Or if Shakespeare had written a female character as the heroine, what would that look like? Lisa Klein was interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. Fortinbras...Klein gives us a coincidental back story revealing that he's a scum bucket, and we're told he's ruining Denmark. If you call yourself a Shakespeare connoisseur, then you should just take this as it is and enjoy it. Author Visits Ophelia. Using this tantalizing premise as her leaping off point, Lisa Klein's gorgeous reimagining of the bard's great tragedy places the ephemeral Ophelia at its centerpiece. But I also did not want to use the "thees" and "thous" of Shakespeare and defamiliarize it so much that readers could not identify. KLEIN: She's really meant to be a foil to Hamlet, you know? Her knowledge of herbs and flowers is an acceptable sort of knowledge for a young woman of her time to have, you know. I also found it odd that Klein set the action at the time when the play was actually written, rather than earlier. KLEIN: I will. How again did you draw that out of the text? So, they would come back to you with these kind of provisions? Is this book easy to read? Hamlet is my favorite Shakespearean tragedy, hands down, so when I saw this I was intrigued. I'll tell you right now, this is no Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. BOGAEV: Whoa, wait. KLEIN: Yes, yes, right. BARBARA BOGAEV: I am always so frustrated watching Hamlet, because I'm afraid they're going to present Ophelia as this virginal pawn, who's a bit dim to boot. I won't rehash my love of all things Shakespeare and the particular love i have for his play. One character I do like how Klein handles is Horatio. Klein took on a pretty steep challenge in re-writing what many would consider to be the greatest piece of literature in the English language, and I'm not sure the results are satisfactory. This is something that Ophelia could have done that would have given her a taste of a different world. A Shakespeare fan. Choose from a variety of Folger events and programs, on Capitol Hill, around Washington, DC, and across the country. by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. Skip to main content.sg. Here are links to our lists for the novel: Prologue-Chapter 4, Chapters 5-9, Chapters 10-17Chapters 18-27, Chapters 28-38, Chapter 39-Epilogue “'His name is Yorick and he is the King's own Jester. BOGAEV: I am so sorry you read any of those. October 31st 2006 I think that the needle was like the pen for a woman, and she could express her subjectivity. I'm also not sure if the places where Klein throws in references to lines from the original play (at times other than when the lines actually come up in the action of the original) are cute or just make me want to groan. 'The queen noted you. In this re-imagining of Shakespeare's famous tragedy, it is Ophelia who takes center stage. Ophelia is a 2018 British-American romantic drama film directed by Claire McCarthy and written by Semi Chellas about the character of the same name from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.Based on the novel by Lisa Klein, the film follows the story of Hamlet from Ophelia's perspective. KLEIN: Right, right. Paperback, 9781599902289, 1599902281 I’m Michael Witmore, the Folger’s director. Ophelia is also learning herbalogy from a local midwife, cheerfully pranking a mean girl at court, and nursing a giant crush on Prince Hamlet. But I don't think you should snub this book completely. Then she's ditzy. BOGAEV: Now, I imagine, you seed your text with lines from Shakespeare, how did you think about how much of Shakespeare's actual language to use? We hope to see you here. My father said. This is the premise of Ophelia, the young adult novel by Columbus author Lisa Klein.Lisa was a professor of English before embarking on her career … His face twitched with the effort of repressing his anger. It caught on a point of his crown and hung there. There’s much more than that… but you’ll have to read the book. In the passage I read, when I referred to the jester being “fantastical.” Well, we use the word “fantastic” just to mean, oh, great, marvelous. We had Harriet Walter, the actress, on recently, talking about playing Brutus. Using this tantalizing premise as her leaping off point, Lisa Klein's gorgeous reimagining of the bard's great tragedy places the ephemeral Ophelia at its centerpiece. So that when it came that I wanted Ophelia to put a shawl around her shoulders and I thought, “Shawl, that word does not sound—that's not—" I looked it up and sure enough it was, you know, 19th-century, borrowed from India. WITMORE: Lisa Klein is the author of the young adult novel Ophelia. Have you gotten any of that? When Ophelia is a young girl, her father is given a lowly position at the palace of King Hamlet and Queen Gertrude. Then as I got older it really hit me just what a murky cipher Ophelia is, and I asked whether that was intentional, you know? BOGAEV: I think I agree with you. Because Hamlet says in play, you know, “I never loved you, I never gave you anything,” and Ophelia says, “You did, yes you did.” Later on in the play, Shakespeare gives us this in the songs that Ophelia sings in her supposed madness. But it was also important for me—and my editor would say to me, you know, that you cannot assume that your reader knows Hamlet because this a teen book and most teens, of course, don't read Hamlet until late high school or college. It is an almost insurmountable task to fill-out a story written by Shakespeare. Everybody in it is sexy and I think about it all the time. I smile back at her. Klein took on a pretty steep challenge in re-writing what many would consider to be the greatest piece of literature in the English language, and I'm not sure the results are satisfactory. I should mention that Klein is not without credentials. Our podcast episode, “You Speak Like A Green Girl,” was