The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet, (Paperback)

from Cariola

This novel starts with an intriguing premise: the main narrator is Hamlet's loyal friend, Horatio, and the reader expects a retelling of Shakespeare's famous tragedy. But that's not quite what Myrlin Hermes offers. Instead, it begins as the story of their blossoming friendship/love in Wittenburg,...

from whitreidtan

Hamlet is the Shakespeare play I have read over and over and over again. It was a perpetual inclusion on class reading lists from high school all the way to graduate school. I've even seen it performed more than once. And yet I never thought too much about what kind of past would have created a m...

from writergal85

Hamlet is certainly my favorite Shakespeare play but I'm not a Shakespeare scholar by any means. Author Myrlin Hermes has really delved into Hamlet [and perhaps borrowed some elements from a Midsummer's Night Dream] and crafted a witty romp of a tale that has a plethora of elements: love, mystery...

from zibilee

In this inventive prelude to Shakespeare's classic Hamlet, the reader is introduced to a young Horatio, an ever doubting divinity student at Wittenberg University. Horatio lives the life of an impoverished scholarship student, preferring to spend his days fashioning poetry rather than delving int...

from rivkat

Not my usual thing, but sold as "Shakespeare turned topsy-turvy," specifically Hamlet, and I'm a sucker for all things Hamlet. Horatio is a failed academic in Wittenburg; Hamlet is the prince of Denmark, a beauty and wit who hasn't done much with his life; there are echoes of various other elemen...