Ophelia

By Lisa Klein

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' VOYA

As ambitious and witty as she is beautiful, Ophelia is quick to catch the eye of the captivating prince Hamlet. Their love blossoms in secret, but bloody deeds soon turn Denmark into a place of madness, and Ophelia may be forced to choose between her relationship and her own life. In desperation, she devises a plan to escape from Elsinore Castle forever ... with one very dangerous secret.

Ophelia takes center stage in this bold and thrilling reimagining of Shakespeare's famous tragedy, the story of a young woman falling in love, searching for her place in the world, and finding the strength to survive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Dec 15, 2010
• ISBN: 9781408820841

Lisa Klein

LISA KLEIN is the author of Lady Macbeth's Daughter, Two Girls of Gettysburg, and Ophelia. A former professor of English, she lives in Ohio with her family. www.authorlisaklein.com

Reviews for Ophelia

[thelittlebookworm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Little BookwormIn Hamlet, Ophelia is a strange creature. Seemingly in love with Hamlet and driven to madness by the death of her father at Hamlet's hands, she is suddenly gone from the story. But what is the true story of Ophelia's madness and how deep did her feeling for Lord Hamlet go? Ophelia explores her background and the true story of Ophelia's love affair with the Danish prince.Ophelia is one of my favorite Shakespearean characters. I've always been fascinated by her. When I was in 12th grade and we read Hamlet and had to do a project, I made a chart of her flowers and their meanings. It was her character that got me interested in flower language. But it was always a mystery of her real relationship to Hamlet. It seems like they were in love or, at least courting, but you never get the full background on the situation. In Ophelia, Klein gives a full back story to Ophelia and her relationship with Hamlet. Ophelia's story starts when she was 12 and her family moves to the castle and she first sees the little Prince Hamlet. And it shows their developing relationship and her part in his play on madness and revenge scheme after the death of his father. I liked the idea that Ophelia both understood and didn't understand what was going on with Hamlet. And that she tried to help at first, but his madness made her question everything. I thought the ending was really good. Although the book was slow in parts, it was well written using the language style of the play without being too hard to read. The only complaint may be, if you haven't read the play, then parts of this might be hard to understand as somethings are glossed over.*begin spoilers*I liked the idea that Ophelia doesn't actually die, but fakes her death à la Juliet and lives on in a convent. So she actually does get herself to a nunnery. And she gives birth to Hamlet's son which is so wonderful and that Horatio finds her and probably marries her since it was obvious he loved her all along. I'm not too sure how I feel about her and Hamlet marrying secretly, but it moves parts of the story along.*end spoilers*

[dresdeng.b1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In the book Ophelia, Lisa Klein recreates the story of William Shakespeare's Hamlet but tells it from Ophelia's perspective. Ophelia's tale begins when she is still a child and her ambitious father seeks a position in the king of Denmark's court. When her father is granted a small position in the court, the family moves into the castle. Two major things occur because of this move. Queen Gertrude takes note of Ophelia and offers her a role as a lady's maid and Ophelia's older brother Laertes befriends Prince Hamlet. Eventually Ophelia and Hamlet begin a secret courtship which leads to their secret marriage. Unfortunately on their wedding night her life starts to unravel: her husband goes crazy, her father is killed, and she doesn't know where she stands. When Hamlet gets shipped off to England though, she realizes she must take matters into her own hands to save herself.Before reading this book, I watched the movie Hamlet. This helped me understand and enjoy Ophelia even more because some parts of the story I might not have understood, had I not watched the movie. Knowing the original story of Hamlet also helped me decide which parts of the entire story I liked better. I gave this book 5 stars because I felt the author had such a good understanding and familiarity with the story of Hamlet that she was able to take a minor character and make her the heroine of her own tale. In this book Ophelia's life was still full of trouble and tragedy but she was bolder, smarter, and more self-sufficient which made her more likable to me. I also enjoyed that the story continued beyond Shakespeare's ending. I think the adventure and romance would appeal to most teenaged girls.

