Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell - October 25, 2021


 

Present were Betty, Carla, Colette, Jane, Janet, Linda, Michèle and Shirley.  We discussed Jane's book choice Hamnet or Hamnet & Judith by Maggie O'Farrell.   

Maggie O'Farrell was born in Northern Ireland and lived in Wales and Scotland.  She presently lives in Edinburgh with her husband, author William Sutcliffe and her children.  Ms O'Farrell has won several awards for her 8 novels.  She has also written a memoir called I am, I am, I am: Seventeen Brushes with Death.

Hamnet is the story of William Shakespeare's son who dies of the plague at 11 years old.  Shakespeare had three children, Susanna and twins Hamnet & Judith, with Anne Hathaway known in this book as Agnes.  The novel is briefly about Hamnet but the main character is his mother Agnes who is strong, well known in the village as a free spirit and a herbalist sought after by the villagers.  Village life is well described, the buildings, the people, merchants and those who have been to Stratford-upon-Avon felt almost as if they were there in the village. It is really the story of 17th century life, of grief and marriage. 

Most of us enjoyed the book and found the storyline, the descriptions, the characters well written.  Like a Jane Austen book you could easily be engrossed in the story,  some described it as a page-turner.  The description of Agnes preparing her son Hamnet for burial was so real you could feel her grief. Shakespeare is never named, he is the husband, the father, the Latin tutor.  Their marriage is well described, the absences as their each dealt with the grief of the death of Hamnet, the love that existed between them.  We almost all found the book fascinating.  

Thank you Jane for an excellent book choice.  For those who wonder why there are two titles for this book, it seems as if in Canada, published by Penguin Books, it was titled Hamnet & Judith and in the UK and the USA it was published by Alfred K. Knopf as simply Hamnet. 


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