Young Shakespeare's Young Hamlet

One of the most vexing textual, theatrical, and interpretive puzzles in Shakespeare studies is the existence of three different versions of Hamlet. Shakespeare scholar Terri Bourus argues that this puzzle can only be solved by drawing on multiple kinds of evidence and analysis, including history of the book, theatre history, biography, performance studies, and close readings of textual variants. Combining the history of print culture with practical theatrical experience and special attention to Hamlet's women, Bourus presents here a case study of the "dramatic intersections" between Shakespeare's literary and theatrical working practices. In the process, she reshapes our assumptions about the beginning of Shakespeare's career and his artistic evolution.