Hamlet (Standard format, CD)

This is one of Shakespeare's best-known tragedies. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, learns in a visitation from his father's ghost that his mother is married to the uncle who murdered his father. In coming to terms with this, and enacting his revenge, his beloved Ophelia and her father are killed. In a duel to avenge Ophelia's father's death, both Hamlet and his opponent, Laertes, are struck by a sword that has been dipped in poison. Hamlet's mother mistakenly drinks from the cup of poison intended for Hamlet, but before Hamlet dies, he manages to stab his father's murderer. Hamlet is Shakespeare's most famous play and one of the most fascinating in world literature. Although it is a play of revenge, its greatness lies in the unique and thoughtful nature of the Prince of Denmark, whose temper is philosophical rather than active He does not so much pursue the revenge of his father's death as he is swept to it through the events of the play. This preoccupation with the nature of consequences of man's actions has led critics to call Hamlet "the first modern man."