Hamlet (Cliffs Notes) (Paperback)

by Carla Lynn Stockton (Author) "Scholars know little about Shakespeare the Man, but significant evidence exists to suggest that Shakespeare the Writer/Producer/Actor/ Director achieved success as an entrepreneur, and that..." (more)
Key Phrases: King Hamlet, Shakespeare's Hamlet, Critical Commentaries (more...)

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Product Description
One of the most famous dramas of all time, Hamlet is the story of a young prince torn between his dual roles of ruler and son, between introspective moral questioning and swift action. The play is filled with action and provocative inquiry.

From the Back Cover
39 New and Revised Titles. The Best Just Got Better! Plus Glossary from Webster's New World™ Dictionary Anthem Atlas Shrugged Beowulf Brave New World The Canterbury Tales The Catcher in the Rye The Contender The Crucible The Fountainhead Frankenstein The Grapes of Wrath Great Expectations The Great Gatsby Hamlet Heart of Darkness & The Secret Sharer Huckleberry Finn The Iliad Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Inherit the Wind Jane Eyre Julius Caesar The Killer Angels King Lear The Lord of the Flies Macbeth 1984 The Odyssey The Oedipus Trilogy The Once and Future King Othello The Outsiders Pride and Prejudice The Red Badge of Courage Romeo and Juliet The Scarlet Letter A Separate Peace A Tale of Two Cities To Kill a Mockingbird Wuthering Heights See inside for the complete line-up of available CliffsNotes! Check Out the All-New CliffsNotes Guides To AOL®, iMacs™, eBay®, Windows® 98, Investing, Creating Web Pages, and more! More Than Notes! CliffsComplete™ CliffsTestPrep™ CliffsQuickReview™ CliffsAP™ Over 300 CliffsNotes Available @ cliffsnotes.com Downloadable 24 hours a day Free daily e-mail newsletters Free tips, tricks, and trivia Free online CliffsNotes catalog Free self-assessment tools Freeware and shareware downloads

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Product Details

• Paperback: 100 pages
• Publisher: Cliffs Notes (June 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764586033
• ISBN-13: 978-0764586033
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #99,851 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helped me get an `A' in Shakespeare!, January 26, 2006

By	mwreview "mwreview" (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I remember well using Cliffs Notes for Hamlet when I was in high school. I did not like Shakespeare at all. I couldn't understand it. I didn't just read the Cliffs Notes, but used it as I read the book to help me interpret what I was reading. The book explains the play passage by passage.

As useful as the Cliffs Notes are for understanding Shakespeare, I found the analyses at the end an excellent extra for diving deeper into the story. In fact, I used one of the analyses for a paper I had to complete in my class. I did my paper on the idea that there were two parts to Hamlet's personality. He was a morally-conscious seeker of truth as well as a man obsessed with bloody revenge and avenging truth. Cliffs Notes not only gave me this idea for the paper, but cited passages throughout the play as evidence. My paper discussed the two sides of Hamlet and how his changing emotions steered the course of the play. I covered Hamlet's encounters with Claudius, his mother Queen Gertrude, Polonius (showcasing Hamlet'wicked side), Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Ophelia (Cliffs notes reveals certain passage that might imply Hamlet stole her virginity) as proof of my thesis. I ended up getting 100% on the paper which was amazing considering how poor I was in understanding Shakespeare. The class was 14 years ago and I still have the paper. I owe it all to Cliffs Notes!

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very useful!, June 5, 2001

By	"naomiii" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

I had to write an essay on "Hamlet" in English class this year, and the Cliffsnotes helped me tremendously (considering that I hadn't even read the book, I wrote a pretty good essay with its help). Each scene is given a thorough explanation, and it has an index of themes and a tree of all the characters. Not only does it simplify the book, it also analyzes further and clears up any confusion about the plot. It helped me a lot, I recommend it highly!