LISA KLEIN is the author of Lady Macbeth's Daughter, Two Girls of Gettysburg, and Ophelia. A former professor of English, she lives in Ohio with her family.
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- Lady Macbeth’s Daughter by Lisa Klein | Review | Historical Novels Review
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This story was awesome! Macbeth has always been my favorite work by Shakespeare and this book makes a great companion to Macbeth by providing some backstory and filling in some blanks in that tragedy. You don't need to read Macbeth to love this story though because it stands as its own independent work.
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I have grown weary of novels written in the first-person, but this was much better as the point-of-view alternated between two characters-Lady Macbeth and her daughter, Albia. I would love to see another story with Albia in it about her life after the events of Macbeth. I will definitely be chekcing out other works by this author.
One person found this helpful 2 people found this helpful. This is my fourth book not counting Shakespear about MacBeth, three of which I have read in the last six months.
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I'm getting to be an expert. This is a good book, more about the daughter than MacBeth for which be thanked. He comes across as a royal jerk in this one. Since not much is really known about that time period, any of the books I've read could be as close as any other. If you are interested in a thoroughly researched history novel, get "King Hereafter" by Dorothy Dunnett. Otherwise, I think you'll enjoy this one as much as any history novel. This is the first time I have read a story written today based loosely on a classic from centuries ago. I really enjoyed reading this novel and look forward to reading more like this!
One person found this helpful. I wanted it to continue and read about what happens next! Looking forward to reading Klein's other books! Required reading for high school AP English but my son still enjoyed it. It was better than the original Macbeth. Im not normally one for righting reviews but for this one I decided I would try it, but it will be a short one.
I really liked this book. Lisa is one of my favorite authors and I have read both of her other books. I love how she incorporates important parts of the actual plays into her books. I really liked this book but the ending unimpressed me. I expected a lot more that the last chapter to me was extremely boring. I'm not trying to bash the whole book, It was amazing up until the last couple of chapters.
I would defiantly suggest this to someone who is into Shakespeare type stories, but it wouldn't be my first pick for anyone else. When Lady Macbeth gives birth to a baby girl with a clubbed foot, her husband Macbeth considers the babe cursed, and demands she be left outside to die. Lady Macbeth mourns for her daughter as her maid takes the baby away. Albia grows up in the simplicity of the woods, herding sheep in the pastures with her friends, completely unaware of her royal parentage.
There, she falls in love with his son, Fleance. The book is also narrated in part by Lady Macbeth. A well-woven tale rich with romance, intrigue, secrets, magic, history, beautiful Scottish scenery, and surprisingly multifaceted characters.
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This is an excellent novel! In this novel, set in 11th century Scotland, author Lisa Klein starts with the premise that Macbeth and his wife had a baby daughter, born with a deformed leg. Macbeth, in his anger that she was not the healthy son he longed for, left the infant to die. Lady Macbeth, not much more than a girl herself in a time when women had no power, was helpless to stop him, and grieves the death of her daughter as well as the subsequent pregnancies she loses, believing herself cursed.
These losses shape her character and set the stage for the tragic events she later participates in. What neither of them know, however, is that their baby daughter did not die. She was saved by Lady Macbeth's serving woman, Rhuven, who took her to live with her sisters in the Wychelm Wood. The sisters name the child Albia, and the little girl grows up believing one of the sisters to be her mother.
Lady Macbeth’s Daughter by Lisa Klein | Review | Historical Novels Review
The years pass by peacefully, until the year Albia turns fifteen and great turmoil comes to Scotland. King Duncan is murdered, and Albia is sent to live with a foster family - Banquo, his wife Breda, and their son Fleance. And there is turmoil inside Albia as well - she is confused by her feelings for the attractive but maddening Fleance, and she longs to know the identity of her father. When she learns the truth about her heritage - and that her birth parents murdered the king in order to seize the throne - she struggles with her feelings of revulsion at what her parents have done and determines that she must destroy them and bring peace and justice to Scotland.
