Hamlet (Norton Critical Editions) (Paperback)

****
Very useful, but caution is advised
11 Nov 2008

There are a great many editions of Hamlet available at the moment, and, as it is a play that is never far from the syllabuses of A-level boards and university English departments, there are a great many people who need a copy of the text that they can trust, and which will give them the level of support they need to get the most out of this text. The Norton Critical Edition of "Hamlet" will, of course, be of great service to some people, but many readers will be better off elsewhere. In short (as I've realised this review is getting rather long), if you're studying the play for AS level, then this is probably not the best book for you: try the Cambridge School Shakespeare instead, and add the York notes for extra depth and background information. If you're at A2 or university, then the more detailed text of the Oxford (my preference) or Arden editions will be of greater use. So, that rather begs the question, who is this book good for?

To answer that, let's look at what the book actually does. Norton Critical Editions receive their name from the selection of critical material which they provide in the form of extended appendices to the main text. In this case, there is a very useful section on "Intellectual Contexts", which includes contemporary writings on such topics as Melancholy, ghosts, and also gives excerpts from Montaigne's "Apology", which bears striking similarities to Hamlet's speech early in Act 2 on "what a piece of work is man." In terms of enriching one's appreciation of the terms of reference in which Shakespeare's plays were understood, these texts are invaluable, but their provision seems arbitrary: no justification is given for their selection, and there is no direct evidence that Shakespeare read any of them (even the Montaigne essay is the subject of debate amongst critics as to whether or not Shakespeare had read it, or whether it was itself simply part of a wider discussion at the time about human nature). Moreover, there are countless more omissions than there can be inclusions - there is no Greek mythology, no Garden of Eden, no early English tragedy against which to judge the play-within-a-play - so one is left feeling a little adrift, especially if your knowledge of the period is not very strong.

The "critical" part of this edition comes in the form of a very generous selection of essays and responses to the play, including some early criticism (although it would have been nice to have some contemporary writing on drama too), going back to the early 18th century, and with a liberal selection of big names, including Hazlitt, Goethe, Coleridge, Wilson Knight, Eliot, Lawrence and Lewis. These have been well edited to leave only the apposite passages, and in many cases are an absolute delight to read. Lawrence's comment that Hamlet seems "a creeping, unclean thing" is well worth remembering in the light of Goethe's pure "soul unfit", and Bradley's essay on the play is excellent (it's a spirited defence of Claudius).

This is a very attractive package, and it is for the critical material that I can award the book four stars, but there are some significant drawbacks. Firstly, the text of the play itself is nothing more than a cleaned up version of the first quarto, with no indication as to where the Folio (or any other texts) vary from it. Moreover, the editing of the text is niggardly in its provision of supporting notes and explanations, which means that it really is only of use if you have another, fuller version of the play (like the Oxford edition) to hand. Lastly, there is no introduction, so the editorial principles cannot be set out, leaving us rather in the dark as to what choices were made, and what the rationale was behind those choices.

In the end, we are left with a really useful book that is not really very useful, as you'll always need other texts to hand to get the most out of it. If you're planning on doing serious work on the play, then yes, I can recommend it, and, if someone else is paying for your books, then it's a fantastic addition to your shelf, but for other readers, I can't quite see how it all fits together.