num_pages: 224
description: Gertrude and Claudius are the “villains” of 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.”
language: English
title: Gertrude and Claudius
titlecomplete: Gertrude and Claudius
characters: Polonius, Claudius, King of Denmark, Hamlet, Gertrude
genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Retellings, Historical, American, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Romance, Literature, Novels
ratings_count: 2324
publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks