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- 212 pages
- 8 hours of reading
More about the book
Gertrude and Claudius are the “villains” of Hamlet: he the killer of Hamlet’s father and usurper of the Danish throne; she his lusty consort, who marries Claudius before her late husband’s body is cold. But in this imaginative “prequel” to the play, John Updike makes a case for the royal couple that Shakespeare only hinted at. Gertrude and Claudius are seen afresh against a background of fond intentions and family dysfunction, on a stage darkened by the ominous shadow of a sullen, erratic, disaffected prince. “I hoped to keep the texture light,” Updike said of this novel, “to move from the mists of Scandinavian legend into the daylight atmosphere of the Globe. I sought to narrate the romance that preceded the tragedy.”
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Gertrude and Claudius, John Updike
- Language
- Released
- 2001
- product-detail.submit-box.info.binding
- (Paperback)
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- Language
- English
- Authors
- John Updike
- Publisher
- Ballantine Books
- Released
- 2001
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 212
- ISBN10
- 0449006972
- ISBN13
- 9780449006979
- Series
- Tags
- Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, American Literature, Folklore & Mythology, Stories, Literary Fiction, Middle Ages, Mothers, Kings, Denmark, Queens, Classicism
- First published
- 2000
- Original title
- Gertrude and Claudius
- Rating
- 3.55 out of 5
- Description
- Gertrude and Claudius are the “villains” of Hamlet: he the killer of Hamlet’s father and usurper of the Danish throne; she his lusty consort, who marries Claudius before her late husband’s body is cold. But in this imaginative “prequel” to the play, John Updike makes a case for the royal couple that Shakespeare only hinted at. Gertrude and Claudius are seen afresh against a background of fond intentions and family dysfunction, on a stage darkened by the ominous shadow of a sullen, erratic, disaffected prince. “I hoped to keep the texture light,” Updike said of this novel, “to move from the mists of Scandinavian legend into the daylight atmosphere of the Globe. I sought to narrate the romance that preceded the tragedy.”