Volume 47, Number 5 · March 23, 2000
It Happened at Elsinore
By John Bayley
Gertrude and Claudius
by John Updike
Knopf, 212 pp., $23.00
As any good edition of Shakespeare will tell you, the old tales that lead up to Shakespeare's Hamlet are well documented. It looks as if Updike was browsing in such an annotated Shakespeare when the notion occurred to him of fitting together the older versions, and then joining them up with the text of Hamlet as we know it in order to make a continuous whole. The result is an elegant little potpourri, giving a vivid glimpse into several different Hamlet worlds.
Review, 3075 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |