First published 1997
Prince Hamlet walks the battlements of Elsinore Castle when his father's ghost appears with a terrible revelation. The former king was poisoned by Claudius, who now wears the crown and has married Hamlet's mother Gertrude. The ghost demands vengeance, but Hamlet struggles with doubt and delay. He feigns madness while seeking proof of his uncle's guilt. His erratic behavior destroys his relationship with Ophelia and leads to her father Polonius's death. As the Danish court descends into suspicion and violence, Hamlet must choose between action and paralysis. The prince faces an impossible burden that will test his sanity, his conscience, and his capacity for both love and revenge.
Genres: fiction, drama, classic-literature, literary-fiction
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Elsinore Castle
Period: Denmark
368 pages · Hardcover · McDougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin
Content warnings: death, murder