Description
Book SynopsisIn 1823 Sir Henry Bunbury discovered an early edition of Hamlet that radically differs from the known and celebrated version of the play. Zachary Lesser examines how this improbable discovery forced readers to reexamine accepted truths about Shakespeare as an author and the nature of Shakespeare's texts.
Trade Review"Lesser's great achievement . . . is to show why textual bibliography matters. . . . This highly original book thrusts bibliography up from the footnotes and into the footlights, by showing in fascinating detail how the bibliographical algebra of Q1, Q2, and F has made a crucial contribution to the interpretation and performance of
Hamlet." *
Times Literary Supplement *
"Lesser's engrossing book makes textual study alluring even to the nonpractitioner. . . . [He] puts lyrical energy into excavating old texts. . . . [His] study excites and edifies." *
Choice *
"Lesser's book . . . performs two valuable services: (i) exploring in detail the arguments of nineteenth and early-twentieth-century textual scholars working on Hamlet, and (ii) reexamining the Q1/Q2/F differences to come up with fresh explanations for them. . . . A substantial merit of Lesser's book is the minute detail with which he traces the genesis and evolution of these ideas as they were shaped by nineteenth-century scholarly competitiveness and the emergence of new facts and hypotheses. But more valuable still are Lesser's own contributions to the debates about the textual and theatrical relationships of Q1/Q2/F." *
The Review of English Studies *
"Zachary Lesser's fascinating book about Q1
Hamlet details what happened after the discovery of this black sheep in Shakespeare's textual family. The rich cast of characters here, including both bit players and eminent scholars, makes the story a Stoppard play waiting to be written." * Douglas Bruster, University of Texas at Austin *
"An extraordinary work of interpretation and an extraordinary work of literary history." * Tiffany Stern, University of Oxford *
Table of ContentsIntroduction. The Ur-Hamlet
Chapter 1. As Originally Written by Shakespeare: Textual Bibliography and Textual Biography
Chapter 2. Contrary Matters: The Power of the Gloss and the History of an Obscenity
Chapter 3. Enter the Ghost in His Night Gowne: Behind Gertrude's Bed
Chapter 4. Conscience Makes Cowards: The Disintegration and Reintegration of Shakespeare
Conclusion. Q1 in the Library at Babel
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