[anissaannalise-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Hamlet is my favorite work of Shakespeare & I always found Ophelia fascinating & wanted to know more about her. That's why this story caught my eye. In short, this did not fulfill my longing. I literally arrived at the end & realized that for all that Ophelia told me, I felt absolutely nothing & no connection to her. I had not expected that & I find that I'm disappointed to be left so blank. That I felt more for Ophelia in the little we get of her, by comparison, in the original than I do here where she speaks from start to finish is jarring. I found that the writing was just fine but there was no passion to the story. Some of the other portrayals seemed a bit off from the original but I was able to allow those & not let them hold me back in enjoyment. Possibly my expectations were too high. I came in wanting to know who Ophelia was & I finished in the same place so I've neither lost nor gained.

[nerdybookreview · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

To start with the book was well written, engaging at times, but for me, probably a hundred pages too long. By the end it began to drag and I was happy to have it over with. By far this book wasn’t bad, it just lacked any form of juice and excitement. What happened to Ophelia? She leaves me in utter despair to how the author has ruined such an iconic Shakespeare character. Klein took a mysterious, alluring young girl in my opinion, who held a great deal about herself in inner strength and made her a watered down pansy. She was fluttering around in panic, always looking to Hamlet for advice, she supposedly had a hideous pig of a man after her who she continually pushed away. This led to her being ‘saved’ by Hamlet to start their romance. She just lacked any form of sustenance. To me, Klein’s portrayal of Ophelia damaged by impression that I gained from Shakespeare. The idea behind the story I thought was interesting and it did offer an alternate theory which is plausible. After all, we only viewed surface matters in Hamlet. I don’t think this was over the top or too fanciful. It fit well with the story being of mediocre interest. The middle of the story is where everything becomes rather dry. The story seems to plod along at a slow pace and I found myself wanting to skip parts. I did read it all, but only because I felt like I would miss on something vital. Here the story could have done with more action or an introduction of a lively character to brighten the story and engage my attention. The piece of work may be sharp and well written, but I wouldn’t call it dark and romantic! The romance is there, but it’s all rather artful and embellished as was the style in the Elizabethan era, but with this novel being aimed at a modern society, I felt the romance needed toning down to more plausible and realistic terms. The darkness I didn’t see at all, there may have been moments where you were momentary surprised or found a little exciting, but to me this was more of a fluffy romance novel than the dark, brooding tale I was expecting. I enjoyed the interpretation as I do all different variations of Hamlet and it’s characters, but for me, Ophelia lacked any of the fiery sustenance I was hoping for. For those of you that love Hamlet, and ultimately Ophelia, don’t waste your time reading her story because I’m sure you’d think of your own more exciting tale that she could venture on rather than Klein’s rather drab, if not a happy ending tale.

[jasmyn9 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Most of us have read, if not at least heard of, the story of Hamlet. The danish prince's tale has captured the imagination of many, but what of the beautiful Ophelia? Where did she come from and why did she behave the way she did. Lisa Klein takes a look into the life of Ophelia before the start of Hamlet, and follows her through the tragic tale.Ophelia's story is interesting, and Klein did a fantastic job of molding her story into the framework of Hamlet. But there was just something about her that I had a hard time connecting with for some reason. She seemed a bit one sided, always worrying, complaining, and enjoying the same things no matter what the circumstances were. I can see the places where the author tried to make her grow and develop into something more, but she always came up just a bit short....maybe that was the point?The plot was were it really lost me. I know there is only so much freedom you have when you are working within another famous story, but there was much of Ophelia's life that was up to the imagination. Most of her story just seemed a bit cliche and overdone. I could almost swear I had read something almost exactly the same and that did turn me off quite a bit.I don't want to turn anyone off from the book too much though. I don't think there was anything actually wrong with the story, writing style, or characters. And I have to admire the way the author was able to keep all the facts from Hamlet straight and fit it into Ophelia's story just right. It just wasn't a book for me.3/5

