Overall Major Stengths & Weaknesses: Notes on Asimov on Hamlet, Part 7
Some Shakespeare fans are huge fans of Asimov's two-volume work, Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare . It surveys all the plays, provides cross-references to how various plays share references, especially to elements of history and classical mythology, but also to a smaller number of biblical tales. It's also accessible, free of scholarly jargon that often makes many readers feel excluded from the intended audience. These are among its greatest strengths. The explanations of distant European history especially helps to place Hamlet in a much larger and interesting context, especially in the sweep of political and military history, and that's quite interesting. It gives a sense that very old history matters, and that the forces of history keep finding expression even in the present. But at least as far as its treatment of Hamlet is concerned, Asimov's Guide is not without a number of glaring weaknesses. First published in 1970, Asimov's Guide is terribly dismiss...