Gertrude and Claudius - Hardcover

Updike, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375409084 ISBN 13: 9780375409080

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000

Synopsis

Gertrude and Claudius. 8vo. pp. 212. . Ottimo (Fine). . Prima edizione (First Edition). .

About this title

Review:

John Updike's Gertrude and Claudius is a prelude to Shakespeare's Hamlet, focusing not on the sulky star but on his mother and fratricidal stepfather (think of it as a Danish, death-struck version of The Parent Trap). Updike's great achievement here is to turn our customary sympathies on their heads. This time around, Gertrude is a decent, long-suffering wife, whose consciousness happens to be raised to the boiling point by her sexy brother-in-law. And Claudius, too, seems half a victim of this fatal attraction, with a strong neo-Platonic accent to his lust:

As in the bulk of his fiction--and most conspicuously in the underrated In the Beauty of the Lilies--Updike sacrifices artistic firepower when he goes archaic on us. That explains why Gertrude and Claudius gets off to a wobbly start, with the author's medieval diction careening all over the page. But once his narrative gets up to speed, the author dispenses one brilliant bit of perception after another. Gertrude and Claudius also amounts to a running theological argument, in which men constantly impale themselves on metaphysical principle while the adulterous queen is willing "to accept the world at face value, as a miracle daily renewed". (That would explain Gertrude's snap diagnosis of her neurotic son: "Too much German philosophy".)

A superlative satellite to Shakespeare's creation, Updike's novel is likely to retain a kind of subordinate rank, even within his own capacious body of work. Still, it's packed with enough post-Elizabethan insight about men and women, parents and children, to suggest that the play's not the thing--not always, anyway. --James Marcus, Amazon.com

Review:

"A LIVING, POWERFULLY PHYSICAL WORK . . . UPDIKE IS A SUPERBLY SKILLFUL WRITER."
--The Wall Street Journal
"WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS UPDIKE! Our own king of erudition has gone back to the Hamlet story to imagine its inception: its offstage pre-story, when Claudius fell in love with his brother's queen and that first dastardly deed in the garden was set in motion. Wickedly replete with allusions, weaving the history of ideas with the lustier possibilities of adulterous coupling, Gertrude and Claudius is an intelligent little novel of whimsy. . . . There is something delightful about following Updike down this path, seeing his sentiments and sympathies unfold."
--The Boston Globe
"WITTY . . . FRESH AND MOVING . . . Engrossing enough on its own terms to stand independently of Shakespeare's play."
--Time
"[UPDIKE] HAS MANAGED TO CREATE IN GERTRUDE A GENUINELY COMPELLING CHARACTER, a woman who is, by turns, vulnerable and outspoken, daring and naive. . . . One o

"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"

"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

About this edition

• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0375409084
• ISBN 13: 9780375409080
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208