January 2021 (!) Theme Shakespear's Children

I know its early but am anxious for the new year to arrive, so heres my introduction

I enjoy reading takes on famous tales, and the Bard's is no exception. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Is probably my favorite of these "children": books that take the themes from his plays and gives you a different perspective of the story. Some of my other faves are

Hag seed by Margaret Atwood

Gertrude and Claudius by John Updike

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier,

Fool by Christoper Moore

The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore

Brave New World Aldous Huxley

But Shakespear didn't write his plays out of thin air. He borrowed from plays, myths, stories of the past, Shakespears Ancestors, you might say An interesting modern take on this is Hamnet by Maggie O'farrell, but there are many others The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet. Deeds of the Danes Holinshed’s Chronicles Parallel Lives

(While searching for this idea I read a claim that Shakespeare only wrote two original plays: Tempest and Loves Labors Lost Comments?)

Looking forward to your thoughts and titles!

Wishing you all a new year filled with happiness, good health, and many wonderful reads

So, will Shakespeare for Squirrels fit here?

aw hell why not Ive got two of his others in here. Perhaps a look at what makes these work better than Jane Austen Zombie/Vampire books do :)

I already know what I am going to be reading for this theme. Enter Three Witches by Caroline Cooney is a YA historical novel based on Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Retellings count, right? :) A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley fits and I had been thinking of returning to Smiley for a long time...

Oh most definitely! perfect choice

Are we looking for "spinoffs" or is historical fiction about Shakepeare ok?

As I reread, it looks like spinoffs. Ok, need to find something!

Not having a lot of luck to figure out how to find things that will fit, so I'll probably just use one of the suggestions - either "Hag Seed" or "The Serpent of Venice".

Or, maybe I'll take time to do some googling (I was attempting to use tags).

>8 LibraryCin:

If you look for Shakespeare retellings, there are quite a lot of lists out there. Or pick a favorite play and look for a retelling and/or continuation. :)

Hagseed is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series:

https://www.librarything.com/nseries/5763/The-Hogarth-Shakespeare

Another way to search is to look for tags where the tag = the name of the play, like "King Lear", "Othello", etc.

>9 AnnieMod: "retelling"! That's the word I needed! Thank you. :-)

>1 cindydavid4: Thank you for drawing my attention to this thread. I'll be reading with interest.

Oh excellent glad to see you here!

One book that I have on my shelves is The Talented Mr. Ripley which I found compared to MacBeth when I searched for Shakespeare retellings.

Interesting; love that book; how do they make the comparison?

>15 cindydavid4: It comes from a 2017 article by Olivia Mason, https://earlybirdbooks.com/shakespeare-retellings, in which she compares Ripley and McBeth, stating that "Both men want something they don’t have and will do anything to get it—even if that means spilling blood."

Thanks for that! Im familiar with most of those works. Since S took so many bits from this story and that to write his plays, whose to say these dont work? But I do have a few comments on the ones I am familar with.

Didnt realize Poul Anderson one of my fav classic sci fi authors wrote A Midsummer's Tempest Ok, gotte read that one.

Ive read Vinegar Girl A Thousand acres,Didn't actually care for them but its easy to see the connections Loved Hag seed and its a masters class in teaching the play itself

Loved Night Circus but aside from being the story of star crossed lovers, not sure that works for me except it involving many masks switches of identity like the Bard does.

I need to read I, Iago Nutshell both sound intriguing (and I love Ian McEwan_)

In Exit Pursued by a Bear The title and main character are the same, but the rest is not part of the play. But as I said before, is that enough to make a c onnection when he took so m any things from other stories to make his own?
(actually it reminds me of Hotel New Hampshire which is also about a victim of rape) But not having read it I can't really say

Not sure how I feel about Ripley; yes they both will do anything to get what they want, But there is much that is different esp with Ripley being a psycopath with no emotion and no sense of regret, unlike Macbeth and his Lady. Plus Ripley (at least in the first book) gets away with it. But again Shakespeare used many parts of he sources for his plays without keeping to the story itself, so who am I to say!

Happy reading!

I received Hamnet for Christmas, so that's my read!

Anyone who wants to read Shakespeare retellings from further afield also has a selection ranging from classics to recent award winners.

