Book Description
John Updikes's nineteenth 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, he 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.
