Presents an account of the rise and fall of Purgatory as both a belief and a lucrative institution - as well as a capacious new reading of the power of Hamlet. This book explores the adventure narratives, ghost stories, pilgrimages, and imagery by which a belief in a grisly "prison house of sou...

Presents an account of the rise and fall of Purgatory as both a belief and a lucrative institution - as well as a capacious new reading of the power of Hamlet. This book explores the adventure narratives, ghost stories, pilgrimages, and imagery by which a belief in a grisly "prison house of souls" had been shaped and reinforced in the Middle Ages.