Gertrude and Claudius
A Novel
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Gertrude and Claudius
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Narrated by:
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John Lee
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Written by:
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John Updike
About this listen
Gertrude and Claudius are the "villains" of Hamlet: 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."
©2001 John Updike (P)2020 Random House AudioWhat the critics say
"Shakespeare’s plays have had many offshoots. Gertrude and Claudius, though, stands in a class of its own: a superlative homage from one imaginative veteran to another." (The Sunday Times London)
"[A] pearl of a book...a game for real stakes...Updike has used Shakespeare to write a free-standing, pleasurable, and wonderfully dexterous novel about three figures in complex interplay." (The New York Times Book Review)
"A living, powerfully physical work...Updike is a superbly skillful writer." (The Wall Street Journal)