Lady Macbeth's Daughter is a rather interesting and complex novel. It is mainly told from the point of view of Albia, although we also see some events from the point of view of Lady Macbeth. Her perspective, and the difficult life she lived, made her actions, wrong though they were, seem more understandable. Overall the story and the ending especially were rather thought-provoking, making me think a lot about the motivations of various characters, and wondering what happened afterwards.
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I would recommend this book to readers, young adult and older, who enjoy either historical fiction or unique retellings of Shakespeare's plays. See all 21 reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Published 1 year ago. Published on December 14, Published on December 10, Published on October 13, Before retiring to Stratford in , after the Globe burned down, he wrote more than three dozen plays that we are sure of and more than sonnets.
He was celebrated by Ben Jonson, one of the leading playwrights of the day, as a writer who would be "not for an age, but for all time," a prediction that has proved to be true. Today, Shakespeare towers over all other English writers and has few rivals in any language. His genius and creativity continue to astound scholars, and his plays continue to delight audiences.
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Many have served as the basis for operas, ballets, musical compositions, and films. While Jonson and other writers labored over their plays, Shakespeare seems to have had the ability to turn out work of exceptionally high caliber at an amazing speed. At the height of his career, he wrote an average of two plays a year as well as dozens of poems, songs, and possibly even verses for tombstones and heraldic shields, all while he continued to act in the plays performed by the Lord Chamberlain's Men.
This staggering output is even more impressive when one considers its variety. Except for the English history plays, he never wrote the same kind of play twice. He seems to have had a good deal of fun in trying his hand at every kind of play. Shakespeare wrote sonnets, all published on , most of which were dedicated to his patron Henry Wriothsley, The Earl of Southhampton.
He also wrote 13 comedies, 13 histories, 6 tragedies, and 4 tragecomedies. His cause of death was unknown, but it is surmised that he knew he was dying. Like Ophelia , Klein's latest is a riveting, nuanced historical drama based on a Shakespearean play. The title sets up the premise: How would the famous plot alter if Macbeth had had a daughter? Would this child have joined in her parents' treachery? Klein, who has taught Shakespeare at the university level, does much more than just rework the original story's arc and themes.
Alternately narrated by Lady Macbeth and Albia, Macbeth's banished daughter, the chapters flip between the Scottish queen's terrifying plots and the story of Albia her rescue from death by Lady Macbeth's maid, her secret childhood being raised by the three soothsaying sisters, and her teenage confrontation with her murderous parents. As in Ophelia, Klein nimbly inserts feminist themes and vivid detail into the story, balancing the political tragedy and battlefield action, which culminates in an unforgettable scene of mercy. Readers won't need a firm grasp of Macbeth to enjoy this natural choice for English class, but the wrenching, richly told story may well send teens in search of the original, daughterless drama.
Gr 8 Up-This reworking of Macbeth is told in alternating points of view by Albia, Macbeth's daughter, and Grelach, her mother and Macbeth's wife.
Because Albia is born with a crippled foot, Macbeth orders that she be killed. Grelach's servant rescues her, and she is raised by Rhuven's sisters. Albia grows up ignorant of her true heritage, believing herself to be Geillis's daughter. She realizes that she has second sight, and she begins to foresee terrifying, bloody events that are to come. As the Scottish kingdom falls into even greater disorder under Macbeth's tyranny, Albia finds out the truth about her birth, and she must decide if she should use her gifts to overthrow her father and help bring order to the realm once again.
A number of sections of the book are based directly on scenes from the play.
This is a strong feminist reenvisioning of the original that raises issues about the treatment and social positions of women at the time. Grelach, Lady Macbeth, is far more sympathetic than in Shakespeare's version, and Albia is a compelling character who fights for the good of her country and refuses to allow anyone to use her as a political pawn. Klein has gone to historical sources predating Shakespeare's primary source, Holinshed's Chronicles, and has restored some of the history Shakespeare changed, most notably by including the character of Luoch, Grelach's son by her first husband.
A great choice for teen book groups. Thank you for using the catalog.