Customer Reviews

Hamlet (Arkangel Shakespeare)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Superior reading! I am using this in my classroom. It follows our text exactly and students understand it much better because of the expression the readers use. Excellent investment for instruction!

I teach high school English, and I always have my students follow along with the CD in class. I teach both accelerated and regular level classes, and my students all thank me for using the CD. I tell them in the beginning it will help them, and they are amazed when they find out it actually does. They tell me it really does make it easier to understand when they can listen to it (versus just reading it by themselves). We stop periodically to discuss, and my students take notes, and with these three things, I have had much more success with Shakespeare in the classroom than in the past. And I have to admit - it has also helped me to understand some of it.

I started listening to the Arkangel series because of David Tennant (Doctor Who). Since then I've become addicted to this series, buying what I cannot borrow. The full cast of actors present the material in a very natural style, quite different from the respectful, poetic style that I was exposed to in school so many years ago. I've even gone through four of the histories, something that I never intended to do.

Read all the other reviews for well-considered, thoughtful reviews, especially in comparison to other offerings. I just know that I am enjoying listening to these CDs just for fun.

As with most of the Arkangel Shakespeare, this is a very decently done performance, with some great acting. (The music, which is modern and a little sentimental, seems to me a mistake.) But as with all the Shakespeare, I'm a big believer in the Caedmon recordings from several decades ago, which feature simply amazing actors of the last generation: Sir Ralph Richardson, Paul Scofield, Sir John Gielgud, Hugh Griffith, Jeremy Brett, Sir Michael Redgrave, Cyril Cusack, Alan Bates, Vanessa Redgrave...the list goes on. The Arkangel recordings have a lot to offer, but we ought to have the option of listening to the classic recordings of these plays. Protest to Caedmon Music/Harper Collins today!

What a terrific find! I got the Romeo and Juliet cd from the same company and was very pleased. So, I tried Macbeth. This is the finest interpretation of the parts I have ever heard. The readers even speak with Scottish accents. This a dramatized version, complete with sound effects. My students love it.

I love this story! The CD audio is very good. It's very easy to get lost in the story.

This really is "The Tragical History of Hamlet Prince of Denmark" and not only the Prince but his family. Not only his family but his friends. Not only his friends but all though that came before him and is told to those that came after him.

You can slow down and pick apart many underlying themes and may of the phrases that now challenge Bible sayings in today's sound bites. But the real fun is in just reading the story and you will find that it is not as foreign as you may have thought.
A quick synopsis is that Old Hamlet conquered Old Fortinbras seizing his land. Now that Old Hamlet is dead, Young Fortinbras wants his land back and is willing to take it by force. Meanwhile back in Dänemark Young Hamlet who is excessively grieving for the loss of his father, gets a now insight from his fathers ghost. Looks like he was a victim of a "murder most foul"; it looks like his mother and uncle were in cahoots on the murder.

The story is about what each person felt and acted or did not act upon the situation.
You will find many movies and perverted imitations of the story but nothing will replace the original that was intended to be watched but reads well.
You may like different audio and audio dramatizations.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

This wasn't as good as I was hoping. I needed more background sound effects--not just people with British accents.