Mini Reviews: Shakespeare Reading Wrap Up

Hi everyone! Happy May! Last month I spent a lot of time consuming Shakespeare-related media as I do on the regular, but especially in April. I read a lot of really great books — including 3 non-fiction novels! — and thought it would be fun to do a little wrap-up and talk a bit about the books that I read.

So, get cozy, grab a cup of your beverage of preference, and let’s talk about some of my Shakespeare-related April reads!

Shakespeare in Love by Lee Hall

The stage adaptation of Shakespeare in Love is almost exactly like the film — which I like! As I mentioned in my Favorite Shakespeare Adaptations & Retellings post, I love the film Shakespeare in Love, so truthfully, I’m glad they didn’t change much! Some scenes were shortened and some things were taken out, but overall nothing much was changed. Personally, I think that it transferred well from screen to stage, and I had a great time reading it almost immediately after rewatching the film. I’d love to see a production of it one day! If you like the film, I definitely think you’d enjoy the stage adaptation.

Links for Shakespeare in Love: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop

Juliet: The Lives and Afterlives of Shakespeare’s First Tragic Heroine by Sophie Duncan

As you all know, if a book is in any way associated with Romeo and Juliet, I will be reading it. So, when I saw this book on NetGalley I had to request it and was so excited when my request was approved.

I won’t lie, this one took a little while to get through, but that’s because I wanted to take my time with it. I read it over the course of about 2-weeks and I really do think that was the way to read it instead of trying to breeze through it. There is so much detail in this book, and so much of it was information that I’d never heard of before. 

While I’ve always loved and felt drawn to Juliet, I never really knew the influence she’s had on the world, which is truly astonishing when you think about the fact that she’s a fictional character. I loved learning about productions of Romeo and Juliet over the years, learning about some of the most famous actresses that have played her, the way that her character and influence changed the world…it was just completely fascinating!

It’s hard to fully describe what I got out of this book because I really got so much out of it. I think that if you’re interested in the story of Romeo and Juliet but more so about Juliet and her character, you must read this when it comes out in June.

Links for Juliet: The Lives and Afterlives of Shakespeare’s First Tragic Heroine: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop

Of Human Kindness: What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Empathy by Paula Marantz Cohen 

One of the things that I have always loved about Shakespeare is that although his plays, sonnets, and poems were written hundreds of years ago, they’re still completely relevant to today’s society. In Of Human Kindness: What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Empathy, Paula Marantz Cohen not only analyzes the evolution of Shakespeare’s writing through his ability to create empathy for characters that would be classified as “other”, but also analyzes how our opinions on these characters shift as society changes and develops.

I thought that this was a completely and utterly captivating read. Cohen argues that the only way we can fully appreciate Shakespeare’s empathy towards age, class, gender, and race is through reading and dissecting his text, and I would agree. There’s so much that I have learned through sitting and annotating Shakespeare’s plays — even the ones I know well or by heart — that’s the beauty of his works, there’s always something to learn. This book opened my eyes to many nuances in Shakespeare’s plays and has made me even more excited to sit and analyze them.

One section that I found particularly interesting was the discussion of The Merchant of Venice, a play that I have never really enjoyed and one that I haven’t read since college. As Cohen is a Jewish woman herself, I was very curious to see what she thought of the character of Shylock and the antisemitism that has surrounded that character for hundreds of years — which was always my main reason for wanting to avoid this play. She discusses how the character of Shylock can be both the villain and a character that we feel empathetic toward and how many of the antisemitic characteristics (especially physical attributes) we associate with Shylock have more so come from productions and other’s interpretations of the character and not specifically from Shakespeare’s text. 

I read this on audio and I’ve already purchased a physical copy as I know that I’ll be turning to this book quite a bit while I annotate the plays that she discusses here (I’m definitely adding some notes to my already completed Hamlet annotations). I had such a great time reading this and highly recommend it to any Shakespeare fan.

Links for Of Human Kindness: What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Empathy: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop

Laertes: A Hamlet Retelling by Carly Stevens

I won’t lie, it took me a while to start Laertes. I think I started it and then stopped about three times before I could finally sit and read it because I just could not focus. However, once I really started it I had a very hard time stopping. I read it in one day, and I literally brought the book downstairs with me while I was making dinner because I didn’t want to stop reading. It says that this book is for fans of If We Were Villains, and as the (self proclaimed) number one If We Were Villains fan, I whole-heartedly agree!

