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Gertrude and Claudius

John Updike
3.56/5 (1858 ratings)
Read Now Download Now
This novel tells the story of Claudius and Gertrude, King and Queen of Denmark, before the action of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" begins. Employing the nomenclature and certain details of the ancient Scandinavian legends that first describe the prince who feigns madness to achieve revenge upon his father's slayer, Updike brings to life Gertrude's girlhood as the daughter of King Rorik, her arranged marriage to the man who becomes King Hamlet, and her middle-aged affair with her husband's younger brother, a dark-eyed dreamer with a taste for foreign adventure, who for decades has sought to quell his love for Gertrude, and at last returns to an Elsinore whose prince is generally elsewhere.

Gaps and inconsistencies within the immortal play are to an extent filled and explained in this prequel; the figure of Polonius, especially, takes on a larger significance. Beginning in the aura of pagan barbarism, and anticipating Renaissance humanism and empiricism, this modern retelling of a medieval tale presents the case for its royal couple that Shakespeare only hinted at. Gertrude and Claudius are seen afresh against a background of fond intentions and familial dysfunction, on a stage darkened by the ominous shadow of a sullen, disaffected prince.
Format:
Pages:
211 pages
Publication:
2001
Publisher:
Penguin Books
Edition:
Language:
eng
ISBN10:
0140290907
ISBN13:
9780140290905
kindle Asin:
B000FC1I86

Gertrude and Claudius

John Updike
3.56/5 (1858 ratings)
Read Download
This novel tells the story of Claudius and Gertrude, King and Queen of Denmark, before the action of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" begins. Employing the nomenclature and certain details of the ancient Scandinavian legends that first describe the prince who feigns madness to achieve revenge upon his father's slayer, Updike brings to life Gertrude's girlhood as the daughter of King Rorik, her arranged marriage to the man who becomes King Hamlet, and her middle-aged affair with her husband's younger brother, a dark-eyed dreamer with a taste for foreign adventure, who for decades has sought to quell his love for Gertrude, and at last returns to an Elsinore whose prince is generally elsewhere.

Gaps and inconsistencies within the immortal play are to an extent filled and explained in this prequel; the figure of Polonius, especially, takes on a larger significance. Beginning in the aura of pagan barbarism, and anticipating Renaissance humanism and empiricism, this modern retelling of a medieval tale presents the case for its royal couple that Shakespeare only hinted at. Gertrude and Claudius are seen afresh against a background of fond intentions and familial dysfunction, on a stage darkened by the ominous shadow of a sullen, disaffected prince.
Format:
Pages:
211 pages
Publication:
2001
Publisher:
Penguin Books
Edition:
Language:
eng
ISBN10:
0140290907
ISBN13:
9780140290905
kindle Asin:
B000FC1I86

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