- Review: Hamnet by Maggie OFarrell | Books & Bao
- I have thoughts about Hamnet…
- i read books i saw strangers reading on the train *weird fanfiction and a new favourite book* ad
- Hamnet by Maggie OFarrell | Spoiler Free Book Review
- Hamnet by Maggie O´Farrell! Much Ado About Nothing.
- Victoria’s Book Reviews: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
- Does HAMNET live up to the hype??
Review: Hamnet by Maggie OFarrell | Books & Bao
recording this outside because I know,many lighting equipment and so I need,natural light in its Twilight in its,pray and now all the neighbors are gonna,be going what the is this joker,doing well enjoy anyway so Hamnett,Hamnett its fantastic Hamlet is a novel,written by Maggio Ferrell and its on,the list for the Womens Prize and I,havent read all of the books on the,womens prize list but I think it should,be a swift contender on the basis that I,think its one of the best,english-language novels I have read in a,long long time from before the beginning,before the book even starts write in the,blurb of the novel Maggie OFarrell,makes it very very clear you cant read,that I can Maggie Farrell makes it very,very clear that this is a book about the,people surrounding a playwright in the,late 16th century this playwright of,course is William Shakespeare but at no,point in the book is William Shakespeare,named not in any capacity hes not,called the bard hes not called will,hes not called Bill hes not called,anything except the tutor the groom the,husband and the father and thats it and,at first I was I saw this is a kind of a,gimmicky thing I thought okay well,theyre obviously I see what Maggie,Farah was trying to do she is trying to,focus all of our attention on his family,not him hes had enough attention and I,was wondering if this was going to be a,gimmick or something that would wear off,and he absolutely doesnt it works to,astonishing effect because what it makes,you realize is that there are so many,people surrounding Shakespeare who never,got enough attention very important,thing to know is that even though the,novel is called Hamlet it very much has,a protagonist in an Anne Hathaway or,onion as she was actually known or,thats her birth name onion is our,protagonist but the entire book centers,around Hamlet and the days leading up to,his death and Anne Hathaway is one of,the most mysterious people within the,biography and history of William,Shakespeare we really dont know that,much about her or her family and the,novel plays on that it is a fiction it,is a fictional story about her and their,family with a lot of accurate historical,details weaved in in order to make it,palatable and and,in any way connected to the real world,now the book is about 360 pages and for,the first 260 pages it is part 1 and,part 1 splits itself between two,different time periods the one time,period is very very short it is a few,days before hamnets death this is not a,spoiler having it died we know this but,that time period is very very short and,those chapters are shorter but they,contain a lot more detail they are,slower they are precision based they are,minut and they talk more about specific,feelings in specific moments oh its,its like photographs versus footage,where is the other part of part 1 the,chapters that it splits between these,longer longer chapters that can go on,for 30 40 pages and those chapters are,about how William Shakespeares teenage,life him meeting and Hathaway courting,her then having their first child,Susanna and her getting pregnant with,the twins,Hamlet being one of those twins and,those chapters move at a much faster,pace and they start off with the,relationship between Will and his dad,John,who was a Glover and a very successful,businessman who went up and down and all,of this is pretty well documented,especially if you watch the Michael Wood,documentary on Shakespeare which Im,currently watching it is fantastic Im,really into Shakespeare right now Ive,been doing all of these zoom plays with,my friends in the States which means,time difference anyway so Im really,into Shakespeare right now and so this,book came along at a really good moment,anyway what I love about Hamlet is the,fact that it reframes on a woman that we,know so little about as a protagonist,and because we know so little about her,that means that Maggie OFarrell gets to,have some fun with her as a character,and at the beginning frames her and her,mother as these kind of forests which,characters they are pseudo alchemists,herbalists who have these strange ways,about them according to the neighbors,and according to the the people of the,town and thats a lot of fun in,Shakespeare falls in love with this,woman with a Kestrel right Anne Hathaway,and yes Hathaway is the woman with the,Kestrel she has this bird they think,its a hawk I think its a hawk anyway,shes strange and shes a kind of,very type almost Witch of the woods and,I absolutely love this and this feeds,into her as the story goes on because,she starts to become kind of a,spiritualist psychic type theres a bit,about halfway through the book without,spoiling anything where she always had a,sense always could almost see,perceptibly into the future that she was,going to have two children and that her,two children would be at the foot of her,bed when she died now as we know she had,three children and one of them dies and,when she says that you kind of go oh you,dont know whats coming you have this,ability to see the future in a sense but,you dont know whats happening,despite the fact that she has this,ability to see the future she doesnt,actually she isnt portrayed as any kind,of superhuman its not a supernatural,story but it has this kind of fun bent,about it I really really enjoyed Hamner,to the titular character is a very,empathetic very empathic very sweet boy,and the story begins with him in his,home and his sister his twin sister,coming down with a fever and she has the,plague which ultimately kills him how,she survives