John Dover Wilson, What Happens in Hamlet

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error
What Happens in Hamlet

was published in 1935 by the Shakespearean scholar and educator John Dover Wilson. Its scene-by-scene account of the events of Shakespeare’s play inspired generations of scholars and actors. Such was its popularity that a second edition was published in 1937, and a third in 1951. The latter reached its nineteenth reprint in 2003.

Wilson described how the work came to be written in the “epistle dedicatory” to Walter Wilson Greg. This is a vivid account of how, one evening in 1917 whilst on a train to Sunderland, Wilson was “converted” (Milestones, 1969, 156) to Shakespeare from his previous interest in sixteenth-century history. Amongst the letters gathered beforehand to read on the train was a copy of a new journal, The Modern Language Review. In this, Greg

2047 words

Citation: Owens, Rebekah . "What Happens in Hamlet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 April 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20324, accessed 19 March 2024.]

20324 What Happens in Hamlet 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.