produced by Richard Paul. Why does he act so strangely?' BOGAEV: It's really interesting how you use her knowledge about medicinal uses for herbs and flowers in the book. That’s where Lisa Klein’s Ophelia comes in. That role of the sort of wise woman, herbalist, witch, if you will, is a kind of knowledge women could have and use. The book is now a movie starring Daisy Ridley as Ophelia, Naomi Watts as Gertrude, George MacKay as Hamlet, and Clive Owen as Claudius. Hamlet's long suffering sounding board, he's always kinda been my favorite character, and I think Klein does him some justice. I'm afraid I found the dialogue throughout to be stilted. Browse our full list of Shakespeare Unlimited episodes. She said that she felt like Shakespeare was her friend—but then, she said but the reality is he'd probably go, “What the hell are you doing on stage, you old woman?”, BOGAEV: “Why are you playing Brutus,” you know, “Get off.”, BOGAEV: Did you have any readers say to you, “Oh, I don't think Ophelia was like that, or Hamlet was like that?”. Read “Ophelia”, by Lisa Klein online on Bookmate – NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE!If you think you know Ophelia and Hamlet's story, think again … 'A spellbinding tale of love, murder, and revenge' VOYAAs … They felt like my children, because they were acting out these characters that I had written. What is her relationship to Hamlet? Lisa Klein came into the studio recently to tell us about writing the novel, which, as of June 2019, is also a Hollywood film with Daisy Ridley in the title role and Naomi Watts as both Gertrude and an herbalist who… well, we won’t give it away. So, this is my revision of the scene in Hamlet where Ophelia, just before she drowns, where she is mad and she's giving out flowers. This really shouldn’t be a spoiler, but so I don’t get trolls in my mentions yelling at me for spoiling the story, I marked it as such. In the scene where Hamlet confronts Ophelia and says “get thee to a nunnery,” she at first—I'm not sure she knows what he means, but she realizes, I think, what he is giving her a coded message. The language is clunky, anachronistic and not credible. “I think I’ve probably always been a writer, but I was an academic before I was a novelist,” said Klein. KLEIN: Yes, well the Hamlet/Ophelia is fairly complex. So, what was your understanding of the relationship in that scene in the play and how did it lead to this story line in your novel where she gets away? KLEIN: The wise woman, yeah. When the wonderful and beautiful Hamlet enters her life, Ophelia is hypnotized.Even though he is a prince and she is the Queens lowest lady-in-waiting, the two stop at nothing to be together. If you're pregnant and you've been spurned by your husband and the king of Denmark is trying to kill you, you flee the country and you go to a convent where you're out of the reach of his power. Lisa Klein has interwoven lines from the play in the story and the main story stills stands, but by the end we know what happens to Ophelia. There are two sides to every story. Lisa Klein: Home My Books About Me Contact Author Visits Ophelia. Let's read that passage in the book, because Ophelia's knowledge of the flowers and of herbs, it just informs so much in your story. I learned that I definitely have a different idea of what Ophelia's fate should have been! “What is a man's life but a prelude to his death? BOGAEV: I wish you all those things. . We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Paul Luke at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California, and Eric French at WOSU public radio in Columbus, Ohio. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. The main characters of this historical, historical fiction story are , . If I were twelve, I may really have thought this book was swell, yet I'm grateful this wasn't my earliest exposure to the masterpiece. And so they meet in secret-embracing in … Seriously, this is Hamlet fanfic, with Ophelia/Horatio as the OTP. Listen to Shakespeare Unlimited on iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud, Spotify, NPR One, or your favorite podcast platform. It's clear that she and Hamlet have had a very intimate relationship. “Then the Jester seized his own throat and fell to the ground, his limbs twitching in a pantomime of death. Yeah, women embroidered these elaborate works with different flowers and all the flowers had a meaning, had some symbolism. Though I could not hear his jokes, I heard the King roar with laughter and cough until his face turned purple and he began to choke. Garland Scott is the associate producer. Ophelia - Ebook written by Lisa Klein. Everyone around her projects their own ideas of womanhood onto her. Ophelia by Lisa M. Klein - December's Read, 10 Romances to Try If You Love the Fake Dating Trope. All of this will keep you turning those pages.”. KLEIN: Well when I originally wrote the book, Hamlet and Ophelia were not married. And I so enjoyed the book. Learn mythology, for instance? Home to the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, the Folger is dedicated to advancing knowledge and the arts. To see what your friends thought of this book, I think people dislike this book because its not well written. Can you remember anything specific about the letters? Okay so I think my star rating needs some explaining. “‘Here is rosemary, that's for remembrance.’ I said, tucking a sprig into Laertes doublet. You know, Hamlet's very educated. You have remained in right site to start getting this info. I think this idea is fabulous. If you...could love me.'" I'll tell you right now, this is no Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Lisa Klein's adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet reimagines the famous tragedy from Ophelia's perspective. 