it and he doesnt is very,very interesting within the narrative,knowing spoiler now I said that the book,is split into two parts the second part,is only the last hundred pages and it is,written very differently there are no,chapters in this part these the this is,one very very quick 100 page chapter in,and of itself I cant really talk about,what its about because that would be,spoiling so much for the book but I,almost preferred this part part two,because its quicker I read it in a,single sitting a hundred hundred and ten,pages I think it is and it is an,aftermath of something and it is about,the lives of more people and it has more,of will Shakespeare in it kind of the,more familiar playwright bard,Shakespeare that weve come to,romanticize and what they do with his,character is very interesting and the,whole thing about how Shakespeare is,never named whereas people like Susannah,and John Shakespeare and Mary,Shakespeare and Anne yes and her mother,and her stepmother Joan these are all,named people and people whose names I,have very much internalized,because of how much I loved book Will,Shakespeare is not named and this works,really really well in the sense that it,does allow us more freedom to explore,the other people within his life but it,also allows us to empathize more with,him through them we we romanticize,William Shakespeare we obsess over him,we study not just his works but his life,and the things that led him to where he,is we watch documentaries we study him,in school we read his plays and so he,has become this thing on a pedestal but,whats great about looking at him as,this nameless man who is a very talented,genius artist his wife says as much,seeing him nameless and seeing him,through her eyes in the eyes of his,children in the eyes of his parents we,come to see him as a human being rather,than a thing that exists on a pedestal,and thats so effective so at first I,was skeptical about how they were going,to handle his his character I say they I,mean Maggie and she does it so,tremendously because she does love this,man and there is a perfect synchronicity,between her wanting to give more Worth,and value and attention and love to the,people around Shakespeare the people,that helped build him and the people who,had lives of her own that are worth,exploring and and getting to know and,falling in love with and the fact that,she loved Shakespeare and wants him to,be seen through a more human lens a
I have thoughts about Hamnet…
Hi everybody, I hope that youre all doing really well. It is,hot today it is about 32 degrees celsius outside- this is not okay! Im a pale, freckly,northern child i cant deal with this! Hopefully its nice where you are and,youre handling it all okay. Lets get into the video! So i have a,confession: I did not include all of the books that,I read in April in my April wrap up. I didnt lie, I,withheld information! And its because I hadnt quite gathered,all of my thoughts about one particular book that I read,in the month of April. I thought perhaps that this book might need a video all on,its own for me to really work my thoughts through,,and by the time I actually started getting around to planning the video,I realised I still had not settled my thoughts on it, so I decided that it was,only right to do a reread of this particular book.,That book in question was Hamnet by Maggie OFarrell. Now, this book has been,receiving so much praise and recognition- it has,been shortlisted for the Womens Prize for Fiction alongside other books like,The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel-,my love- A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, Girl Woman,Other by Bernadine Evaristo- a lot of hype, a lot of attention!,This book recounts the story of the death of William Shakespeares,only son, Hamnet, who died most likely of the bubonic plague when he was 11 in,1596 and his loss may have possibly inspired Shakespeare to write his most,famous play- Hamlet. There is much more to this book, of,course, and arguably Hamnet himself is not the main focus,of this story, is not the main character. Its actually William Shakespeares wife,Anne or Agnes as she is referred to in this book.,The reason for this naming choice is that Maggie OFarrell came across,a piece of evidence- Annes fathers will- in which she,is referred to as Agnes, so she continues with that naming convention in this book.,The slightly more cynical side of me supposes that maybe for marketing,purposes it made more sense to name Hamnet as the,title character, rather than Agnes, since his is a much,more recognisably Shakespearean name. The first section of this book covers,two timelines: the first being in 1596 when Hamnet,discovers his sister, Judith, is sick in bed and he is running around all over,the place and Stratford upon Avon trying to find an adult to get attention,for his sister. The second timeline follows the,courtship between Agnes and William Shakespeare, their very,rushed shotgun marriage after Agnes falls pregnant with their first child-,Susanna- and Shakespeares eventual push to,relocate to london for work, leaving Agnes and her three children,back home in Stratford-upon-Avon. As i have mentioned, this is very much,Agnes story, not Hamnets and certainly not William Shakespeares.,Something that youll be quite aware of if you have seen any sort of marketing,material for this book is that Shakespeare is never once,mentioned by name, though he is not completely absent from,this book; there are sections where you see things from his point of view.,But it is largely told from the perspective of Agnes. Shakespeare is,instead referred to as “the latin tutor”, “the father”, “the,husband”. And there seems to be quite a lot of discussion around this book,,particularly in the hype about it online, about how this,book is trying to reclaim the history of Shakespeares family-,because there is just so much attention on William Shakespeare as the most,famous writer in the english language- that