Gertrude and Claudius: A Novel
by John Updike
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Book Summary Information
Author: John UpdikeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-07-03
ISBN: 0449006972
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Gertrude and Claudius: A Novel
Book Review: "The King was irate."
Summary: 5 Stars
With that sentence begins each of the three parts of this novel. Three different Kings, each mad for the only reason that Kings are ever mad: because things are not going in accord with their commanding expectations. And why not? Each of the principal characters in this novel, like Elsinore itself, lives as an island to himself, apart and impenetrable. Not even the Saviour can reach it, for "Christianity turns grim in lands of frost; it is a Mediterranean cult, a religion of the grape." This novel, a precursor to Hamlet (though direct lines from the play surface sporadically), sets the stage for a play less consumed by a singular event and Hamlet's predisposed reaction to it, than by a solitary insecurity that exempts no one from its grip -- certainly not Hamlet, and not his mother or her unbridled lover, his uncle, the new king. The madness of detachment awaits only its apparition when the last line of this novel is reached. By then a new dimension has been given to a classic play.
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