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A review by meadforddude
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
5.0
Obviously I'd have to be living under a rock that was buried beneath a much larger pile of rocks to not have *some* awareness of this story, but reading through the play this evening really clarified for me just how special this is. At the very least, it's Shakespeare's best play up to this point, but I think we all know it's something much, much more than that.
Shakespeare in general was ahead of his time in so many respects, but the meta-textual aspects of this play are kind of shockingly modern to me. It's like Shakespeare's poking fun at himself half the time, and I hope that anyone who hasn't read the before play will read this brief review and understand that it's not just some austere work of tragedy, it's also really funny and clearly doesn't take itself too seriously.
The part where Hamlet contributes a scene to the play-within-the-play is just one of the most fascinating things I've seen in *any* of Shakespeare's work up to this point. It's like he's taking the piss out of a trope that doesn't even really exist yet. It's incredible.
Edited to add: after sleeping on it and reading over the critical essays in this edition, I'm pretty sure I'd be fine spending the rest of my life reading and thinking about Hamlet. I literally read the play itself last night until my brain began to pivot away from parsing the language. It's not just that so many of Shakespeare's most deservedly well-known lines and phrases originate here, it's that the entire piece is so fully considered and fascinating and genuinely eerie. It's the most atmospheric of Shakespeare's plays, and it's probably one of the all-time, top-five works of art ever crafted? I fucking adore this thing.
Shakespeare in general was ahead of his time in so many respects, but the meta-textual aspects of this play are kind of shockingly modern to me. It's like Shakespeare's poking fun at himself half the time, and I hope that anyone who hasn't read the before play will read this brief review and understand that it's not just some austere work of tragedy, it's also really funny and clearly doesn't take itself too seriously.
The part where Hamlet contributes a scene to the play-within-the-play is just one of the most fascinating things I've seen in *any* of Shakespeare's work up to this point. It's like he's taking the piss out of a trope that doesn't even really exist yet. It's incredible.
Edited to add: after sleeping on it and reading over the critical essays in this edition, I'm pretty sure I'd be fine spending the rest of my life reading and thinking about Hamlet. I literally read the play itself last night until my brain began to pivot away from parsing the language. It's not just that so many of Shakespeare's most deservedly well-known lines and phrases originate here, it's that the entire piece is so fully considered and fascinating and genuinely eerie. It's the most atmospheric of Shakespeare's plays, and it's probably one of the all-time, top-five works of art ever crafted? I fucking adore this thing.