his family have been somehow,ignored along the way. And this is where my initial gripes with,this book started to take root as i began reading it.,This discussion struck me as being a little bit off from the get-go because,,despite the proliferation of work that we have from Shakespeare and despite his,fame, we dont actually know that much about,Shakespeare himself. We dont even have a definitive written,account of what he looked like- we have two images that are verified,as being of him- and then the rest of the portraiture,that we have around him is just us guessing that it MIGHT have been him. A,lot of what we think that we know about Shakespeare is actually just conjecture,based on his writing and it may not actually be,true. For example lots of historians used to think that,Shakespeare traveled extensively because Italy and the Holy,Roman Empire appear very largely in his works, but we have no,actual evidence that Shakespeare ever did any traveling.,It is most likely that he stayed in England his entire life and that his,knowledge about these different places came from his,imagination and his reading. And i could understand the narrative of,looking at a disgruntled wife and children,of a famous man if it was somebody like for example Samuel Pepys, for whom we,have so much written evidence about his,personal life, his personality, what he got up to on a day-to-day basis-,a man whose personality was oversized and dominating.,William Shakespeare, on the other hand, doesnt seem to be quite that,personality. But then, of course, he is a much more famous name so i,understand why the focus would be on him instead. And this gripe turned into a,full-blown frustration and irritation when I ended up actually reading,Hamnet and saw the characterization of Agnes.,In Hamnet, Maggie OFarrell basically makes Agnes kind of this,”witchy wise woman”. You know, shes so in tune with nature, she sees things that,other people dont, she has these premonitions of what,is going to happen. For example, she knows that at her,deathbed she will be surrounded by two children not three. And its for this,reason that Shakespeare falls for her because,she “sees things that other people dont” and it just,felt like the biggest “not like other girls- TM”.,Because, of course, she must be something different if William Shakespeare falls,for her… 🙁 So heres my issue- were being told that,there is this need to reclaim Shakespeares family who have largely,been ignored and pushed into the background,,but then you proceed to completely fabricate,Agness life? That choice, to me, betrays the sense that Maggie OFarrell didnt,think that people would find the real Agnes compelling enough.,And why is that the case? Why isnt it enough,that Anne Jathaway was a regular woman living in the 16th,century- a wife and a mother trying to keep a,household together with three children and an absentee,husband whose job she does not understand but who she loves anyway?,Why is that not deemed important and interesting? Myself, I feel like that,could have been a very interesting character portrait and psychology to look,into. Why does Anne Hathaway have to be this,”witchy wise woman” to be deemed interesting? And that gripe,really marred my reading experience of Hamnet the first time around,and I still kind of maintain it, especially because I,then proceeded to read two more historical fiction novels,which had this same witchy supernatural wise woman in them. I just do not like,this trope, it just rubs me up entirely the wrong way!,However, a month after reading it I still kind of felt like I hadnt properly,given this book its due, and it was kind of staring at me. Probably because its,so pretty… I mean like look at this- its so pretty!,And i didnt feel like i could give a proper, reliable,review of it. So thats when i decided i need to reread this,,kind of clear away the cobwebs and try and let go of some of these initial,gripes that I had and just read it as it was intended. And while I,still did have some of those issues, I did,overall enjoy reading Hamnet much more the,second time around, so I feel a lot more firm and confident in being able to,recommend it as a read to you. For starters, Maggie OFarrell is very,good at recreating the atmosphere of late 16th century town life, her,description is so vivid and it often feels like she is a,camerawoman and you are panning along the scenes,that she is recreating with her and picking up all of these different,details in each scene; its r
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i read books i saw strangers reading on the train *weird fanfiction and a new favourite book* ad
can you tell me something,was it all for nothing,cant keep myself from wondering,was it all for nothing,so one thing to know about me is that i,am nosy im about as nosy as pinocchio,when hes telling a lie and the other,thing to know about me is that i live in,london and that means when im not on,youtube im on the tube the london,underground london subway metro system,its the most efficient way of getting,around the city and so i spend quite a,lot of my time on there and so when you,combine these two things you get this,video apparently and basically i always,see other people,strangers to me reading books on the,london underground on the train and i,want to know if those books are any good,i want to know if these random strangers,have good taste in literature and so,this is so dumb this week i am going to,be getting the tube seeing what people,are reading and then,reading those books and ill let you,know i think that this isnt weird,youre weird anyway lets go see what,some strangers are reading i dont know,what you think about me with him and,its hard to believe i stayed here when,they told me to leave was sincere about,everything but,you took me for granted sat down with a,girl i couldnt stand it hopped off the,train i was calling your name and you,looked at me crazy like you never had,anything so lets stop dont