The continuation of the story of Hamlet's Ophelia. The characterizations are really well done and the story line is interesting. The plausible idea of Ophelia faking her death makes for a very interesting twist on the Shakespeare tale. Add the birth of Hamlet's son and the hint of romance at the very end with Horatio and it is a very satisfying read.

Readers will want to read the original play to see how it all fits together and find the actual words that were either paraphrased or in quotes in this tale.

This would be a worthy addition to the list.

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. ( )

http://keriansthoughts.blogspot.com/2... ( )

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. ( )

It's a good and an easy way to learn Shakespeare's play and to understand how the royal court works. The romance between Ophelia, Prince Hamlet and Horatio lends an interesting twist to the story. I think that the author could have made her minor characters stronger, fox example, Edmund and Polonius. There wasn't too much information on Polonius. Edmund was more or less a cameo appearance. Ophelia was portrayed wonderfully as having developed through the various stages that she was thrown into. The latter part of the story was most informative regarding life in a convent and reasons as to why some people are thrown into this type of lifestyle. ( )