Laertes is a character that we really don’t see or hear much of throughout Hamlet, he’s away at school in France for the majority of the play. We basically see him at the beginning, when he tells Ophelia to be careful with Hamlet, his father Polonius tells him “to thine own self be true”, and then he returns once his father has been murdered seeking revenge. Because we see so little of him, there’s much that is open to interpretation, and I loved Stevens’ interpretation. In Hamlet Laertes is Hamlet’s foil, and I thought she did such a great job of really showing that.

Something that I think people tend to ignore that Hamlet is a story about grief. We focus on the madness, but not the fact that the madness is caused by the grief that Hamlet is experiencing because of the murder of his father. Stevens does not shy away from the grief, instead she leans into it and puts it at the center of the story as it should be. 

My heart really broke for Laertes and I found myself getting very emotional towards the end of the story, and I teared up a lot. I loved the family dynamics between Laertes, Polonius, and Ophelia. The dynamic felt very true to what we know from Hamlet and expanded upon it very well. I loved the relationship between Laertes and Ophelia, it was so sweet and I think that Stevens did a great job of showing the love that they have for one another. 

There were so many beautiful lines in the book, and I found myself wishing that I was annotating so that I could highlight them and share my thoughts. So, I’ll definitely need to reread and annotate. I highly recommend this one to any fan of Hamlet!

Links for Laertes: A Hamlet Retelling: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop

Ophelia by Lisa Klein

Okay, I am going to be 100% honest here. I did not have high hopes going into this one. I mostly read it because I’ve been thinking about possibly reading it since the film version with Daisy Ridley came out in 2018 (I have since watched it and overall enjoyed it), and because I wanted to read a lot of Shakespeare-related things in April. It turns out, I really enjoyed this book!

I’ve always loved Ophelia — even as a kid, there was something about Ophelia that drew me to her. She definitely gets the short end of the stick in Hamlet, and I’ve always wanted to know more about her. 

When I picked this book up I had expected it to just pick up where Hamlet starts, but instead, it starts with Ophelia’s childhood. We get to learn more about her and her relationship with her father Polonius and her brother Laertes. We see the development of her relationship with Hamlet, how she is brought to court, and her relationship with Gertrude. Honestly, I thought it was so interesting!

I loved the dynamic between Ophelia and Horatio. It was just so !!! Like, that’s what I’ve got for you it just kind of made me squeal, I loved their relationship. Additionally, the dynamics between Hamlet and Ophelia and Ophelia and Gertrude were really interesting! This book just didn’t do what I expected it to do, and I mean that very positively! 

I will say, I do think that the last third was just a tad too long, but that didn’t make me enjoy it any less, I just expected it to wrap up a bit sooner. If you also feel drawn to Ophelia, I would recommend checking it out!

Links for Ophelia: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop

Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays by Tina Packer

I love listening to knowledgeable people discuss the things that they’re passionate about, and who better to learn about Shakespeare from than actor, director, playwright, founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts, and past Associate Artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Tina Packer?

Similarly to the way Of Human Kindness: What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Empathy looks at the evolution of Shakespeare’s writing through his empathetic characters, Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays looks at Shakespeare’s understanding of women through the writing of his female characters. 

I especially loved the discussion on how writing Juliet truly changed the way that Shakespeare wrote women, and how from that point on he began to put himself in the shoes of a woman while writing his female characters. This book felt like a masterclass in Shakespeare and I loved that. I listened to this on audio and once it was finished, decided to purchase a physical copy. 

Links for Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop

I also started This Is Shakespeare by Emma Smith, but I didn’t get a chance to finish it before the end of the month as I was busy with stage managing a musical from the 24th-30th. However, I’m really enjoying what I’ve read so far, and I’m sure I’ll love it! This was such a wonderful reading experience for me! I discovered some really great reads, including a few non-fiction ones that I’ve purchased and will be revisiting as I continue to annotate his plays.

I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’ve read any of these, or if you’ve added any of them to your TBR. Until next time!