n  n    Book Reviewn  n
4 out of 5 stars to Hamlet, a tragedy published in 1600 by William Shakespeare. Buckle your seat belts, as I have a 38 page review to share... Just Kidding! Well, I do have a lengthy review I could include from a previous course on Shakespeare, but I will not do so here... chance are you've already read the play or seen some film adaption, perhaps even a staged version. I've seen a bunch of them and read the place 4 times (once in high school, twice in college and once just for pleasure). Here's the thing about this play: There is WAY too much to absorb in just one or two reads. Each time you read the play, you pick up on new interpretations, new meanings and new thought patterns. Each time you watch a new performance, the actors and directors choose a different angle or approach. Hamlet is all of us. And we will always take from it something we want to believe... likely based on what's going on in our life at that time. If you are having relationship issues, you'll probably focus on that aspect of Hamlet's life. If you feel depressed, you'll questions "to be or not to be." If you are happy, you'll root for him to do the right things. I'm not sure if that's how Shakespeare intended it to happen, but he certainly left it open on purpose. Maybe not to allow us to have completely widespread views and interpretations, but enough to choose the key things we want to focus on. I think maybe I need to read it again this summer!

n  n    About Men  n
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by.

کتابی برای تمام فصل ها...سه چهاربارخوانده ام و بارها فیلم بسیارزیبای اقتباسی گرگوری کوزنتسف رادیده ام ..من ترجمه به آذین راخواندم.

Oh, how much ink has spilled on this excellent Shakespeare work and how many tears will have shedding for it, I dare not imagine.
Also, I will not pretend to do a review that you would not have read probably dozens of times or even bring new elements you would not already know but only know this piece. Admittedly, this is a tragedy (therefore, as the name suggests, nothing very encouraging), but what poetry in these verses, what beauty in this bittersweet madness the Prince of Denmark believes he has reached, the young Hamlet.
Is he mad? I don't think so. He saw a specter, that of his father murdered by his uncle but who never felt the presence by his side of a loved one who had recently disappeared, and what is more, in more than questionable conditions. I cannot say that I have never experienced this feeling or at least wanted to believe it. The specter, therefore, reveals to his son how his brother did it to assassinate him and demand revenge!
So Hamlet's mind is tortured, it is true, but who wouldn't be after such a revelation? So what does he have to do? Take the sword and spill the blood again? For his part, the King, Claudius, sensing the danger, does everything to remove Hamlet from the kingdom of Denmark to preserve his place on the throne.
Hamlet, therefore, finds himself alone in the face of his fate because, although the presence of this specter at the castle has been revealed to him by three guards and by his friend Horatio, on whom else can he count? Who will believe it? He will take for granted, which will well arrange the affairs of his uncle or others who would be just as greedy for power as he and who have dedicated their cause to Claudius. Because, as everyone knows, the Prime Minister (to name nothing but him) must be faithful to the one he serves and devote his most remarkable devotion to him.
I will not say more about the plot because I think once again that I will only repeat what has already been said many and many times, but I insist on the point that this work, although 'this is a drama in which a lot of blood will flow, is a thing of beauty. To read and reread without fail!

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.”



Not sure how many times I've read or watched William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The writing is fantastic! It's amazing to me how much of this play now exists in the realm of well-known quotes (more so than in any other Shakespeare play I'm aware of). Still, and I'm sure this is owing to Shakespeare's great talent, it feels fresh and I'm engaged in the story. And it is a story that works on so many levels. One of my favorite Shakespeare plays!

We need more characters who are as unhinged as Hamlet. That man has never thought about a single word that’s left his mouth.

"To be or not to be...," that is not my favorite line. My favorite is: "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times."

It's that recollection of innocent days that gets me every time, because you know Hamlet is being swept up in a vortex of innocence lost.

STUPID ADULTS! They screw up everything!

I grew up in a truly idyllic setting. As childhoods go, mine was a joy. But then you grow up and you wake up to reality.