[krau0098 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I am a big fan of Hamlet and I have always wondered what the rest of Ophelia's story is. When of saw this reimagining of Hamlet, from Ophelia's prospective, I was wary but interested. Unfortunately, while decently written, the story was just plain boring and at sometimes forced.The story starts from Ophelia's point of view earlier than the play, back when the court of King Hamlet was a happy place. There is even a brief meeting with Yorick the jester. It seems okay, the author tries to stay true to the writing style of Hamlet but also tries to make it easily readable. This was okay and overall better than trying to mimic Shakespeare. Unfortunately the author forces in famous parts from the original play. She tries to put them in word for word and they seem strange and stilted in with the rest of the story. It is just plain odd.The back history and Ophelia's life after where the original play ends seem kind of boring. I am sure that the author means Ophelia to seem spirited and rebellious. To me though Ophelia's story seems rather plain; Ophelia takes what seems to me to be a rather typical route of women that were shunned in that time period. There is no stretch of the imagination here. I wonder if that is meant to make the story more realistic or maybe more in keeping with the times? The tragedy of Hamlet is in itself fanciful so I don't understand why you wouldn't stay with that and make Ophelia have a more interesting part in it all.Despite all the things I didn't like there were some things I did like. I did like that the author stayed true to the major plotline of Hamlet. I liked the glimpse of the court before King Hamlet's death. And, although it was not in keeping with a tragedy, I liked the hopeful ending. Although even this rankled a bit because after having Ophelia rail against the men in her life it seemed odd for the author to hint that Ophelia would feel more complete with the addition of a man to her life. Maybe this was meant to be ironic. It also bothered me that the characters in this book seemed less passionate than in the play; you would think a book would give more license to character development.All in all this may be a book I could have never really loved no matter who the writer was. It is an almost insurmountable task to fill-out a story written by Shakespeare. I applaud the author for the attempt. I just wish it was a more interesting and more well-written attempt. As it stands this book was okay, but nothing more. I don't think I will read anything more by this author, her writing style definitely didn't grab and take hold of me.

[mmillet_7 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Let me start this review by saying how much I LOVE Shakespeare's Hamlet and how excited I was to see more into the character of Ophelia. But after that, this story did not leave me feeling like I gained any important new understanding of her character...blech.So the book details the life of Ophelia and lets just say I only really liked the parts that stayed true to the original play. Klein adds in her backstory, Hamlet's courtship, and above all what happens to her afterwards. Of course, Ophelia faked death (think Juliet) and ran away to a convent where she later gave birth to Hamlet's son -- not illegitimate mind you, because they had previously married in secret. It's more than a little stretched. I didn't love how in depth they described her time spent in a convent, learning about the lord and the other sisters there. Frankly, I didn't see that it added anything to the story. But I did enjoy the parts that fit in with the original play and enjoyed the suppositions of the other minor characters in the play. It just feel a little flat anytime she digressed. Sad, I know -- I wanted to like this book, I really did. Although it does make me want to go back and read the play, which I think is a good quality in any book -- intentional or not.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Founded around a series of what-ifs. What if Ophelia's death was in fact a Romeo-and-Juliet type attempt to get away from the troubles that beset her relationship with Hamlet and in fact she survived to tell her tale? In fact this story mostly reads like Hamlet meets Romeo and Juliet and finishes with a happy ending. Overall it was interesting to have some of the dialogue from the original interspersed with the story and a greater development of the character of Ophelia but overall it was a bit ho-hum.

[anniecase_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

So disappointing. I loved the idea of seeing things from Ophelia's perspective and I loved that this was a teen book, since Ophelia is considered one of the first teen heroines in literature. But the execution is painfully slow and boring. The story and the ultimate drama never come to life. It was hard to get through and I haven't thought about it much since.

[elizardkwik · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An in-depth version of the story of Hamlet, told from Ophelia's point of view, with some artistic liberties. The writing seamlessly includes lines from the original play, while adding so much more in terms of detail. Focusing on the female characters, this is a good read for fans of the play.

[librarianlk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining takeon Hamlet. Opheliais not mad or dead.

[carothelibrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A retelling of Hamlet, with Ophelia as our narrator. From her point of view we see the intrigues and plots within Elsinore, her love for Hamlet, and in this version of the story, we find out how Ophelia escaped with her life, while all of her loved ones perished.

