Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

by Tom Stoppard

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Editorial Reviews
Product Description

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.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

4 out of 5 stars

Rosencrantz & Gildenstern Are Dead, 2008-10-24
Great piece of writing, especially since it borrows characters from the greatest playwright in English literature. Shakespeare's characters fare marginally better under Stoppard's pen, or possibly more so when you consider that the guys are DEAD!!!

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1 out of 5 stars

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dull., 2008-08-29
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!?")

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant., 2008-04-03
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 should be noted that this play is a much more valuable experience for the reader if he has read Shakespeare's Hamlet previously, as it is R&G that serve a purpose in the play. However, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was not written to enforce the thematic points of Hamlet, I simply recommend it to give readers a different perspective. And it is a wonderfully funny perspective, at that.

It is a wonderful work. I highly recommend it for those who are not too fixated on trying to find a deeper meaning with Hamlet, because that simply is not the reason for this play's existence.

0 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1 out of 5 stars

grossly overrated, 2008-02-15
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.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4 out of 5 stars

A grand aimlessness, 2007-11-26
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....

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