wanna see,you so pissed off try to be happy but,guess what girl is impossible please can,you let up houston i think we have a,problem and that problem is my terrible,vision because im trying to see what,people are reading and im like,squinting at them and in the process i,think it looks like,im plotting to kill them okay update,ive made it home and i have had a bit,more of a success on my return journey,because the person sitting opposite me,was reading a book called rodden,thankfully the text on the cover is,quite big and rodham is basically a book,which imagines what hillary clintons,life would have been like if she hadnt,married bill clinton so quite intrigued,by that and thats gonna be the first,book that i read for this video also i,am absolutely buzzing to let you know,that todays video is very kindly,sponsored by bbc sounds you guys know by,now how much i love bbc sounds it is the,home of bbc live radio great podcasts,and music mixes all curated by the best,of the bbcs talent so many great,options on here i love listening to the,focus beats music mix when im just,trying to get work done and be,productive but today my podcast of,choice is going to be have you heard,georges podcast which is a podcast by,george the poet where he basically talks,about city life through music and,storytelling and its very cool so this,is whats going to be in my ears,whenever im traveling anywhere if im,not reading a book im listening to a,podcast always and so for all of this,content all in one place make sure you,check out bbc sounds online and on the,app and for now i have got a book to get,around to reading and im hoping that,its going to be quite good,yeah guys this was not good,this was not good at all i wanted to,enjoy it so much but i just found it,uncomfy firstly im unsure about my,opinions on the ethics of writing a,fictional book about someone who is very,much still alive because this is,essentially hillary clinton fan fiction,which is not something i thought id,ever be reviewing on my youtube channel,but here we are and i have to say if,this book was written about me,i would be insulted like honestly how,are you going to write 400 pages about,someone and their main defining,characteristic is that theyre just dull,tell me why i was reading this and,fantasizing about the prospect of paint,drying its also weird because the whole,point of this book is what if hillary,hadnt married bill and yet bill clinton,is still a highly prominent character,throughout this book both as a,politician and as a love interest so for,me it didnt really deviate enough from,the real world that we all kind of know,about especially given that its,essentially speculative fiction i think,the point here is that people have often,said in the media or in public discourse,that hillary clinton was holding bill,back whereas the point of this book is,basically to turn those tables and say,actually bill was holding hillary back,this whole time but rodham does go on to,suggest that donald trump would have,been a collaborator of hillary clinton,its all just quite strange and,i thought a bit distasteful but the main,thing that i wanted to say about this,book is that i never ever ever ever ever,ever ever for as long as i live never,again do i want to read another bill and,hillary clinton,sex scene,i am scarred its not even about who,they are its how theyre written like,if a book has got me missing wattpad fan,fiction something has gone terribly,wrong these sex scenes are written in,the most wooden,icky way they genuinely made my dick go,inside itself i swear never before have,i read a consensual sex scene that made,me consider celibacy i was like get me,to the nearest church i need cleansing,like tell me why im sitting here,reading bill clinton playing the,saxophone naked as foreplay,i give up i give up i feel like my,virginity grew back just reading that,curtis sittenfeld i want a written,apology from you and i feel like this is,punishment for taking my recommendations,from random strangers raiden on the tube,okay maybe im being a bit harsh i gave,this two out of five stars because there,are some some redeeming elements to this,book because there are moments in here,which are quite impactful and have a,really strong feminist message,especially regarding how society as a,whole perceives professional women,unmarried women and also women who,exhibit assertiveness and i did enjoy,reading the authors imaginations of the,private thoughts of a person who is so,publicly scrutinized constantly,throughout their career but overall i,kind of just hated this because its so,slow paced its so repetitive there are,so many political campaign cycles with,such,vivid details and unnecessary tangents,we get introduced to so many characters,who are just completely inconsequential,to the narrative and it honestly just,felt,like a bit of a waste of time was this,made with a spirit level because its,falling flat for me and i would love to,know what the opinion was of the person,i saw reading this on the tube did they,love it did they hate it i dont know,either way this is all their fault and,so i really need to redeem myself here,with a cracking recommendation so i am,heading out tonight im going to the pub,and ill see what londoners are reading,so lets go,[Music],telling you how deeply im obsessed,[Music],okay so the bookworms were out in full,force tonight and i saw not one not two,but three people three whole people,reading hamnet by maggie ofarrell i,feel like this is kind of like the book,of the season by the way am i about to,be arrested like whats going on here,and i actually have a copy,in my flat so i think it was meant to be,its about time i got around to reading,it and im glad this video has,encouraged me to do so so i will let you,know what my thoughts are,when im done,oh my,lord this book was heartbreaking and,devastating and,an easy five stars so thank you random,lady on the train this is of course,hamnets by maggie ofarrell and this was,the worthy winner of the 2020 womens,prize for fiction and this is a book all,about the family of a little-known indie,writer called william shakespeare these,are the people that he left behind when,he moved from stratford to london to be,a playwright so we follow his three,children judith susanna and hamnitz and,also his wife agnes who is more commonly,known to us as anne hathaway but her,father in his will i think referred to,her as agnes and so that is why the,author refers to her as agnes here,shakespeare himself is never actually,referred to by name hes always the,husband the father the playwright and i,think that a mission is done very very,intentionally b