• India, King Lear: We that are Young by Preti Taneja

• Martinique, The Tempest: A Tempest by Aime Cesaire (translated into several languages)

• Kenya, The Tempest: A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Or how about a gender-swapped Othello in outer space?

• UK, Othello: Chasing the Stars by Malorie Blackman (YA)

Or a lesbian Twelfth Night?

• US, Twelfth Night: The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake

>19 spiralsheep: Yes! Thanks for those Im most intrigued by Grain of Wheat (cue Woody Allens "Love and Death") esp for Obama's review. Problem is that I know next of nothing about Kenya's history; am wanting to learn but not sure this is the best place to start. What background do i need to know more about here?

>20 cindydavid4: I don't think you need to know either Shakespeare or history but the basics are mostly guessable from context anyway:

1. Kenyans wanted independence from the British Empire, which you know.
2. The Kenyan armed resistance were called Mau Mau.
3. The Mau Mau produced the first post-independence leader of Kenya (Jomo Kenyatta). Again you already know that effective resistance produces leaders.
4. Many British colonial administrators and the UK government behaved appallingly throughout, as usual, which you know.

ETA: I'm sure I don't need to add that it was all very messy and brother fought against brother, etc, as usual in anti-colonial wars/civil wars.

I wasn't planning to read this at all but here I am three days early... I blame temptress cindydavid4.

I read the 1969 play A Tempest by Aime Cesaire that retells Shakespeare's Tempest, set on an island where the European colonial Prospero enforces slavery on a mulatto Ariel and a Black/indigenous Caliban. The text pushes beyond critiquing colonialism and into decolonisation. I read Richard Miller's 1985/1992 anglophone translation but wished I'd also had the original French for side by side comparison.

There are some interesting linguistic choices that aren't from Shakespeare, such as Prospero being "marooned" on the island, and the first scene very pointedly has people participating as players literally choosing their own characters: "You want Caliban? Well, that's revealing." "And there's no problem about the villains either: you, Antonio; you Alonso, perfect!" Caliban's first word is "Uhuru!" (Freedom!). Caliban rejects the slave name foisted on him by Prospero, and wants to be called "X" (like Malcolm, clearly). There's intertextual Baudelaire: "Des hommes dont le corps est mince et vigoureux,/ Et des femmes dont l'oeil par sa franchise étonne." And the play's intellectual coup de grâce is Prospero's choice of taunt at Caliban for not murdering him: "See, you're nothing but an animal... you don't know how to kill." Unlike Prospero and his fellow Europeans, Antonio and Sebastian, who have shown they know how to murder motivated by personal ambition.

In the end we find that Caliban has always been free in his own mind while Prospero continues to enslave himself to his desire for power over others.

I looked again and have finally decided to read "New Boy" by Tracy Chevalier. There was only a graphic novel on my tbr (whether or not it really "fits" I'm not sure), but I am not planning to be at the library anytime soon to pick it up, so I went for an ebook instead.

>17 cindydavid4: Would The Daughter of Time work better? It's partially a retelling of Richard III's story who Shakespeare did much to malign.

Yes i mentioned that one. Really interesting, its not so much a retelling, but a detective story of sorts This guy sees a picture of Ricard III and decides to spend his spare time to determine the truth of Shakespears story as he wrote it (for the Tudors of course). Tey was rather ahead of her time because it was many years later that his real story came through (see Sharon Kay Penman The Sunne in Splendor Just reread it this summre and loved it all over again. In fact, that would probably work as well.

nvm

>25 cindydavid4: Daughter of Time it is then. It's a reread for me as well but I loved it the first time through.

So... I realized I had not read King Lear since forever (it is one of my favorite plays and yet...) so figured I will just reread it before I go for the rewriting. Which is easier said than done - because I ended up in the "which version I want to read" and may have gotten a bit overboard with editions (let's blame the library for most of them... I had only 6 in the house).

And then I made the mistake of looking up what other novels are out there that retell King Lear... and what the library has of them.

I will be back in a week or two with the first of the retellings I suspect - in addition to A Thousand Acres, I also have Christopher Moore's Fool, St. Aubyn's Dunbar, Preti Taneja's We That Are Young, Tessa Gratton's The Queens of Innis Lear, Alexi Zentner's The Lobster Kings and Anne Enright's The Green Road coming from the library...

