The book about Hamlet

It is known in the science of literature that versions of the story of Hamlet, before it appeared in the famous tragedy of William Shakespeare, were written by the Danish historian of the twelfth century Saxo Gramatik (Gesta Danorum), Francois de Belfore, in the second half of the 16th century (Tragiques histoires), and the playwright Thomas Kidd, whose tragedy Hamlet of 1584 has not been preserved. The first part of this book publishes literary sources for the work of William Shakespeare. Its second part represents a small – and in a literal sense – the most concise possible selection of the famous diversions of Shakespeare’s tragedy, starting from the end of the 18th century until the end of the previous one. Interpretations of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Andrew Cecil Bradley, Ernst Jones, Thomas Sterns Eliot and Jan Kot appear in that selection. From the incessant discussion that has been going on for centuries about Shakespeare’s masterpiece, texts have been singled out that provide, in our opinion, the best introduction to this work; the choice could be much more extensive, but the scope of this book had to be considered.