[roberto2012 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Acabo de terminarlo y ya lo quiero volver a leer, e incluso volver a ver la película.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

teen/adult fiction. Maybe there could be more drama, or more witty banter? For all the things that happen to O and Ham, you would think it wouldn't read so much like a plain old historical fiction book--sort of like if Shakespeare wrote a longer story in prose... without all of the jokes. I read up to page 83 or 85 or so and it was perfectly OK, but I didn't see much point in continuing when there are so many other things out there to read instead.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ophelia by Lisa Klein is a YA retelling of Hamlet and is told in the voice of Ophelia. The original storyline has been changed in order to accommodate this plot, so in this version Ophelia doesn’t go insane nor does she die but instead fakes her death and leaves Denmark for the refuge of a convent in France. Ophelia takes us through her life from her early childhood as a tomboy to her days in Elsinore Castle as an attendant to Queen Gertrude and she describes how her childhood friendship becomes an attraction turning into eventual love for Prince Hamlet. In this book they marry in secret, but his madness, brought on by the death of his father, ends their relationship and Hamlet turns his back on Ophelia, directly her to take herself off to a nunnery. Luckily Horatio, who cares very deeply for Ophelia, helps her escape Denmark when she is both in danger from the king and finds she is going to have Hamlet’s child. She has the child in secret, and realizes that it was Horatio who was the better man all the time.An interesting story but unfortunately the author succumbed to one of my pet peeves in historical fiction, that of giving her lead female character modern sensibilities which made the story feel very false to me. Many of the characters were poorly defined, perhaps the worst one was Hamlet who came across very one dimensional. Ultimately this effort fell short of the mark, and as much as I realize that I am not the target audience for this book, putting a happy ending on a story that was meant to be a tragedy just felt wrong.

[sensitivemuse · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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.

[roguelibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Plot: Ophelia is the learned, tomboyish daughter to an ambitious man. Eventually her father works his way into the court of Denmark. Ophelia becomes a ladymaid to the Queen and falls in love with with the dark and clever Prince Hamlet (and wins his love in return). Everything seems perfect, for a time. But her love is not an easy one. The Prince suspects that his uncle has murdered his father the king and he has vowed revenge. But the mask of insanity he has put on for his plan starts to feel all to real and his revenge comes to deeply affect her own life and family. Ophelia will have to be very cunning to survive her love and his revenge.This is a wonderful retelling of Shakespeare’s famous play from the perspective of a character that remained sadly underdeveloped in the original. Klein clearly knows the play inside and out; she expands upon the existing narrative and inserts scenes and lines from the text in an elegant and seamless way. We come to understand Ophelia, her family and even the Queen, in a way that the play didn’t really permit. Hamlet is ultimately secondary here. Klein’s Ophelia is intelligent, witty and vibrant. She is struggling as best she can against forces she cannot control. Her love is beautiful and truly sad. But personally, I fell in love with kind, quiet Horatio rather than Hamlet from the start. ^_^

[stephxsu · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, is practically required reading for every English student. But how much is really known about Ophelia, Hamlet’s “girl,” who goes mad and commits suicide in the original play?Lisa Klein offers us a different perspective on the undeveloped Shakespearean character. Ophelia is a strong-willed and beautiful young woman living in the often treacherous world of court intrigue. For the most part shunned and used by her father and brother, the once tomboyish and willful Ophelia grows into a lady with wit and passion under the wings of court women such as Queen Gertrude. Yet she sometimes feels separate from the rest of the ladies when they speak of things such as love and marriage.That is, of course, until she crosses paths with Prince Hamlet. Their attraction for one another is undeniable, and Ophelia soon finds herself spiraling downwards into love. But when, after the suspicious death of his father the king, Hamlet’s passion for Ophelia turns into a dreadful passion for revenge, Ophelia must carve out her own path, with or without her love, if she wants to live.It is refreshing to have one of Shakespeare’s usually passive female characters retold as a strong personality. Ophelia is very much a modern woman stuck in the early seventeenth century; you can find hearty doses of feminism and religious zeal in many passages throughout. Supporting characters, however, are incompletely sketched, and I never felt any real connection with Ophelia and Hamlet’s love for one another.About half of the book focuses on what actually occurs in the play; the rest is about Ophelia’s attempt to survive away from Elsinore. Because she ends up at a convent, the second half of the book is very much focused on religion and finding peace with oneself, so much so that at times it can begin to sound preachy. Likewise, Ophelia seemed to approach the reliving of her past at arm’s length, and that, I think, unfortunately detracted from the story’s intimacy and appeal.Overall, however, Ophelia is an interesting way to reapproach a familiar piece of literature. If you’re looking for something pro-feminism with period language that sounds genuine, pick this one up.