The last one is a bit of a stretch BUT it has shades of the play (and https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/speak-again-king-lear-retold-by-anne-en... makes the case convincingly).

oh I never heard of that; a woman Lear? Sure I remember glenda jackson in Lear and wanting so badly to see it!!

Ive read Moors Fool, loved it!

>28 AnnieMod: I admire your dedication (as long as it doesn't prompt me to read more Tempests!). :-)

>28 AnnieMod: - Your post reminds me I have The Lobster Kings as a possibility for this month. I was thinking of re-reading A Thousand Acres, but I think I'd rather go the new-to-me route.

>29 cindydavid4: - I saw the Glenda Jackson Lear in New York, and it was outstanding. She was a marvel.

>29 cindydavid4:

Well, men can be idiots but so can women so... patriarch/matriarch - same difference. :) Plus gender swapping makes for some interesting exploration of known texts.

>30 spiralsheep:

Well, dedication sounds like a better word than obsession. I'll take it. It is books - my general rule with books is that if I wonder between A, B and C, I just read all of them ;) Now - I need to make sure that stops with Lear... or I will be in this thread for a loong time after January ;)

>31 katiekrug: oh I am so stinking jealous!!! Tho I got to see Helen Mirren in The Audience on Broadway, and Vanessa Redgrave in Year of Magical Thinking, also in NY; But I would have given alot to see Jackson in that role!

>32 AnnieMod: um sorry you couldn't see my tongue firmly planted in cheek when I wrote that! ( should be an emoji for that!(! And Ive seen my share of brilliant genedter swapping over the years, so yeah :)

I have completed my read of Enter Three Witches by Caroline Cooney. Although this YA retelling of Macbeth is aimed at the younger set, I thought it was well done and would be a good introduction to Shakespeare.

New Boy / Tracy Chevalier
4 stars

This is a retelling of Othello. A YA version with kids in grade 6 in the 1970s. Osei is the new boy at school, and he’s black. He almost immediately has a connection with the popular blonde girl, Dee. But others aren’t impressed with that, particularly the feared Ian, the class/school bully. Ian decides to get some revenge on the new boy.

I’ve never read Othello, so I didn’t know how this was going to turn out. As awful as the racism and bullying was from the kids, I was shocked at it from the teachers! Although I really enjoyed the book (and hated Ian!), I was surprised at the abrupt ending. I didn’t like the end. Often that brings down my rating, but I decided to leave it as I thought all the way through, as I was reading. Although disappointed with the end, overall, I really enjoyed it.

Hamnet was billed as story of Shakespeare's son who died of the plague. I would argue that it's really the story of Agnes (Anne), Shakespeare's wife. I think the author was too ambitious in this novel, attempting to tell the story in a past and a present plot, with even a different "past" plot contained within the present one. The author does a good job of describing 16th century England with some nice prose. However, the plethora of characters (some of which did nothing to advance the plot) and timelines, I found this book less entertaining that I had hoped for considering its hype. 372 pages

>37 Tess_W: I agree it was more about Anne but also Will, as they deal with their son's death in different ways. I usually have trouble with the past/present type book but to me it didn't feel that way: but then Im a huge fan of the author and am used to her style but ymmv.

The February Theme is up. https://www.librarything.com/topic/328614

I notice that our link to the Wiki on the first page isn't working.
Here is the link : https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Reading_Through_Time_Challenge

I will see if I can get someone to fix this for us.

Thank you for keeping track of this!

The link to the Wikis that is posted on the Main Page is now working again.

Jo Nesbo, Macbeth (Hogarth series) 1*

Terrible "adaptation" of Macbeth in a gimicky one-to-one stab at correspondence of plot elements. Poorly written, but that may be the fault of the translator.

I may take a stab at Margaret Atwood's Hagseed (Hogarth series) if I have time before month's end. These are both books that I've had for quite a while in my TBR piles, which I'm trying to cut into this year.

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley - full review here: https://www.librarything.com/work/2310/reviews/195323382

This book has so many layers and its King Lear one while masterfully done is just part of the magic. It won't be for everyone but I loved it and it reinterpreted King Lear in such a way that made to wonder if the play cannot be seen this way (shift the narrator, shift the story).