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Hamnet by Maggie OFarrell | Spoiler Free Book Review
good morning and welcome back to belles,books,so before we get started please dont,forget to like this video and subscribe,for more content,i post every single saturday i dont,know how i feel about the lighting and,the setup but i dont currently have,very many options i dont have a tripod,i dont really have anything to film,with so currently my laptop is on top of,a box,and then my phone is in front of the,screen of the laptop,um so its not the best setup i just,finished,hamlet by maggie ofarrell,so i thought that i would come on,belles books and talk to you about that,so this book im gonna start by reading,you this synopsis on the back,on a summers day in 1596 a young girl,in stratford-upon-avon,takes to her bed with a fever her twin,brother hamlet,searches everywhere for help why is,nobody home their mother agnes is over a,mile away in a garden where she grows,medicinal herbs,their father is working in london,neither parent knows that one of the,children will not survive the week,hamlet is a novel inspired by the son of,a famous playwright shakespeare,william shakespeare its a story of a,bond between twins,and of a marriage pushed to the brink,by grief it is also the story of a,kestrel and its mistress a flea that,boards a ship in alexandria,and a glovemakers son who flouts,convention in pursuit of the woman he,loves,above all it is the tender reimagining,of a boy whose life has been all but,forgotten but whose name was given to,one of the most celebrated plays,ever written so this is the story of,william shakespeares,son hamnet the author kind of builds off,of this curiosity,she had about the sun hamnet and,shakespeares play hamlet so the story,actually begins with a few quotes,um and a few facts so first of all,shakespeare,and his wife had three children susanna,hamner and judith and the boy hamlet,died in,1596 aged 11.,it then proceeds to give you a quote,from hamlet and then,a little fact that hamnet and hamlet are,in fact the same name,entirely interchangeable so thats kind,of the premise of the story,what you would know going into it almost,all of that focus on hamnet hamlet,um its clearly the inspiration for the,story its clearly a little seed where,the writers started writing from but,i would say this isnt actually the,story of shakespeares son,so much as it is the story of,shakespeares wife so alternates between,past and present,kind of alternates between different,characters perspectives but it does kind,of focus in on shakespeares,wife so its a very fictionalized,account of the familys life,and it very much is a book about the,life of a family,it really concerns itself with like,everyday scenes,um domestic tasks um livelihood,very everyday down to earth,problems like that but then at the same,time it has behind it,running this kind of undercurrent which,is very mythical,very mystical um and that is intertwined,with agni,so shes a herbalist shes a bee,whisperer,she can see the future she touches,people,and she knows more about them than she,should so shes almost,witchy this woman and the story does,seem to really focus,on her it focuses on her when shes,young,with shakespeare as a young man and then,it focuses,on her as a mother becoming a mother,when shes older and then after hamlets,death it focuses,on her grief and her perception of,the world around her so what was,interesting to me is that this,isnt just a historical novel a,fictionalized account,but its more than that its a really,descriptive,literary imagery filled book and i,really enjoyed the read of it i really,felt immersed into the world as,though the world was fiction despite,knowing that the setting,for example the house the city was in,fact drawn,from historical fact and the past so the,author kind of carries through the,imagery,this idea that spaces and objects have,significance and much of her writing,focuses,on picking one minute detail,and then going through that little,detail that object that space is,life everything its sin everything it,does,um it kind of follows that little that,minute detail,and kind of expands it and gives it so,much more significance than you would,have thought was possible,and she kind of promotes this idea that,everything is linked,everything impacts everything else and,we ourselves as people have the power to,impact,others this idea very much links to,hamlets death which i wont give you a,spoiler for,obviously we know he dies its a,historical novel but i wont give you,any details about that,but this idea that everything is linked,really extends,into his death in a really interesting,way that is kind of unexpected its not,much,like anything ive read before and it,plays back into like the mythical,undertones of the novel while situating,itself very much still,in this imagined reality so one of my,favorite things about this novel,is the portrayal of grief that it kind,of covers,after hamlets death obviously agnes the,mother is as you might imagine,completely torn apart but what the story,doesnt do,is kind of show her in recovery she,doesnt recover from the death of her,son she doesnt ever get repaired or get,fixed,she doesnt get over it um it always,kind of looms over her,shes always searching for hamnet in,real life she doesnt kind