Hamlet & All's Well That Ends Well

About the Book

The Shakespeare Novels:  The novelization of Shakespeare's plays adds an entirely new dimension to the enjoyment and fuller appreciation of his work.  Although he wrote thirty-seven magnificent plays, few people other than English and drama majors are familiar with more than a handful of them. Yet all his plays are intricately plotted and among them they contain all the elements of great fiction: romance, comedy, tragedy intrigue, dramatic climaxes, surprise twists and denouements, war, murder, rape, incest, mystery, madness, revenge, deadly duels, the clash of mighty opposites, noble sacrifices, tyranny, villainous plots, horror, superstition, the supernatural, mistaken identity, religion, miracles, panoramic epics, history, hilarity, delight, farce, sagacity, and the worlds greatest love stories, including deadly triangles, suicides, dark rendevous, pandered love, sizzling sensuality, jealousy, star-crossed lovers, summer love, eternal love, and even the inimitable Falstaff in love, by order of Queen Bess.  Although Shakespeare did say Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love, his great love stories give that quip the lie.  Now fortunately you dont have to go to school and take a class in English lit to understand and enjoy Shakespeare.  Here are the worlds most memorable plays in everyday English, in easy, highly readably novel form, written initially for the student and the playgoer yes, but really for anyone seeking a great story.  Shakespeare as you've never known him, except that ironically, this time, you will know him!

Shakespeares Hamlet: The Novel:  Hamlet, a prince facing an impossible dilemma, is Shakespeare's most complex character.  His uncle has usurped the throne of Denmark and married his mother.  While he must set things right, he can act only in accordance with his own strict sense of honor and justice  and he is more a philosopher than a man of action.  Yet, as he fights an uphill battle in the midst of all the undercurrents of political intrigue, his loss of Ophelia is what defeats him in the end. I used to tell students that there were a hundred  a number picked out of the air  legitimate ways to interpret Hamlet, as long as one based his or her interpretation on the text, although it does not have to be absolutely literal as there is much implied by the action, or inferred from reading between the lines.  What a villain, ignorant or self-deluded characters says does not always have to be taken literally.  Much of how we view life depends on who we are, our age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, personal experience, education, our innate sense of justice, etc.  Some decide to interpret Hamlets actions in the context of Elizabethan England, some judge him as they would a contemporary.  I believe that Shakespeare would be perfectly comfortable with either. Certainly there is little help from the experts, for critics run the gamut and no two directors have ever produced the same Hamlet.  In fact, don't we often go to the play or movie for the express purpose of seeing just how the director or star is going to interpret Hamlet.  I am more of the generation of the incomparable Olivier and Gielgud, though lately Branagh, Gibson and Klein, among many others, have produced very exciting Hamlets, as have many notable theaters in the US, Canada and England.  In fact, like so many of his characters, Shakespeare has drawn Prince Hamlet so real that we view him accordingly.  The Bard reveals the real clue to Hamlets actions in one line in the play:  To thine own self be true.  In other words, Hamlet cannot be other than himself, nor can any of us.  Just as we are trapped by all those factors that make us who we are when we face what fate presents to us, so it was with Prince Hamlet, and Polonius, and Ophelia, and Gertrude, and Claudius, e

About the Author

(Bio for author listing on web site) The author is a longtime teacher of Shakespeare who has through a fifteen-year project converted the immortal Bard’s plays into novels in order to make all of them understandable and relevant, especially as the number of Shakespeare’s plays taught in school is limited to so few.