>43 CurrerBell:
You know, that is a perfect way to describe the Hogarth novels -- the two I had read seem gimmicky. I am working on my review on Dunbar but that is exactly how I see it - more a "based on fragments of" than being a real interpretation in the case of Dunbar (and some of the crucial elements are just missing). And I was not impressed with The Gap of Time when I read it a few years ago either - it changed motivations and a lot of the underpinning of its source play but left the story in tact... losing most of its meaning in the process.

And a review for Dunbar here: https://www.librarything.com/work/19400786/reviews/195398495

It could have been so much better - and it really suffers in comparison with Smiley...

Ive tried reading other Hogarth books and they really weren't stellar - except for Hagseed. Yes its a gimmick to start but then it turns into a master class of how to teach Tempest

I may need to read the Smiley one again, its been awhile and really didn't care for it but don't remember why.

>44 AnnieMod: - I read A Thousand Acres in high school and loved it, too. I keep meaning to re-read it...

I also read a Hogarth for this month's theme. I had previously read Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler, another Hogarth, and have Hag-Seed on my TBR.



New Boy by Tracy Chevalier

Part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, New Boy is Tracy Chevalier's reimagining of Othello set on a middle school playground in a suburb of Washington, DC in the 1970s. Tweens aren't a bad stand-in for the petty, vengeful, and easily influenced characters of Shakespeare's play, but I did find some of the actions, motivations, and inner thoughts of them to be unrealistic for the age. That said, the novel is a clever piece of writing with all the principals present - outsider Osei (Othello), pretty and kind Dee (Desdemona), and sly villain Ian (Iago). And it's just as tragic as the original.

3.5 stars

While The Daughter of Time is not a retelling of the Richard III play, it is a retelling of who was responsible for the deaths of the princes in the tower and it wasn't Richard III once all the evidence is shifted through. This classic retained it's magic on a reread.

loved that book what I found interesting how long ago this was written, and even then tere were questions raised. Sharon Kay Penman brought it out in public again with Sunne and Splendor For all these years questions were raised, but we were all taught in school the same myth.

And yeah it was a reread for me as well, and I forgot how very wonderful it all was (and yeah, its one of S's children at least in my book!)

I just finished Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed (5*****) and maybe I'm overrating it a little bit just by comparison with Nesbo's atrocious Macbeth (1*), but I really did love Atwood. It dragged a bit through the first three "Acts" but then it exploded hilariously with "Act" IV and came to a bit of a cutesy but still satisfactory resolution with "Act" V and the Epilogue. Quite different reactions and ratings I have for these two (the only ones I've read) in the Hogarth series.

>49 cindydavid4: I've heard of The Sunne in Splendor but never read it. I didn't know that it dealt with Richard III. I'll have to see if I can find a copy.

Finished my reads for this month's challenge:

1) I started with Tales from Shakespeare, by Charles & Mary Lamb (1807). Meant for children, but I found it boring, and don't see how children would find it interesting. Had to push to finish.
2) I then re-read The Tempest (1610), which I read 4 years ago, but barely remembered any of it. This was in preparation for:
3) Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed, based on The Tempest and set in a modern day Ontario prison, which was brilliant and funny and had so many layers of meaning. Atwood helps us understand what the play is about on so many levels. I'll never forget The Tempest now!

>50 CurrerBell:, >52 kac522:, yup, pretty much my reaction as well. Ive always liked her as a writer (not a fan of her dysutopioa but otherwise ) So Im not surprised it was this good, but just amazed how many layers were going on about this Love this from the Guardian

Set all that aside, though, as this is written with such gusto and mischief that it feels so much like something Atwood would have written anyway. The joy and hilarity of it just sing off the page. It’s a magical eulogy to Shakespeare, leading the reader through a fantastical reworking of the original but infusing it with ironic nods to contemporary culture, thrilling to anyone who knows The Tempest intimately, but equally compelling to anyone not overly familiar with the work. (This is, surely, the trick of these novels: to be able to walk that line between tribute and novelty.) There are shades of Orange Is the New Black, All About Eve, even JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy (if it were set in southern Ontario). It’s riotous, insanely readable and just the best fun.

and this pretty much describes my love for these retakes, when its done well the trick of these novels: to be able to walk that line between tribute and novelty

Thanks all for particpating or reading along, hope you enjoyed your choices! and feel free to continue this discussion, end of the month doesn't mean thread has to stop :)

>54 cindydavid4: Thank you for giving us such an interesting theme!