of,give that up ever and her sadness,doesnt cease and i found this to be,first of all really moving um i actually,cried a couple of times when i was,reading this which i think is another,testament,to how well the story is written because,i dont often cry,at novels so for me that was kind of a,big deal but i also,think it was very realistic because i,think often authors,try and have their characters get over,deaths,or they kind of let the death fade into,the background this story didnt try and,do that didnt even make the attempt,and i really kind of respected that,enjoyed it and it just made the,entire ending of the novel like the last,third of the book,far more enjoyable because it felt real,although of course at the same time less,enjoyable because it was,so sad for both the mother the family,and,the reader me as a reader so yeah ive,really enjoyed this novel i loved how it,was,literature i loved how creative it was,i loved how it stemmed from a very,simple question from the author,how are hamlet the sun and hamlet the,play,linked together and she didnt kind of,search for answers,historically but instead it turned to,her own mind and her own creativity to,come up with a work,which is an incredible read i love the,way it played with mythicism,and magic it held on to really everyday,things like,my new details of everyday life and the,characters feelings and emotions,like grief so yeah i would definitely,recommend this,to anyone who loves historical fiction,as long as you dont read historical,fiction,for the fact because you want to learn,about the past because you would be,reading this historical fiction for the,fiction,basically so yeah thank you so much for,watching this video i hope you enjoyed,it and i hope you,will go away and have a look at hamnet,by maggie ofarrell and i mean the cover,is just gorgeous so i dont know what,more motivation you might need,dont forget to like and subscribe and,comment down below have a wonderful,saturday,bye
Hamnet by Maggie O´Farrell! Much Ado About Nothing.
i bought this book for its beautiful,cover its a ward but why did i bother,reading it,[Music],hi and welcome to my channel if youre,new to this channel im austen and im,trying to become a bookworm in this,video well be talking about this book,hamlet by maggie ofarrell this is a,very hyped book its one of those covers,you see everywhere you go in the,booktuber or bookstagram or booktalk,community i read on the back of the book,and i thought,ah this book doesnt really speak to me,but then again it has won an award for,womens prize for fiction for 2020. i,thought so many people cant be wrong,and today im going to discuss if they,were the book was published in 2020 and,it has around 380 pages on a summers,day in 1596 a young girl in,stratford-upon-avon takes her bed with a,sudden fever her twin brother hamnet,searches everywhere for help why is,nobody home their mother agnes is over a,mile away in the garden where she grows,medicinal herbs their father is working,in london neither parent knows that,hamnet will not survive the week hamlet,is a novel inspired by the son of a,famous playwright a boy whose life has,been all but forgotten but whose name,was given to one of the most celebrated,plays ever written if i were to describe,this book i would say that is,its a historical family drama which,shakespeare is in the middle of there,are three generations discussed in this,book you have shakespeares father,and then shakespeares kids hamnet being,one of the kids you jump back and forth,in time in this book if you have,knowledge about shakespeare and hamlet i,think many of the things in the book are,known to you,before you start reading this book and,of course the book fictionalizes out,from hamlet,and shakespeares own life the book also,says a lot about hamlets death and how,the parents deal with his death ill,give you one of the quotes that stuck,with me from this book agnes repeats the,sound back to her she finds herself,frequently unable to look away from the,child to remove her gaze from her,daughters face,why would she ever want to behold,anything else when she could be taking,in the sight of suzannes ears like the,pale folds of roses,the wing-like sweep of her tiny eyebrows,agnes repeats the sound back to her she,finds herself frequently unable to look,away from her child to remove her gaze,from her daughters face,why would she ever want to behold,anything else when she could be taking,in the sight of suzannes ears like the,pale folds of roses the wing-like sweep,of her tiny eyebrows the dark hair which,clings to her crown as if painted there,with a brush there is nothing more,exquisite to her than her child the,world could not possibly contain a more,perfect being anywhere ever so this is,the only quote from the book that i felt,i dont think i would say resonated but,of course if you have children you,might have the same feelings,towards your child as described in this,book i will now say what i thought of,the book,firstly i have to say that when i read,about the book i thought to myself that,this wasnt a book for me bear that in,mind but also im trying to become a,bookworm so i thought ill have to,explore many genres and many different,types of books to see what i like so,this is one of the steps in that process,the first thing that hit me when i,started reading the book was that it was,enormously descriptive,so everything in the book is described,in,enormous detail,this is what put me off in the start,because everything is,written over and over again,about the same things and its quite,repetitive for me even though many,things happened so you jump back and,forth in time and things are,evolving theyre evolving slowly many,people said that this was one of the,saddest books theyve ever read it says,on the back of the book that hamlet is,going to die im not an expert on,shakespeare or hamlet obviously so i,didnt know that hamlet or hamnet was,going to die so the whole time i knew,that hamnet was going