From Library Journal
The big H comes to Penguin's great revamped "Pelican Shakespeare" line. What else do you need to know? Buy it!
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"For those whose scholarship extends beyond the usual one-volume editions, this Hibbard Hamlet will prove the most fascinating of the decade."--Reg Saner, University of Colorado, Boulder
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Reading level: Ages 9-12
- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 23, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0198328702
- ISBN-13: 978-0198328704
- Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
Golden Gate to Shakespeare, January 24, 2006 By Night Owl
Bravo to the writers, editors, and publishers of the entire No Fear Shakespeare series. Rendering Shakespeare into prosaic, colloquial American English not only explains what Shakespeare was saying, but reveals how much better he said it! Here's a few examples from HAMLET:
Hamlet sees the Ghost, but his mother doesn't. In modern lingo, she says, "This is only a figment of your imagination." That's a cliche. In the original, she says, "This is the very coinage of your brain." That's vivid.
Rosencrantz tells Hamlet in modern lingo, "You're not doing yourself any good by refusing to tell your friends what's bothering you." Sounds like a reprimand. The original line sounds like a threat: "You do surely bar the door upon your own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend."
Hamlet remembers his mother's relationship with his father: "She would hang on to him, and the more she was with him the more she wanted to be with him; she couldn't get enough of him." Sounds good, but the original sounds disturbing: "Why, she would hang on him / As if increase of appetitite had grown / By what it fed on . . ." Change the word "she" to "it" and you have the image of a parasite. That alone says a lot about Hamlet's view of women and sex.
I know of no better guide to reading, understanding, and appreciating Shakespeare than Spark Notes' No Fear Shakespeare series.
Getting Into Shakespeare, October 29, 2005 By The JuRK
Man, I wish I would've had this book 25 years ago!
I've always been interested in Shakespeare but it's been hard introducing anyone else I know to the greatness of his plays: the language is just too hard for most people to follow.
Thankfully, the No Fear Shakespeare books have come along, and I've been buying them for myself as well as others. It's wonderful to have a side-by-side comparison of the Bard's original lines with a modern translation that makes the play easy to read.
I hope the publishers do this with all of Shakespeare's plays!
Pelican Ed. good for experienced readers of Shakespeare, April 27, 2008 By Horatio "Horatio"
The Pelican Hamlet is an attractive, straightforward, inexpensive paperback edition for readers already familiar with Shakespeare. The text is based primarily on the second quarto edition with some additions from the Folio; a section at the beginning includes the lines from the Folio that were not incorporated in the text. (These include the "Denmark is a prison" remarks in Hamlet's conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.) The scholarly introductory matter is rather dry but provides the usual information about the theater in Shakespearian England, etc. Glosses are adequate for those who have read the Bard before. Less experienced readers may find them a little skimpy.
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