>54 cindydavid4: Oh, well, if you insist.... :D

Having read a play the week before this challenge officially commenced, I also managed to read a play the week after this challenge officially ended, by an author who has written several re-visited Shakespeare plays including: Shylock's Revenge; Iago, the Villain of Venice; Lear's Fool; and The Tragedy of Lady MacBeth.

I read How to Avoid a Tragedy, by David Henry Wilson (yes, also a children's author), 2003, which is a short play script rewriting four Shakespearian tragedies to happy endings: The Moor the Merrier; Entente Cordelia; and Hamlet and Macbeth, All Hale. A couple of laughs, a couple of groans, and some shenanigans exiting stage alright. I'm guessing this play might have been written to help teach students about how theatre works.

Quote

"But if our words and actions caused offence,
We beg to plead the case for the defence:
By changing these existing tragic courses,
We do but what the Bard did with his sources."

Sounds fun! So I cant find Shylock's Revenge; Iago, the Villain of Venice; Lear's Fool; and The Tragedy of Lady MacBeth. Were they also written by David Wilson?

ETA never mind so these are all scripts; found this https://jjawilson.wordpress.com/tag/iago-the-villain-of-venice/ Now if I can just locate them! (thx)

ETA never mind again I need to read the entire article. links to scripts and performances help!

>57 cindydavid4: Yes, I see you found David Henry Wilson's son JJ Amaworo Wilson who is also an author although I haven't read his book Damnificados (yet). And hopecorner is David Henry Wilson's official website so the downloads are legal, with the usual copyright and performance caveats. I've only read the one play mention above ( >56 spiralsheep: ) and one of his children's novels, which was more Alice in Wonderland meets Animal Farm on the set of Gormenghast.

>58 spiralsheep: which was more Alice in Wonderland meets Animal Farm on the set of Gormenghast.

Ok and the name of this tantalizing synopsis ? :)

Yes that is the website I found, interesting that is by his son. I'll definitely be continuing watching! And Damnificados is about?

Why do your titles send me down rabbit holes of google, books and authors? I don't have the money or time for all these!!! (Im not complaining all that much, enjoying these titles just have to accept realisy)

>59 cindydavid4: The Castle of Inside Out is the children's novel I mentioned, and is definitely children's not young adult. I don't know if every edition of CastleIO has the illustrations by Chris Riddell, author of the Goth Girl series, but I recommend them.

Damnificados is a magical realist novel loosely based on the true story of a group of social outcasts occupying a half-built skyscraper in a city in Venezuela. It's under 300pages and has won awards. Goodreads has reviews:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25073825-damnificados

I like books from off the beaten track so they tend to sound more interesting maybe?

>60 spiralsheep: Oh believe me I am not complaining; I also like books off the beaten track, they usually do sound so much more interesting, and often are. which is why I like reading about them thanks for the info Ill gi searching for those.

One more Lear-inspired - King Lear in reverse in some ways (I actually read this in January - just did not get around to post about it): The Lobster Kings. It won't be for everyone and looking at the reviews, it seems to be pretty polarizing but I quite enjoyed it. Review in the work page for whoever is interested.

Now... I have 3 more Lear-based novels to read. I will probably post here when I do :)

just saw your review, love this ' The fact that it was not a retelling of the play actually worked for it better than I expected - it allowed the author to allow his characters to get out of the evil/good roles and be just people. It is a novel of a place and a occupation - the people in it were almost unimportant. It did not really matter that there were no real positive characters (even the narrator Cordelia managed to do things that could have landed her in jail...) or that we never hear all the backstories. They fit the story of the island, a story told in the old pictures, in the memories and in the main story. And there is even a hint of magic out there -- how much one wants to believe in it is up to them.'

sounds ike a book I want to read, the promise of magic always entices!

>63 cindydavid4: :) It surprised me - I expected either something like the Smiley or something more... contemporary or modern (I rarely read contemporary novels). It was unexpectedly different... On the other hand it seems to be very polarizing - if you look at the rest of the reviews, some are almost baffling (and some have issues with single points of the novel). It is not a feel-good story but why would anyone expect it to be when it is inspired by King Lear?

um, yeah, right?