to die after,reading the back of the book and that,sort of prepared me for the pain that,was coming but when the pain was coming,i didnt feel a thing,sounds like a psychopath but it did not,in any way move me of course its sad,when a child,dies but its written in a way that,its just too much,its almost like a philosophical death,in some way and not in a way that you,could feel the pain or at least i,couldnt not in reading it at least and,ive read a lot of sad books,so i know,what it is like when reading a book that,physically hurts but this didnt and of,course when i read a book i want to feel,something so if its pain it can be pain,but,just dont give me,many many many pages of,nothing and then we have the name,shakespeare because shakespeare is never,really,said in the book at all so hes called,many things but not shakespeare and i,think this is a way for the author to,draw attention to agnes because when,reading the book you felt that you were,reading about agness life,and you sympathized with her,throughout the book at least i did but,you still knew that,the book was about shakespeare i dont,know if that had a huge effect,at least not for me then again thats,only speculation i dont know why she,did it like that im going to talk,further about my thoughts on the book,but,i thought that,i cant do it without spoiling too much,so this next part will contain spoilers,because in the book there are many loose,threads,and,there were so many times when i read,things in the book and i thought oh now,were getting somewhere,and then nothing happened nothing at all,ever you read a critically acclaimed,book,and you think that,this has something and you,all the time just wait for something to,happen,something good,you wait for it,the thing that got this book all its,fame,it never came it never came so one thing,is the violent grandfather so,shakespeares father is violent,and on several accounts this is talked,about and he,does violent things at one point the,grandfather hits hamnet and hamnet gets,a flesh wound,around his eye and this is made a big,point of and later in the book its,commented but,it doesnt lead to anything you barely,hear of the grandfather after that,episode so the grandfather hits both,shakespeare and hamnet everyone knows,hes violent hamnet gets wounded,and then nothing,so why write about it,if its not going to lead anywhere in,the start of the book,shakespeare and agnes are hooking up,in close proximity to,some apples and its pointed out that if,these apples touch theyre going to be,ruined because that destroys them fair,point and the book also says that these,apples they touched while they were,hooking,but then nothing,thats it,so we know the apples are being ruined,and this is pointed out,but after that,what happens to the apples,are people going hungry is there someone,who does not survive,my mind runs wild but i get no answers,of course there are also other episodes,but in general i sort of felt like,i was waiting for things to happen all,the time and new things were happening,but,they really never led anywhere so i was,very disappointed several times reading,this book throughout of course the,interesting thing about this book is,traveling to a new world and a new time,which you didnt know a lot about and,you learn a few things about how things,were living at that time town and city,dimension is talked about a lot which i,kinda enjoyed the one thing i understand,people talking about when they talk,about this book is the creativity in the,book because i think you have to be,quite creative to make a book like this,and to draw historical facts and make,fiction out of it and many places in the,book i thought about the creativity but,as a bad book reviewer i forgot to,take notes,but i can understand that point that,people make about the book being a,creative piece also the book has a very,colorful language but its too colorful,for me,and its,too much,too many words to describe few things,thats one of the reasons why my,favorite character in this bo
Victoria’s Book Reviews: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
hello everybody welcome back today,we are chatting about hamlet by maggie,ofall and admissions first i have to,admit this is the first book ive ever,read by the great maggie ofarrell,huge apologies youd think i almost,wasnt worthy to be doing book blogging,if i did ive only just read a book by,maggie ofarrell uh,so many books out there so many great,books and oh my goodness hamnet really,is a great book now the reason why i,really wanted to vlog about this is,because i want to encourage as many,people as i can to read it but as much,as the eye grabbing hamlet its a book,about shakespeare its a book about his,play hamlet might sort of grab the,headlines it will also put off a number,of readers because i,dont really want to read that not,really my cup of tea,this isnt a book about hamlet and it,frankly isnt a book about shakespeare,what it is is is an act its a political,act this book in it just by its very,existence,maggie ofarrell,has taken shakespeares family often a,footnote in the life and times of this,great shape of this great writer the,greatest english language writer of all,time et cetera blah blah blah,and they put his family front and center,and put shakespeare in the periphery and,by doing so maggie ofarrell has put,shakespeares wife who she calls here,amnes,front and center this is a book about a,woman,with an absent husband who is off in,london making plays while shes in,stratford-upon-avon raising a set of,twins and battling the arrival of the,bubonic plague,this is,an a story about family,its a story about responsibility its a,story about overcoming grief and its a,story about othering there is something,incredibly deep in irish culture about,being able to talk about family family,history legacy its its,something so that seems to come so easy,to irish writers and maggie ofarrell is,no exception she has put us in a place,of historic fiction,and she