Hamlet

Written about 1600, this tragedy is set at the Danish court of Elsinore. Prince Hamlet returns from Wittenberg to find his father dead and his mother Gertrude married to the new king, Claudius. A ghost claiming to be the dead king charges Hamlet to revenge a murder. Hamlet tests the story with a play, feigns or falls into instability, and wrecks his relations with Ophelia and with the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The action turns on delay, surveillance, and a duel arranged by the king. It is a revenge play about thought, succession, and a rotten court.

Bound in dark red cloth blocked with a feather design in black and gold. There is a variant binding in bright red cloth. White dust-jacket printed in red and black.