOT, insists Jenkins, a deliberation on whether to commit suicide), Elizabethan revenge dramas in general, and so much more make this a truly indispensable, illuminating, even breathtaking volume.
We think we know this play well. We have read it, and seen performed on stage and in memorable or hideously forgettable films. Many of its greatest lines are embedded in our hearts. The beginning of true understanding, however, resides in a superbly annotated scholarly edition. The Arden is one of several choices you can make and is for me the one to own, equally suitable for students, scholars, actors, and mere Bardolators. It will - provided, of course, you are not already a scholarly specialist in Elizabethan drama - knock the scales from your eyes. And until the 3rd edition now in preparation under Ann Thompson is published, this Hamlet will stand as the epitome of the Arden Shakespeare's greatness as a series.
Rating: 5
Summary: Best edition available.
Comment: As one who collects editions of HAMLET, I can say without reservation that the Arden (2nd edition) is the hands-down best edition you can buy of the greatest work in our language. The notes are as complete as can possibly be expected, and offer the best insight I've yet to see concerning the various "problems" in HAMLET. Its comprehensive look may be too much for a person approaching the play for the first time, but for the serious student of HAMLET it's essential.
Rating: 5
Summary: A great edition to help you gather more riches from Hamlet
Comment: This edition of Hamlet will allow you to read the text more closely and with more understanding than any other I have seen. With all the added notes and helps you will not only understand the language of Shakespeare more clearly, you will also be able to come to your own informed opinions on this great work.
The richness of great works is their layering and their openness to multiple interpretations. And yet, misreading and misunderstanding the language is more often the source of missing the point of the passage rather than adding to a richer understanding. There are certainly creative misreadings, but those are made from deep understanding rather than superficial mistaken interpretation.
This edition has extensive notes with the text and when a topic requires longer treatment the notation LN is used for Longer Note. You turn to the back and find the Longer Note by Act - Scene - Line Number and get a great deal of useful discussion about that aspect of the play.
There is also a 159 page introduction with context setting essays on the issues around the date of the play, its publication, the various texts and the debates over the merits and deficiencies of the First and Second Quarto and the First Folio, plus editorial problems, and a critical introduction.
All in all, this great play deserves to be read closely and returns riches for all the effort you can afford to put into reading it. This edition is very fine and assists you in mining treasures from this magnificent work.
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Title: King Lear by R. A. Foakes, William Shakespeare ISBN: 1903436591 Publisher: Arden Shakespeare Pub. Date: 09 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, Harold F. Brooks ISBN: 1903436605 Publisher: Arden Shakespeare Pub. Date: September, 1979 List Price(USD): $13.99 |
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Title: King Henry IV (The Arden Shakespeare) by David Scott Kastan ISBN: 1904271359 Publisher: Arden Shakespeare Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.99 |
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Title: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Arden Shakespeare, Brian Gibbons ISBN: 1903436419 Publisher: Arden Shakespeare Pub. Date: May, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.99 |
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Title: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad ISBN: 0486264645 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $1.50 |
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