has taken,a headline grab of shakespeare but,actually made it about women women of,course,marginalized,irrelevant footnotes in history unless,you happen to be the queen,hamnet so what is hamlet so,hamlet,was the name of shakespeares son who,died when he was 11.,and four years later shakespeares most,famous play hamlet was put on for the,first time,that is not a coincidence in the eyes of,maggie ofarrell and she has taken it,upon herself for a fictional reimagining,of what prompted,hamlet,and further back from that what was it,like to be shakespeares wife,away from your husband,bringing up two kids one was which was,to die from the bubonic plague and then,for your husband your absent husband,to go and write a play about a son for,whom you are still grieving,it is a naughty,book,hamlet is phenomenal,so,what we have essential character is,actually anjaz anez is a little bit,older than william shakespeare when they,first meet in stratford-upon-avon,william is an 18 year old 19 year old,latin shooter with an abusive father he,is a brilliant talent but his writing,talents mean nothing to his family who,desperately need him to find a trade and,earn some money,in anyas he finds something of a,companion something of a like-minded,friend anez is herself somewhat,marginalized by the community in,stratford she is a gifted herbalist what,youd perhaps consider a witch the women,shun her in the streets but they come to,her late at night when,they are unwell or with child,desperately trying to find a solution to,their difficult situations and anias,helps them,but she is in the shadows she is someone,that people are a little bit afraid of,william marries anyas much against the,the wishes of his family,and,she supports him in his decision to go,to london this book to go and write and,make his riches and,fulfill his destiny,anjazs destiny is in,stratford-upon-avon and this is where,the book remains she has a set of twins,judith and hamnet and this book is set,in the years as the bubonic plague,starts to arrive on the shores of the uk,and its impact on on the community in,stratford-upon-avon,this is,cleverly written because yes its a book,about family but maggie is,clearly a sharp enough writer to know,when to bring in the little shards of,shakespeare here and there theres a,wonderful reference in here to judith,and hamnet uh the young twins about how,they love playing tricks on those around,them by dressing up as each other and,pretending they were each other in,different situations and confusing the,adults which of course is a trick that,shakespeare includes in his play around,gender bending gender swapping dress,changing dressing like a man dressing,like a woman very shakespearean and,thats a nice reference from maggie,ofarrell in fact that kind of,gender reference is key in this book is,like i said shes bringing anya,shakespeares wife front and center she,is making the lot of women the subject,of this novel not the lot of a famous,man,this isnt a book about a struggling,writer this is a book about a struggling,woman making it in tudor england or just,trying to get through the day intruder,england the bubonic plague obviously,comes with the tragedy and like ive,already said it is hamnet who dies and,that is what gives,shakespeare his path in maggies eyes to,write hamlet which is of course a play,about internal suffering mental,uh illness grief reckoning anger all,those things that would come from,losing someone you love at such a young,age,it is the fact that im giving you the,ending by the way is not its not the,revelation its quite clearly whats,going to happen here what maggie is,examining is family,and she does it beautifully this is an,an unexceptional family and a very,exceptional family obviously there are,famous people and the sun will come down,into legend as,the source of the greatest play ever but,this is an unextraordinary family in,terms of tudor england,this is a family where there are,difficulties in marriage where money is,hard where the women have to step up and,do a lot of the work when their husbands,are absent or,having to do trade in other towns it is,yeah its stunning hamlet is fully,deserving of all the five stars and the,critical acclaim that it gets and i,really would encourage you to read it i,dont want people being put off by the,fact that its linked to shakespeare it,could be shakespearean it could be,written in shakespearean language which,i know some people find inaccessible,this is a historic novel written in,contemporary language this is fully,accessible and a very beautiful story,about people on the margins of society,who end up,only through the fortuitousness of,history as being some of its most famous,one thing id like to mention before i,finish with the blog is,um about the ending which im not going,to really spoil for you even though,its explained to you what whats going,to happen,i had a chat about this book with a,friend of mine,and he said what he found most,interesting about the book was the,ending and i was surprised about that,because in it was just an interesting,observation considering all the themes,in the book,and he said whats interesting is,sometimes when a writer has a really,good idea like a hook,sometimes the hook becomes the book and,they dont know how to end it they,create a plot they create a world but,have such a good idea that they havent,really invested how to tie up all the,loose ends and i thought that was a,really interesting observation because,what he felt and he said was this ending,is perfect the last three pages last,chapter he said was absolutely,perfect because you feared that maggie,ofarrell had created something so,unique such an intriguing set of,circumstances half based on truth half,based on fiction and what was she going,to do that how she was going to wrap up,uh this,story of a famous family and an unfamous,family and it is done beautifully this,is a richly rewarding book hamlet by,maggie ofarrell
Does HAMNET live up to the hype??