#HAMLET BOOK FULL#

(And one social media meme doing the rounds at time of writing tells us that when Shakespeare was quarantined for plague, he wrote King Lear. вЂњThe playhouses are all shut, and nobody is allowed to gather in public,вЂќ we learn. Plague-stricken landДЄnd aside from any other universal relevance Hamnet may have, its portrayal of a plague-stricken land seems timely just about now. The first part, which occupies two-thirds of the book, alternates between Will and AgnesвЂ™s earlier years вЂ“ youth, courtship, pregnancy, shotgun wedding вЂ“ and the вЂњpresent dayвЂќ of the book, late-16th century England. The narrative is split in two parts: before HamnetвЂ™s death, and after. вЂњWhen she is no more than seven or eight, a visitor lets Agnes hold her hand and Agnes says, you will meet your death within the month, and doesnвЂ™t it come true, just like that, the visitor being struck down with an ague the very next week?вЂќ She is a falconer and a herbalist, and is believed by some to have unnatural powers, вЂњthis creature, this woman, this elf, this sorceress, this forest spriteвЂќ. She is an independent spirit, вЂњlike no one you ever metвЂќ. And his wife, known to us as Anne Hathaway but referred to in the novel as Agnes (which is what her father called her in his will).ДЄgnes, not Hamnet, is the real centre of the novel. There are his daughter Susanna and twins Judith and Hamnet. ThereвЂ™s his father John, a glove maker, who disapproves of his errant son wasting his life as a language tutor. She recreates ShakespeareвЂ™s вЂ“ letвЂ™s say WillвЂ™s вЂ“ family amid the sights, sounds and especially smells of Elizabethan England. According to Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt, the names Hamnet and Hamlet were entirely interchangeable at the time, and OвЂ™Farrell is interested in determining the connection. Hamnet is named after William ShakespeareвЂ™s only son, who died aged 11 in 1596 a few years later, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.

#HAMLET BOOK FULL#

Until now her novels have varied between contemporary settings and period pieces from the mid-20th century: now she has gone full historical with вЂњa novel IвЂ™ve wanted to write for over 30 yearsвЂќ. Maggie OвЂ™Farrell has been prominent since her debut After YouвЂ™d Gone, 20 years ago, and her books have won acclaim from then up to her 2017 memoir I Am, I Am, I Am. Not that there is much danger of Hamnet being overlooked. Folly, or good sense to get a leg-up from the interest in the period? After all, a rising tide lifts all boats. Imagine publishing a novel depicting a famous person in 16th-century England in the same month as The Mirror and the Light.

Hamlet book