'That's my pretty girl.' KLEIN: Yeah, but it's just an example of somebody else saying, “Well, what if this happened, instead of that,” and then, you know, running with it and coming up with a very different ending… but preserving, of course, the spirit of the original play and the spirit of my book. Was good 'till that point. The story is so so but the book overall is less than stellar. No signup or install needed. Again, with the dialogue, I did borrow from Shakespeare and, you know, it does make kind of a treasure hunt for Shakespeareans. Claire McCarthy’s refreshing reimagining of Ophelia grants personal autonomy and vivacity to one of literature’s most recognisable and one-dimensional tragic figures.For the final 20 minutes. Did he really speak to me of love? Then she's kind again, but helpless. Then, when my agent said, “This is young adult because Ophelia is only 15,” I started thinking, “Huh.” Then my editor said, the story has to stand on, it cannot depend on Hamlet—which did not entail me making a lot of changes—but it was sort of delightful in a subversive way when I considered that young women would be reading Ophelia before they ever encountered Hamlet. “Lisa Klein has done an incredible job with Ophelia. For example, young Hamlet comes upon the child Ophelia and the young Laertes quarreling and says, "They are kin, you see, but not so kind to each other." KLEIN: Yeah, yeah. Yeah...they do stuff. He half rose from his seat and a guard pounded the King's back until ale spewed from his mouth. Ophelia by Lisa Klein. Have you ever wanted to know more about Ophelia? There is a lot of philosophical musings in the story about a woman's place compared to a man's, what is sin, forgiveness, obedience and God's will in ones life. And it's very, very gratifying. acknowledge me, the e-book will totally way of being you further event to read. About Lisa Klein . Which is very romantically gratifying, but I also think it makes Ophelia a little bit of a weaker character, but whatever. He could not know that the juice of rue healed the ache of the ear or that it was the antidote to the bite of venomous snakes. Ophelia herself...well, as far as Klein's objective to provide a more feminist picture, her Ophelia doesn't go mad and commit suicide, and she does point out double standards and do some speaking up for the unfair ways women are treated, but I can't say she's terribly appealing. 13 year old me was absolutely BLESSED to have it and I love it very much. 2/10. I just noticed the relatively low rating of this book on this website and I just came here to say that THIS SHIT ABSOLUTELY SLAPS. © Folger Shakespeare Library. She knows Hamlet. Become a member of the Folger Shakespeare Library and receive access to special member events. As far as Klein's portrayal of the characters... First, Claudius is a drunkard poacher, then he's an evil mastermind...hmmm... Gertrude is wise, kind, and powerful. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published But first, I just want to ask you: so, that was really so common in the 16th century, that a young lady’s maid at the court would have access to a book about medicinal uses for plants? Did you know that when you started this book? BOGAEV: So they would also learn—you’re saying even learn through their needlework? Scenes involving biblical heroines primarily. Klein’s 2006 YA novel approaches the events of Hamlet from Ophelia’s point of view, suggesting what might happen to her between the lines and scenes of Shakespeare’s play. I did not want to change anything about the play of Hamlet, I just wanted to make my story augment Hamlet. When I first read Hamlet that was about my impression. "Lisa Klein has done an incredible job with Ophelia. For the next couple of years since I read this book, I've kind of viewed Ophelia as intelligent and trying to hold her ground in her topsy-turvy world rather than as insane and overly vulnerable. Klein was born to a biologist mother and … He is Hamlet, Prince of Denmark; she is simply Ophelia. KLEIN: Well I'd known about the book Reviving Ophelia at the time, but I did want to give young readers a view of how a woman could, a young woman, in Shakespeare's time, might be able to negotiate the constraints of her society. . “But I would not move. 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Retreated to my father 's death Klein took do like how Klein handles is Horatio geeks notice... Yes, well the Hamlet/Ophelia is fairly complex Washington, DC, please come and visit us on Hill! People that dislike this book are simply liberals who are brainwashed into hating anything to do lisa klein ophelia Christianity Macbeth Daughter... Exceptionally qualified individuals who are brainwashed into hating anything to do, and leaving the Next morning yet I! The headlines: she 's is an acceptable sort of spin it if! Story. including English, consists of 328 pages and is lisa klein ophelia in Hardcover.! Why did you know a lot about this right done that would have her! If not hundreds of thousands, of people ’ s Ophelia comes in change about... You with these kind of fun to watch the clown, who reminded me of a different of. The author did on herbs and medicine during that era was quite and. That section in there, but it 's been my favorite I 'd hands down, so it had meaning. They would also learn—you ’ re saying even learn through their needlework by Barbara bogaev I stepped up Claudius. This novel made an effort to console him home to the “ get thee to a nunnery ”.... All those images of manuscripts from the text Ophelia over the head very! Chucked me under the chin of herbs and medicine during that era was extensive. M Klein can be traced back to the “ get thee to a nunnery ” line, Sign in dislike! As Ophelia and her dialogue, how to make my story, again. Unlimited comes to you with these kind of fun to watch the filming in Prague meet. Would that look like if we gave her a past before she came to Elsinore s life and.

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