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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 822.914
EAN: 9780802132758
ISBN: 0802132758
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 128
Publication Date: January 21, 1994
Publisher: Grove Press
Studio: Grove Press
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Editorial Review:
Acclaimed as a modern dramatic masterpiece, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" is the fabulously inventive tale of "Hamlet" as told from the worm's-eye view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare's play. In Tom Stoppard's best-known work, this Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy finally get a chance to take the lead role, but do so in a world where echoes of "Waiting for Godot" resound, where reality and illusion intermix, and where fate leads our two heroes to a tragic but inevitable end.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dull.
I read the book first (I ALWAYS read the book first) and I was puzzled. Where was the wit? The Shakespearian sense of humor is certainly not always mine to say the least, but I'm not used to feeling as if I simply missed the boat entirely. I suppose my overall reaction would have to be a resounding "Hunh?" (Perhaps "Ho hunh!?")
Rating:  - Brilliant.
No mean to be offensive or anything, but I honestly feel that if people do not find R&G Are Dead hysterically funny and/or wonderfully ingenious, they have probably missed Stoppard's point in this play.
This play was during the age known as Theatre of the Absurd, when ridiculous plots and characters were used to overall convey themes about life and people's preposterousness. As one can see, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are precisely such characters, as is their plight.
It ... Read More
Rating: - grossly overrated
Hard to believe all the good reviews here. This is a silly little book, with no story, no coherent dialog, and no meaning. Worst of all the jokes are not funny.
Rating:  - A grand aimlessness
I first saw this as a film. It was so good that I bought the VHS version.
The characters' existential wonderings are a bit of a smack in the face. And yet, there is a certain laughing at the darkness. Call it whisteling past the graveyard.
We all know the end, but we argue against it until is it upon us. And even then. And that is what it is. In the end, aren't we all supporting characters in someone else's play?
And we all call for some direction....
Rating: - "Uncertainty is the normal state"
Sometimes a book we read a long time ago becomes newly relevant in unexpected ways.
Forty years ago, the plight of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern resonated with a generation scarred by the Vietnam War. These two bit players are mired in uncertainty. They "were sent for, in a matter of extreme urgency" - "there was a message, a summons", but they have no idea what is expected of them. They feebly protest: "we are entitled to some direction.. I would have thought".
Their bewilderment yields ... Read More
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