My introduction to Hamlet came during high school in my early teen years. Its murderous plot of family deceit and infidelity struck home, my family being likewise stricken with such maladies. The parallels were all too similar and I love/hated the play for driving it all home.

Mel Gibson's movie version came out at this time, and its over-simplification and emotional heightening was a perfect fit for a simple-minded, emotionally-blinded teen. Less than stellar, the movie nonetheless had its effect upon me, furthering the torment.

Luckily my family drama was not as murdery as Hamlet's, although if the personalities of some of the principle players were slightly more volatile, there could easily have been a bloodbath of Hamlet-esque proportions. In my reality, we all got over it, sorted it out, and moved on with our lives wherever they led. The beauty of fiction is to see the deepest of fantasies played out. It gives us - I hesitate to use the melodramatic "victims" here, but that is essentially what we amount to - it gives us release from the pent up anger when we see the wrong-doers get their comeuppance.

For that reason, I doubt I'll ever be able to view this work through a truly unbiased, critical lens. Just because it's a "classic" doesn't mean you have to adorn it with a 5-star laurel wreath, but - for what it means to me - I do.

Hamlet teaches us all an important lesson. If you keep your head down, stay doing gay shit with your friends at college and never come home you'll be okay

in all seriousness, Hamlet insisting on wearing black all the time and frequently monologuing about how every decision is too hard and he's a mess is Relatable TM so I love him

The first time I read this book I was in highschool. It was an 80-page book. The story was so short and simple, so I wondered "Why so many people say this is such a complex play/book?". A couple of years later, I bought a special edition of 592 pages: Too much? No! Why not? Because the play was written in Shakespearean English, and every single word that was not in standard English was explained at the bottom of the page, it explained the context, the uses you can have from that word.
Ok, so I read that version and it was a pain in the ass. Not because it was a bad story at all, but now I truly understand people who say that Shakespeare was such a special writer, and I agree!
Well, about the story... Fascinating! I loved how Shakespeare made of Hamlet such a special character. It was very difficult for Hamlet to take action, it was like "almost, almost!"
I feel Shakespeare wanted to express himself on Hamlet. His multiple personalities during the play reminded me of Shakespeare's life a bit.
On the other hand, I really LOVED how this play ends... What a bloody and violent ending, Terrific!
Recommended? Absolutely, but a simple version, because the original might be too difficult and slow to read.

It is only when I read and compare across languages that I realise what a hard and thankless job translation is, especially older texts and more so when there's a significant cultural distance between languages. Shakespeare's diction is so profoundly poetic and idiomatic that it might be thought untranslatable, even when it is rendered into modern English idiom, it loses its antique beauty when tampered with, like those monuments reconstructed from history that look like originals but actually are not.

And so reading Shakespeare in Urdu was always going to be a fascinating experience. I commend Firaq Gorakhpuri's consummate skill in recreating Hamlet in an idiom that recalls the dying days of the classical dialect mixed in with sufficient modernist invention to keep it coherent, but without employing too many calques and direct borrowings which would have grated on my nerves. I also like that the translator did not depart from the prose-poetry form of the original.

All in all, this translation of Hamlet may go down as one of the finest examples of how to translate classical English literature, and not just Shakespeare, in a language that is fast losing translations from other cultures.

December '16

هاملت... الانسان الحائر بين التفكير والفعل
بعد مقتل والده يتردد بين طبيعته المزاجية وفكره الفلسفي
في محاولة بائسة لتمديد فترة اللافعل وتأجيل الانتقام
الهذيان وتظاهره بالجنون جزء من المعاناة والضغوط النفسية والأخلاقية
وفي النهاية يختار شكسبير الفعل كقوة عادلة مرئية لحسم الأمور في الواقع
والانتقام هنا جزء من العدالة

According to reports, Gillian Flynn is set to release a retelling of Hamlet as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare project in 2021, so this felt like the right time to reread this delightful Shakespeare play. Enjoyed all over again!

Because the figure of Hamlet has so fascinated successive generations, the play has provoked more discussion, more performances and more scholarship than any other in the whole history of world drama.