Ophelia

An Unsuspecting Favorite

I honestly never thought that I'd read anything dealing with Shakespeare due to my own freewill. But here I am telling you that Lisa Klein's novel, Ophelia is quite possibly the best novel I've read in a long time. In high school, I always dreaded literature class when we had to read Shakespeare. Maybe it was because back then almost every popular TV drama was based off of one or more of his plays or maybe I found that talking about problems was a much better solution that death. Who knows. All I know is that Lisa Klein blew a breath of life into of Shakespeare's most famous plays Hamlet, and I thank her for that. Everyone who has read Hamlet knows the story of Prince Hamlet and Ophelia, or at least they thought they did. No one knows for sure what really happened to Ophelia when she left her "rags to ruches" life behind. Lisa Klein retells Ophelia's story through the eyes of a young woman trying to find her place in a world of deceit. Ophelia's story begins when she was young. She had a somewhat simple life, at least in the beginning. Living right outside of Elsinore Castle where her life would change drastically and forever, she could never have imagined what fate had in store for her. Although Ophelia's curiosity-turned-affection towards Prince Hamlet started when she was young, she wasn't like most girls her age. She was curious, competitive and most of all a tomboy, which meant her meetings with the prince was often, even if they were short-lived. Ophelia knew nothing of the ways of love, the court or even where she belonged in the midst of it all. As she grew she became a lady in-waiting for Queen Gertrude, and soon became one of her favorites. Due to Ophelia's love of Latin and literature, they formed an almost mother-daughter bond reading "low brow" romance novels and discussing love and politics. At this moment you had a slight glimmer of hope for Ophelia's character. Now if this were any other story you'd think "Ok, everything's going to turn out alright" but then you get a reality check and remember that this story is based off of a Shakespearian play. At this point I was started to ask myself, "What trick is Klein trying to pull here? Is Ophelia going to deny her Shakespearian fate and live the life she had always wanted? Is that even possible?" Of course not, this is Shakespeare not Nicholas Sparks. In most tragedies the fate of a character determines if they took a chance to stand up to their enemy of not. When their conscious and passion would get the best of them they would make a decision that would ultimately change their lives, usually for the worse. Such was not exactly the case of Ophelia. She knew a dangerous secret but would this secret be enough to spare her life? This was the question that kept haunting me as I could see the disastrous trail of events for Ophelia and the inhabitants of Elsinore castle. Ophelia had it all at this point- the love of her life a prince even, Elsinore castle was her home and the Queen favored her. It seemed to me the more Prince Hamlet and Ophelia's love blossomed the closer destruction came. Although they met in secret, paranoia was working its way through Prince Hamlet and Ophelia's life. When their love evaporated quicker than it came Ophelia knew that she had to make a decision. She had to decide if she wanted work it out with Prince Hamlet or escape the castle she once called home. What would I do if I were in Ophelia's predicament?

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Great Book!

This book simply took my breath away. Hamlet is by far my favorite Shakespeare play, and Ophelia offers a great new perspective on the story.There was forbidden love, betrayal, revenge, and friendship in the novel. The story stayed true to Hamlet, while still remaining original. I definitely recommend it !

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Ophelia

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

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Incredible!! wonderful imagery!!!! Amazing contribution to Hamlet

i know this might sound pathetic but ive read this book 3 times. the book takes u into ophelias world and you feel i like she is sitting right next to u you........ a wonderful read for those who have read Hamlet and want to know more about Ophelia

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

This book was sooo good. The whole time my heart was bleeding when Ophelia's was shattering, and when she was happy so was I. The author,Lisa Klein, truly has a gift for writing. The entire time you are reading this story of tragedy and love you will have a different outlook on the world. Ophelia was brought up as a simple girl, but she soon catches the queen's eye and then imediately becomes her lady in waiting and throughout the years she becomes the most trusted lady in waiting. When she is 16, Prince Hamlet eventually becomes her secret love and they have a trecherous and happy courtship, but in secret. Then Ophelia's happiness shatters when tradgedy hits the castel where she was brought up. And soon she is concoting a plan to save her life. This story is mind shatteringly good and will help you understand true love and how you need to trust your own instincts about men. I highly recomend this book to everyone.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Good read

This book kept my interest and made me wish for a sequel. Good read.

Buy this book!

I don't even have the words to describe this book! If it was a movie I would watch it.

Great story

I loved this book. The fact that you got to see the other side of this famous story from the amazing Ophelia's point of view was great. Loved it, it was a book that I could not put down!

Wonderful Book, Never put it down.

The book was amazing! I picked it up almost 6yrs ago and i constantly revisit it to this day. Wrote an award winning poem using this story as a basis entitled "Sincerely Your Ophelia"

A gem!

I received this book as a gift when I was a teenager and didn't think I would enjoy it, but I was very wrong. Ophelia is one of my very favorite novels, one I've read and reread over the years. There's love, mystery, betrayal, hope, fear, and the story of a courageous young woman who learns to trust herself. I would definately recommend this treasure of a book!

Amazing!!!!!

Loved this story. It is an absolute must read.

A Must Read!

