Gertrude and Claudius: A Novel

Written by John Updike

Narrated by John Lee

Gertrude and Claudius are the “villains” of Hamlet: he the killer of Hamlet’s father and usurper of the Danish throne; she his lusty consort, who marries Claudius before her late husband’s body is cold. But in this imaginative “prequel” to the play, John Updike makes a case for the royal couple that Shakespeare only hinted at. Gertrude and Claudius are seen afresh against a background of fond intentions and family dysfunction, on a stage darkened by the ominous shadow of a sullen, erratic, disaffected prince. “I hoped to keep the texture light,” Updike said of this novel, “to move from the mists of Scandinavian legend into the daylight atmosphere of the Globe. I sought to narrate the romance that preceded the tragedy.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9780593150108

John Updike

John Updike was born in 1932, in Shillington, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954, and spent a year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of The New Yorker, and since 1957 has lived in Massachusetts. He is the author of fifty-odd previous books, including twenty novels and numerous collections of short stories, poems, and criticism. His fiction has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the American Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Award, and the Howells Medal.

Reviews for Gertrude and Claudius

[thorold_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Who knew we needed a Hamlet-from-Gertrude’s-POV? Middle-aged woman trapped in dull dynastic marriage to beefy warrior finds happiness with her sexy and sophisticated brother-in-law, only to have her life messed up by her censorious perpetual-student son. Quite a fun idea, but I’m not sure if it really had enough substance to justify a whole novel.

Perhaps it would have been more convincing as a happy second marriage if Updike had somehow managed to find a way to get Hamlet sr. out of the way without involving actual fratricide. But no-fault divorce wasn’t really a thing (or even a thing) in medieval Denmark. It’s also slightly unclear to me how Gertrude’s father could be a first-generation Christian convert while her son was dabbling his toes in the renaissance. But it’s all just a bit of fun from a writer who was established enough to be able to publish whatever caprices happened to take his fancy, we probably shouldn’t look too closely…

[mstrust · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the story of what happened before Hamlet. As a teenage princess Gerutha argues with her father against her upcoming wedding to the much older soldier Horwendil, an argument she loses. The result of this marriage is a boy whom Gerutha never feels very motherly towards, claiming the child is cold to her. All the while, her brother-in-law has been circling Gerutha, desperately in love.

This is the second Updike I've read, having read The Centaur many years ago and liked it. I can't say that I liked this one though. Gerutha's own life wasn't explored, she is shown only in connection to the men in her life, and because of that, her portrayal is sexualized much of the time, while her role as mother to Hamlet is thin in the story, he actually figures little.
I got the feeling pretty quickly that Updike was a guy who liked the sound of his own voice. The sentences are packed with as many descriptors as could be jammed in, making for heavy paragraphs.

[amaliagavea · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

John Updike chose to carry out a difficult task. He imagined and created the complex (?) relationship between Gertrude and Claudius before the climax of the events that consist Shakespeare’s masterpiece. One could say that this is an attempt of a prequel to ''Hamlet'' and as such it has the quality of the majority of prequels and sequels in Literature and in Cinema. It falls frightfully short.

Even as I’m writing this review, I am unable to understand how I feel about this book. It left me completely indifferent, it didn't create any feelings in me, any images in my mind. I cannot say I hated it because hate needs a whole array of feelings to be invoked and those were simply absent here. Updike’s writing was completely empty, devoid of any warmth and soul, any real sentiment that would be required when an author is dealing -or messing with- the task to breathe new life to the Bard’s larger than life characters.

If I want to be honest, I need to say that I never considered Gertrude a villain. However, neither she nor Claudius are particularly interesting characters. Naturally, Hamlet erases all, but Laertes, Ophelia, Horatio are people I would like to read more about. So are Gertrude and Claudius. I’ve often wondered about the marriage between Hamlet’s parents. Was it happy? Was Gertrude aware of her brother-in-law’s intentions? These are questions that have been plaguing scholars for centuries. Updike presents his own vision, which I won't spoil here, and it is quite plausible. The problem is that it’s inconsistent with the characters he reconstructed. He managed to turn the infamous couple into a snooze-fest, people who speak like automatons, without any substance. They’re not even archetypes, they’re plain air.There is nothing they offer to the reader. Even Polonius- who’s named Corambis here after the version of the Bad Folio- becomes more boring than our familiar Shakespearean councillor. Well, at least that’s an achievement there for you…

Where is Hamlet, you may ask? Hamlet is completely absent for the majority of the narration and thank Jesus and Mr. Wednesday and all the Old Gods and the New for that, because who knows what treatment would be in store for our beloved, melancholic, black clad Prince of Denmark?In the few lines that are uttered by Gertrude, Hamlet isn’t positively portrayed. Yes, Updike creates the Queen as an unloving, cold mother whose only thoughts are how to fall in bed with her husband’s brother. Forgive me, but I have lost count on how many times I have read ''Hamlet'' and I’ve never thought that she was distant, devoid of maternal feelings.

