Hamlet's Father (Library Edition)

Orson Scott Card

ISBN 10: 1455135879 ISBN 13: 9781455135875

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc., 2012

Synopsis

[This is the Audiobook CD Library Edition in vinyl case.]

We all know Shakespeare's classic ghost story--the young prince Hamlet's dead father appears to him, demanding vengeance upon Hamlet's uncle Claudius, who has usurped the throne and, to add insult to injury, married Hamlet's mother.

The young prince dithers and delays, coming up with excuse after excuse to postpone his vengeance--but not for the reason Shakespeare told us. It is instead because Hamlet keeps discovering evidence that things are not quite what they seem in the kingdom of Denmark--and never have been throughout his life.

Once you've experienced Orson Scott Card's revelatory version of the story, Shakespeare's play will be much more fun to watch--because you'll know what's really going on.

About this title

About the Author:

ORSON SCOTT CARD, a New York Times bestselling author, has won several Hugo and Nebula Awards for his works of speculative fiction. He lives with his family in Greensboro, North Carolina.

From Publishers Weekly:

Hugo and Nebula–winner Card (Pathfinder) tinkers with the backstory of Shakespeare's play in this flimsy novella. When Hamlet is a boy, his father snubs him while doting on all his friends in a manner that the reader will immediately identify as perverse. After a blissful interlude at school, Hamlet returns to Elsinore for the events of the play. Card's Hamlet is more calculating, less dark, and almost completely isolated. He despises his father; his close relationship with his mother is only briefly shown; and even his closest friends, Horatio and Laertes, get little page time. The writing and pacing have the feel of a draft for a longer and more introspective work that might have fleshed out Hamlet's indecision and brooding; instead, the focus is primarily on linking homosexuality with the life-destroying horrors of pedophilia, a focus most fans of possibly bisexual Shakespeare are unlikely to appreciate. (Apr.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1455135879
• ISBN 13: 9781455135875
• Binding: Audio CD