This book is a must read! It's absolutely one of the best interpretations of Hamlet I've ever read. It focus' on Ophelia and her progression through the play Hamlet and involves wonderful insight into her back story and her side of the story. Ophelia's ending was quite predictable but I really encouraged the way Lisa Klein had this book end.
Overall, a must read for any Hamlet or Shakespeare fan.

Ophelia

I read Hamlet and was dissapointed at shakesphere for making Ophelia a side charactor and I personally saw more potential to her. When I saw this, I immediatly got it and it became an imediate favorite! It makes Ophelia the main charactor and it shows HER point of veiw. I would definatly reccomend this to anyone who loves history! I would also like to say that you all should read Hamlet before/after just to understand it more. This book has Romance, history, and thrill!

LIFE-CHANGING%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21%21

I+love+that+theres+so+much+love+in+this+book%21+Hamlet+and+Ophelia+were+so+in+love+.+.+.+or+atleast+until+he+went+mad.++When+they+said+that+people+were+making+love+under+a+tree%2C+and+saying+they+gave+theirselves+to+eachother%2C+i+wish+they+told+what+happened.+Was+it+spicy+or+sweet+or+romantic%3F+I+know+that+Ophelia+and+Hamlets+first+time+was+romantic+and+sweet.+It+was+on+a+balcony+in+the+moonlight.+Thats+sorta+romantic+consitering+their+love+was+forbidden%21+At+the+end+you+wonder+what+happens+to+her+and+Haratio.+If+it+dosent+work+out+between+them+she+always+has+little+Hamlet.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

The+book+itself+was+very+good%2C+however%2C+sometimes+%22in%22+would+be+written+as+%22m.%22+For+example%2C+the+word+%22brain%22+was+written+as+%22bram.%22

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Absolute Agony (CAUTION-SOME SPOILERS)

It's difficult to describe how very disappointed this book made me. The beginning was absolutely magnificent. The description of Ophelia's childhood at court was very interesting, and her secret love with Hamlet was so sweet I nearly broke out in tears. Hamlet and Ophelia had such wonderful chemistry and devotion to one another and it warmed my heart to read of it. But as soon as the late King's ghost appeared everything began to transform from blissful to irritating. Hamlet's madness was portrayed very well and was true to the play, but Ophelia was driving me insane. Rather than finding out exactly what was going on, she moaned and groaned that Hamlet no longer loved her, and within but mere chapters the love story that I had taken such great pleasure in fell to the ground in a heap as Ophelia took matters into her own hands. The entire middle of this story was lacking explanation and I groaned with a wanting for Ophelia to find out what was happening instead of freaking out. Suddenly she was independent, and decided to fake her drowning in order to protect herself from the malevolence in Denmark. I wished she would have just had courage and found out exactly what was happening to Hamlet. But no. Instead she cut of her hair and became a man, as if she were Mulan. This plot twist was so confusing I couldn't understand where the story could possibly be going. And when hearing from Horatio that Hamlet had declared to everyone his love for her, she cared for nothing but the fact that he and Laertes had fought and became angry that they didn't console each other. This being my favorite part of the play, I was unbelievably frustrated and angry with Ophelia for whining. And then we come to the third part of the book, Ophelia's life at the nunnery. This portion of the story was far too long! It kept going and going and going and left me wondering what the point was. Till finally the very last chapter, where she ended up with Horatio. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. I wanted to throw the book at the wall I was so angry! Ophelia and Hamlet had always been one of my favorite couples. I have always believed that they truly did love each other, but their love was lost in revenge. It was as if this book wanted to taunt me with it's sweet love scenes, passion, and romance, only to tear it to shreds through the betrayal of a best friend. If someone asked me if they should read this book I would say, "Sure, but just stop when Ophelia decides to fake her death." Honestly, it wasn't worth it.

A Realistic Love Story

This story seemed so real and natural to me that I felt every emotion that Ophelia went through. This story is one of sad, depressing romance which for some reason made it hard for me to put down. I usually care for my romances to be Happily Ever After, yet considering this story to me felt like true life I suppose its plot was more believable to me. I enjoyed reading this book very much and look forward to reading more from Lisa Klein.

Could have been so much better

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.

All over the place

Through the whole first 11 chapters I thought Ophelia would be a great book, and it started off that way. Ophelia and Hamlet met and fell in love, but after that it went way downhill. After Ophelia's created her secret plan, it was like being on a rollercoaster you just want to get off of. First Ophelia and Hamlet loved each other, then they hated each other. First they couldnt wait to talk and see one another, but after a while you would never see them TOGETHER. I think Ohelia and Hamlet are both crazy, which does not lead for a very entertaining novel (just a bunch of dicombobulating nonsense). Nevertheless, the beginning got me hooked and was by far the best part of the book.

Strengthening Shakespeare's Female Character

Shakespeare never created great female characters; most are left in the shadows. This is such with Ophelia. Lisa Klein breaths life into this character, strengthening her and placing her in a different light. The reader is able to see her affections for her lover, Hamlet, as he becomes obsessed with avenging his father. This novel is based on Shakespeare's Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Shakespeare or someone who wants a classic, yet slightly original story.