Shakespeare's Classic: Hamlet

(Annotated) with a Historical Introduction, an Overview, a Study of Themes and Famous Quotes

By: William Shakespeare

Narrated by: Drew Kallen-Keck

William Shakespeare, the 16th century English poet, playwright, and actor is generally regarded as the best writer in the English language and the world's best dramatist. He was a very prolific writer and his work consists of 39 plays, 154 sonnets, a few poems, and two long narrative poems. His plays have been translated into every major language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in England. He married young, at the age of 18. His wife was 26 and already three months pregnant. They had three children, one of whom died at the age of 11. The child that died, Hamnet, was Shakespeare's only son, and it is speculated that he named Hamlet after the boy.

In Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark has recently lost his father, but his mother is in a hurry to marry her late husband's brother. Hamlet is overwhelmed with grief for his father's death but also outraged because of the hurried marriage.

Most people don't realize that there are three versions of Hamlet, printed at different times. There is a considerable difference between the texts of these versions, so to have a "complete" version of this play, editors had to make some adjustments. The three texts are simply different versions of the play.

You may of course skip all of it and go straight to the main title if you do not want any spoilers and come back later to the beginning.

Unique to this title are the following chapters:

• A Historical Introduction
• An Overview of Hamlet
• A Study of the Themes Present in Hamlet
• A List of Famous Quotes from Hamlet

Enjoy this timeless classic!

©2019 Chronos Publishing (P)2019 Chronos Publishing

Excellent audio reproduction, but it's not for me

Although the audio narration is excellent, this has proved to me the very thing I've always suspected: Shakespeare is not for me.

I enjoyed the historical information at the start much more than this actual story.

To be fair, the story itself is interesting and fun. But I just can't get past the language.

I've been fascinated with the works of Shakespeare since I first read a young readers version of Macbeth as a child. I think I would love to read new renditions of Shakespeare using modern language, but as originally written I don't think I will read any other Shakespeare.

Wish i would have had this in high school

I love Shakespeare. But I hated high school where reading Shakespeare was a competition to garner favors from our teacher.

This is well read, well explained with context. You are given extra little tidbits of knowledge that help you understand what the real meaning is behind the words.

I really wish I would have had access to this in high school and college.

Wonderful! Narration

This is the twelfth book I’ve read/listened to by Audiobook Giveaways and I would definitely listen to another. I am greatly enjoying the extra chapters with the historical context, etc. They have in their books. Their narrators seem to have varying degrees of ability, but none have been so bad I had to stop listening.

This is the first book I’ve listened to by this narrator ( Drew Kilkenny-Keck ) and I would happily listen to another. He did a great job performing , not just reading, this book. Shakespeare can be difficult for many people to pull off naturally. He not only does this, but does it with various character voices. He has a nice range of voices he uses. The female voices were as good as the male ones.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review.
Please feel free to comment on whether you found my review helpful.

An excellent rendering of this classic play

Extremely well done. This was one of the best ebook renditions I have heard. Justice definitely done to one of my favorite plays. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Hamlet Annotated with a Bit of History & Quotes

The complete text of Shakespeare's play. Useful for students and enjoyable for those who never had the "pleasure" to study it in school or just want to refresh their memory.