Many of the excellent reviewers here have already mentioned the writing issues so I won’t bore you further. Updike attempted to create a kind of pseudo-medieval language. In my opinion,it didn’t work to the advantage of the story. It was exactly this issue that made every interaction so dry it was almost unbearable. The fact that Claudius uses the word ‘’connoisseur’’ or speaks Italian and Spanish interrupting his speech was something I couldn't take seriously. Not to mention, that the writer had the audacity to insert quotes from Shakespeare's play in the dialogues.

Updike is an author I wasn’t familiar with before I read ‘’Gertrude and Claudius’’ and I don’t intend to try my luck with any other book of his. In our times,we have experienced examples of re-imagining Shakespeare with beautiful results. Unfortunately, this novel wasn't true to the Bard and to the nature of his characters. It wasn’t even respectful. Perhaps, Hamlet and his troubled family should be left alone by now...No need to torture them more...

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very enjoyable prequel to Hamlet. Casts the "incestuous" couple in a very sexy light. It also rang true for the characters as they emerged in Hamlet. I could see the motivations and reactions as making sense in both works so he must have done something right.

[athenable · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful.

[valerieandbooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I wish I was more familiar with Shakespeare beyond what was required reading in high school (Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar). I also wish Hamlet was one of the plays I had read, because I know I would have appreciated Updike's "Gertrude and Claudius" much more if I was familiar with the Hamlet story line. I liked how Updike attempted to adjust his language to that of the Shakespearean era. But, I couldn't get into this volume as much as I have of his other books I've read -- and I really did want to get into it because I really admire Updike. Props to him for trying something different, though. And maybe, just maybe, someday I'll take a class in Shakespeare (I'm currently a college student, second time around, so it could happen) and then re-read this novel.

[turtlesleap · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Updike has for many years been one of my favorite contemporary writers. Gertrude and Claudius is a prequel, of sorts, to Shakespeare's "Hamlet" which is a tantalizing idea in itself. Updike has, by inference rather than direct use of the character, drawn a portrait of Hamlet that may surprise readers. HIs treatment of the lovers, Gertrude and Claudius and those who surround them, is sympathetic and Gertrude (or Gerutha) is treated with special kindness. Updike always seems to love his women characters more than his men. The books is a treat, especially for those who are familiar with Shakespeare's play.

[devil_llama · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Updike takes the familiar Hamlet tale from the point of view of his parents, particularly his mother, weaving together legends from several regions into a fascinating story. I've never been able to view Hamlet quite the same way again; it put a whole new face on the play for me.

[stephenhughes_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The novel is slow going at first, but it gets much better about halfway through the first of the book's three sections, so stick with it. The action spans three different eras, with the corresponding differences in the treatment of the language and action prior to the story of Shakespeare's Hamlet, with Updike showing off in a virtuosic performance. Like John Gardner's Grendel or Carlos Fuentes' The Old Gringo, it is intriguing to watch Updike play with imagined material beyond the framing of the original, familiar story.

[kapplebaum_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's been a long, long while since I read a book all at one sitting, but I couldn't put this one down.

[girl_detective · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a fascinating take on the play, imagining Gertrude and Claudius (or their differently named antecedents) as complex, human characters in the years before the play takes place. Often in productions and readings, Hamlet is the hero, Claudius is the villain, and Gertrude is rarely sympathetic. These are not the case here, and Updike’s learned, clever tale provides a fresh look at the old play.

[jemsw_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book has a complex narration style that can be, by turns, beautiful and frustrating. I feel as though Updike spends too much time in early sections setting the scene of medieval Denmark and not enough in developing his characters apart from Gertrude. While I think this is rich subject matter, and certainly appreciate the critical reappropriation of material, the novel still didn't grab me or give me any insights into the play that hadn't previously occurred to me. It seemed too devoted to setting up the action of Hamlet and not sufficiently in rearranging and deepening our investment in the material.