Hamlet

By: William Shakespeare

Narrated by: Frank Muller

Length: 4 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

In this unusual recording, the talented actor Frank Muller reads Shakespeare's complete work with all stage directions, in the tradition of actors/managers/authors auditioning plays for their companies. Muller's interpretation allows us to listen directly to the author's voice, without extraneous distractions. He brings to life the story of Hamlet, the complex tragic hero bent on avenging his father's murder yet racked by uncertainty brought on by the strength and eloquence of his own conscience.

Public Domain (P)2011 Recorded Books

The best

Possibly the best play ever written. If you’re not familiar, imagine lion king without the manes.

Great and Very Comprehensive

I was using this for a class and the notes they gave at the of the chapters were great for my understanding and analysis.

great reading by Frank muller

Mr Miller does the great tragedy marvellous justice. it is an a+ plus performance, for an a+ work of genius.

Classic.

Good words about the sad nature of power. Interesting characters wound together. Must pay close attention to the play.

Madness in great ones must not unwatched go

Still one of my favorite Shakepeare plays. I've probably read it 3-5 times and probably watched just as many film productions: 1996 - Kenneth Branagh; 1990 - Mel Gibson; 1948 - Laurence Olivier; 2000 - Ethan Hawke; 1990 - Kevin Kline. I love it. Every read gives me a chance to channel something else.

This is also my first exposure to the play since visiting Hamlet's castle in Denmark last summer (2016) on the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death. While we were walking through it, they were doing a "Hamlet Live" at Kronborg Castle and the Hamlet flirted with my daughter. It was definitely worth the time and the blustery weather. I saw cannons and tapestries, but alas no ghosts or floating virgins. Sad!

I also learned THIS summer while I was in Malta, reading about Samuel Taylor Coleridge, that it was Coleridge who largely propelled Hamlet to the top of Shakepeare's heap. According to Jonathan Bate, "the Romantics' reinvention of Hamlet as a paralyzed Romantic was their single most influential critical act." It seemed popluar among Romantics, after Coleridge, to show a strong antic disposition for Shakespeare's psychologically complex, young Prince.

- "We love Hamlet even as we love ourselves." - Lord Byron
- "Hamlet's heart was full of such Misery as mine is when he said to Ophelia 'Go to a Nunnery, go, go!' Indeed I should like to give up the matter at once -- I should like to die. I am sickened at the brute world which you are smiling with." - John Keats
- "I have a smack of Hamlet myself, if I may say so...." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Favorite Lines this read:

“O God, I could be bound in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space – were it not that I have bad dreams.” (Act 2, Scene 2)

“Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words.” (Act 2, Scene 2)

“Our wills and fates do so contrary run.” (Act 3, Scene 2)

“For some must watch, while some must sleep
So runs the world away” (Act 3, Scene 2)

“If your mind dislike anything obey it” (Act 5, Scene 2)