Gertrude and Claudius

Rating:
Summary: A must for Shakespeare and Hamlet aficionados
Review: The legend of Hamlet existed for many years before William Shakespeare wrote his famous tragic play. In "Gertrude and Claudius," Updike draws upon this legend and upon his own imagination to write the story of what happened before the curtain opens on the first scene of Shakespeare's play.

"Gertrude and Claudius" is about characters, not plot. The book covers many years and few events, but Updike develops the fatal flaw in every character-Gertrude's compliance, Claudius's lifelong grudge, King Hamlet's aloofness. Spoiled by the luxuries afforded to noblemen, most particularly the ability to avoid reality at will, all of the characters are fickle. Yet all of the characters have likeable qualities (Gertrude, for instance, is feisty, and Claudius loves her thoroughly), and through the balance of good and bad traits Updike turns out characters who are human. By making the reader care about these people, while foreshadowing what is going wrong, Updike sets the stage for the upcoming tragedy.

Prince Hamlet is the only character Updike does not flesh out, and I think this choice was wise. We are not really supposed to know what goes on in Hamlet's mind-is he insane? Jealous? Angry? Jaded? Updike preserves the enigma of this character.

All told, I think Updike does justice to both Shakespeare and the legend of Hamlet. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a really good piece of historical fiction.



Rating:
Summary: "The King was irate."
Review: With that sentence begins each of the three parts of this novel. Three different Kings, each mad for the only reason that Kings are ever mad: because things are not going in accord with their commanding expectations. And why not? Each of the principal characters in this novel, like Elsinore itself, lives as an island to himself, apart and impenetrable. Not even the Saviour can reach it, for "Christianity turns grim in lands of frost; it is a Mediterranean cult, a religion of the grape." This novel, a precursor to Hamlet (though direct lines from the play surface sporadically), sets the stage for a play less consumed by a singular event and Hamlet's predisposed reaction to it, than by a solitary insecurity that exempts no one from its grip -- certainly not Hamlet, and not his mother or her unbridled lover, his uncle, the new king. The madness of detachment awaits only its apparition when the last line of this novel is reached. By then a new dimension has been given to a classic play.