Shakespeare in love common sense media code#

The vaunted connection to Shakespeare is tangential at best, and the idea that the death of Hamnet illuminates the writing of 'Hamlet' is sparse. it's very predictable, very common, very Philippa Gregory!

Shakespeare in love common sense media code#

I especially hated the portrayal of Agnes as one of those almost witchy 'wise women' who abound in historical fiction: fey, with preternatural senses, a herbalist as a code for 'female' power. O'Farrell talks in the foreword about how she's wanted to write this book for decades, and the result is that it feels laboured, weighted down with expectation that doesn't come to fruition for me.

There's too much indirect speech and the whole story feels very distanced rather than immediate.

I'm clearly in a minority here (again!) but I found this unengaging and flat. Let me not end up cold and stiff in a bloodied bed.ДЇifth read from the 2020 WomenвЂ™s Prize for Fiction longlist. Make sure this child has safe passage make sure it lives make sure I survive to care for it. I should never have schemed to send you away. Please, she says to him, inside the chamber of her skull, please come back. It is to him she speaks in her disordered mind, not the trees, not the magic cross, not the patterns and markings of lichen, not even to her mother, who died while trying to give birth to a child. Verdict: Hamnet is a devastating book, as upsetting and vivid as the current global pandemic. And this year's judges have already stated they're looking for a winner that's relevant and timely, so Hamnet - which ventures to convey the perilous days during which William Shakespeare's young children struggle to survive the Black Death - at first seemed like it wasn't a contender for the shortlist, having no relevance to the modern day. Unfortunately, the rogue book filled with lyricism rarely makes the shortlist. Where the average author mentions the presence of kittens, O'Farrell writes of kittens ' with faces like pansies and soft pads on their paws.' Some authors would stop at saying a character collected honey, O'Farrell describes the honey flowing ' slow as sap, orange-gold, scented with the sharp tang of thyme and the floral sweetness of lavender.' Your average author notes a plum orchard, but O'Farrell invites readers to see plums with ' red-gold jackets near to bursting with sweetness.' Hamnet is a feast for the senses a seven-course meal for readers hungry for books written with skillful embellishment. O'Farrell's writing style is a lyrical dreamscape. It's quite possible Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell is this year's rogue contender. Occasionally, the longlist offers a book with both qualities (think 2017 Women's Prize longlist nominee, The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill). The rogue book in the lineup usually has unique qualities that manifest either as robust lyricism or as strange yet scintillating content. Quite often, the Women's Prize for Fiction longlist contains one book more fanciful than the rest.