Book Review: Lady Macbeth
Oct. 30th, 2009 07:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silverflight8I just finished reading Lady Macbeth, by Susan Fraser King. And I still feel dazed.
In Shakespeare's (brilliant) play, Lady Macbeth is a scheming, ruthless, hard woman. It can be argued that she killed the old king, instead of Macbeth, as she goaded Macbeth to do that deed. She calls upon spirits to purge her of soft-heartedness.
Of course, Shakespeare took pains to--ah, modify history a little, so that he didn't bring the wrath of King James on his head. And this book is based on historical documents. And it is a fascinating story. For someone who reads historical fiction, and finds that most of the books are Regency (what is with the Regency period, anyway? That was a rhetorical question...) it was nice to find a novel about eleventh century Scotland.
The book opens with prologue with Lady Macbeth at age 30 or so, after she has lost and gained the throne (or perhaps gained and lost is more appropriate). The it switches to about 1025, with Gruadh, the future Lady Macbeth, is the daughter of a line of kings, living in Fife. As the passing of kingship is somewhat erratic (not the father-to-son pattern), she is not a princess. The rest of the novel is about her life (as though it wouldn't be) but mixed in with this is the push-pull of the Roman Catholic Church and the Celtic traditions, the male-female divide, which was different than what it was in England at the time (quite interesting, actually) and of course the intrigue about Macbeth and the next king, should Duncan fail to be a good king.
All in all, I liked it a lot. It struck me as a different perspective from Shakespeare's evil portrayal--this is a more equal look at Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, and puts Malcolm into the devil's position instead.
In Shakespeare's (brilliant) play, Lady Macbeth is a scheming, ruthless, hard woman. It can be argued that she killed the old king, instead of Macbeth, as she goaded Macbeth to do that deed. She calls upon spirits to purge her of soft-heartedness.
Of course, Shakespeare took pains to--ah, modify history a little, so that he didn't bring the wrath of King James on his head. And this book is based on historical documents. And it is a fascinating story. For someone who reads historical fiction, and finds that most of the books are Regency (what is with the Regency period, anyway? That was a rhetorical question...) it was nice to find a novel about eleventh century Scotland.
The book opens with prologue with Lady Macbeth at age 30 or so, after she has lost and gained the throne (or perhaps gained and lost is more appropriate). The it switches to about 1025, with Gruadh, the future Lady Macbeth, is the daughter of a line of kings, living in Fife. As the passing of kingship is somewhat erratic (not the father-to-son pattern), she is not a princess. The rest of the novel is about her life (as though it wouldn't be) but mixed in with this is the push-pull of the Roman Catholic Church and the Celtic traditions, the male-female divide, which was different than what it was in England at the time (quite interesting, actually) and of course the intrigue about Macbeth and the next king, should Duncan fail to be a good king.
All in all, I liked it a lot. It struck me as a different perspective from Shakespeare's evil portrayal--this is a more equal look at Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, and puts Malcolm into the devil's position instead.
