Ophelia

Book Description

Critics

• Return to Elsinore

  Ophelia by Lisa Klein 336pp, Bloomsbury, £5.99 This novel is what is sometimes called a "hypothetical". Based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, it asks questions such as: what if Ophelia didn't die in the stream that slopes aslant a brook? What if she faked h ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

• OPHELIA

  Ophelia is born in the year 1585 in the village of Elsinore. Her mother dies giving birth, and her father is distant and aloof, oftentimes absent from their home for days while seeking employment in the king's court. So Ophelia's older brother become ... (read full critics)

  teenreads published on Thu, 16 Sep 2010

3 Reviews

• 

  Could have been better

  When I first started reading this book I loved it. The chemistry between Hamlet and Ophelia was there and it was definitely interesting. It’s a total different take on the play and an interesting view on the characters within. It was interesting how background information is provided (as how Ophelia ... (continue)

  When I first started reading this book I loved it. The chemistry between Hamlet and Ophelia was there and it was definitely interesting. It’s a total different take on the play and an interesting view on the characters within. It was interesting how background information is provided (as how Ophelia and Hamlet met for the first time) and how they spent their childhood years. So although it does deviate from the original play it’s not so much or goes too far out of context. For a while at least.

  The parts with Ophelia and Hamlet in love are well done. As mentioned before the chemistry is there and Hamlet stays true as there is definitely emotion and passion. I do have a problem with Ophelia later on. She becomes needy and really clingy. It got annoying and although there’s lots of miscommunication between her and Hamlet, all she really had to do was ask him what the problem was instead of whining about it constantly and forgetting about it when he started to “act” normal. Hamlet did sort of reveal his agenda to Ophelia, but perhaps he didn’t spell it out for her and she just assumed Hamlet stopped loving her altogether. For crying out loud Ophelia. You were raised like a tomboy and that sort of thing affected you when you could have just approached Hamlet and even punched him if you wanted to? That kind of contrast was a little too outrageous for me. I found Laertes different. I never really expected him to be quite the jerk portrayed in the book and always thought of him as an older brother who was protective towards Ophelia. I thought that was a little skewed.

  So, I have to say, the first half of the book was good. Despite some character flaws with Ophelia. The little twist with her finding out who really murdered the King was good, and her relationship with Gertrude proved interesting as well. However Gertrude also got moody, and whiny. It was as if the female characters just suddenly developed a syndrome to become this way all throughout the novel. Of all the characters in the book though, I really liked Horatio, he seems to be the only character that stays constant and true throughout the entire book without the severe personality changes.

  Now we get to the last half. I can’t believe I actually went through with it too. I admit the alternate ending to Ophelia’s fate was rather interesting but the story just went to a halt and started to crawl. There were pages and pages of Ophelia’s time at a convent which did nothing to advance to plot and had me baffled as to wondering where this was going. It was borderline preachy as Ophelia tries to “find” herself while her time at the convent. I didn’t care for this part. In fact I skimmed through most of it because it was extremely boring. I actually skimmed the last 50 or so pages until the very last few to see the outcome of Ophelia. I rather figured it would end up that way, as the book slightly hinted at it. It was satisfactory, but reading dozens of boring pages isn’t worth it. Also the theme of revenge is just so overdone in this book. Sure, it’s the main theme, but it’s just so overplayed and over exaggerated it makes the emotion fake.

  So, would I recommend this? yes, and no. Yes, if you’re not a Shakespeare fan. You might just enjoy it. No if you’re a very perfectionist type and love Shakespeare. Like me you’d probably wonder who is this whiny girl (who is also a tomboy) and what has she done to Ophelia. Also, the last half of the book might just put you off of the whole thing. It’s very frustrating and unfortunate as it has good potential but just fell apart. It could have definitely been better.

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  Sensitivemuse said on Dec 15, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Questions that frequently come about during an English discussion of the Shakespearean play, “Hamlet”, are namely: Is the character of Ophelia as weak as she appears to be? Was Ophelia truly in a state of madness, or did she simply stage her madness in order to protest to the world?

  Shakespea ... (continue)

  Questions that frequently come about during an English discussion of the Shakespearean play, “Hamlet”, are namely: Is the character of Ophelia as weak as she appears to be? Was Ophelia truly in a state of madness, or did she simply stage her madness in order to protest to the world?

  Shakespearean plays often leave mild gaps in between its words to allow boundless speculations and hypotheses regarding each character’s structure and intentions. Lisa Klein makes perfect use of Shakespeare’s ambiguity and proceeds to boldly restate the tragedy of Hamlet in a fresh way through Ophelia’s eyes, emphasizing on the missing portions of love between Ophelia and Hamlet, giving more depth to Polonius other than an ambitious yet foolish father, revealing more personal emotions of Horatio’s other than his one-dimensional character as a loyal and honest friend to Hamlet, explaining Gertrude’s true feelings and actions, and most importantly, defending Ophelia’s own character as a witty and dynamic character rather than the empty flowerpot she is typically credited as in film adaptations.

  Unlike the original “Hamlet”, Klein chose to write “Ophelia” in the form of a novel, using a first person perspective, instead of a play, which turned out to be a wonderful choice. Ophelia, in the novel, is extremely emotionally passionate and thoughtful, and she undergoes many abrupt emotional shifts, thus writing in a novel format allows more engagement in her thoughts, as opposed to if this rendition was just a play of pure dialogue.

  Klein’s speculation that Ophelia is factually an intelligent character is hardly beyond reason because with Hamlet being such an aggressive and witty character himself, if Ophelia was indeed just another pretty face, why would he have fallen in love with her?

  The novel begins from Ophelia’s childhood, and reveals that she had actually known and been attracted to Hamlet from young. Structuring the tale this way builds the romance between Hamlet and Ophelia to a fuller extent, as opposed to the play, only mentioning the relationship between the two to a minimal slight. Klein also proceeds to answer the question of whether Hamlet loved Ophelia at all, with his aggression of demanding to get to a nunnery. Besides the romance, beginning the tale at an earlier time period before the play did paints each character more plentifully, such as Claudius and Gertrude, and gives a better explanation to why the events to come came out the way they did.

  Most importantly, Klein made another speculation about Ophelia: What if Ophelia did not die like everyone thought she did? How did she escape with her life? And how will she live after she dashes from Elsinore… with her very dangerous secret?

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  Cindy Cheng425 said on Jul 2, 2009 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Excellent telling of Hamlet's tragedy through the eyes of Ophelia. I'm sure all the women who have long been fascinated with her will be very thankful to Klein for this version of her tale.

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  Jaemi K said on Mar 13, 2007 | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
  (7)
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• English Books
• Hardcover 336 Pages
• Edition: 1
• ISBN-10: 1582348014
• ISBN-13: 9781582348018
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
• Pub date: Oct 31, 2006
• Dimensions: 1355 mm x 903 mm x 194 mm Just how big is that?
• Also available as: Paperback, Others and eBook

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