If I had any doubts at all about the justice of my dislike for Shakespeare, that doubt vanished completely. What a crude, immoral,vulgar, and senseless work Hamlet is. The whole thing is based on pagan vengeance; the only aim is to gather together as many effects as possible; there is no rhyme or reason about it.
Leo Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoy (graf), Reginald Frank Christian (1978). “Tolstoy's Letters: 1880-1910”, Burns & Oates
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