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Ophelia Paperback – January 1, 2008

by Lisa Klein (Author)

4.3 442 ratings

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If you think you know Ophelia and Hamlet's story, think again...
"A spellbinding tale of love, murder, and revenge." -- VOYA

As ambitious and witty as she is beautiful, Ophelia is quick to catch the eye of the captivating prince Hamlet. Their love blossoms in secret, but bloody deeds soon turn Denmark into a place of madness, and Ophelia may be forced to choose between her relationship and her own life. In desperation, she devises a plan to escape from Elsinore Castle forever... with one very dangerous secret.

Ophelia takes center stage in this bold and thrilling reimagining of Shakespeare's famous tragedy, the story of a young woman falling in love, searching for her place in the world, and finding the strength to survive.

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Editorial Reviews

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"Ophelia the character is playful and bold; her banter with Hamlet is witty, and often their repartee features wordplay and double entendre that would have made the Bard happy." - Kirkus Reviews

"Klein creates a captivating story of a young woman entwined in an unconventional love, with secrets that could bring a royal kingdom to its knees. . . . A spellbinding tale of love, murder, and revenge." - VOYA

"Teens need not be familiar with Shakespeare’s original to enjoy this fresh take―with the added romance and a strong heroine at its center." - Publishers Weekly

"This book blew me away." - TeensReadToo.com, Gold Star Award

"[Readers] will be swept up by the vivid, atmospheric setting, the heart- pounding romance, the palpable torment, and Ophelia’s fierce, earnest questions about how to love." - Booklist

"Sure to be popular with young women struggling with issues of honor, betrayal, and finding one’s path." - SLJ

"Lisa Klein has done an incredible job with Ophelia. She has taken one of Shakespeare’s famous plays and written a tale that is a little more user friendly in today’s world. . . . Add castles, adventure, romance, murder and fleeing for one’s life, and you have an amazing story." - Teenreads.com, a Best Book of the Year

About the Author

Lisa Klein, a former English professor, is the author of five historical novels for teen readers. She lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury USA Childrens; First Edition (January 1, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1599902281
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1599902289
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 12 - 17 years
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 860L
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 7 - 9
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.97 x 8.39 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #842,408 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #218 in Teen & Young Adult Medieval Historical Fiction
- #374 in Teen & Young Adult Law & Crime Stories
- #1,275 in Teen & Young Adult Romantic Mysteries & Thrillers

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4.3 442 ratings

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Lisa M. Klein

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I am a lifelong reader and lover of words who said to myself one day, "Maybe I can write a novel." So in 2001 I sat down and began writing Ophelia, which was published in 2006. By that time I had completed a Ph.D., taught English literature as an assistant professor for nine years, married, had two sons, and finished two nonfiction books. Oh, and read more books than I can possibly recall. But one of my favorites growing up was Gone With the Wind, which I read seven times as a teenager. Thirty-odd years later, I wrote my own Civil War novel, Two Girls of Gettysburg. And the high-school parody of Macbeth that won our class first place in the homecoming skit competition eventually morphed into more sophisticated retellings of Shakespeare: Ophelia and Lady Macbeth's Daughter. I love doing research for my novels and retelling history and Shakespeare's plays from a fresh, female-centered perspective.

I live in Columbus, Ohio with my husband, two teenage sons, a dog and a cat.

You can visit my website at www.authorlisaklein.com.

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4.3 out of 5

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one Ophelia to another:

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2014

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I played Ophelia this past summer. I've been working with Shakespeare for many years and honestly I can probably quote the entirety of Hamlet to you (sorry, I'm a dork). But let me say that while this is not Shakespeare, it's a Shakespeare story, and soooo interesting.

I picked it up a few hours ago and didn't stop to put it down until I finished.

The story is stretched to give Ophelia a new identity. Firstly, (somewhat of a spoiler, but also in the first page of the book so not really a spoiler) she fakes her drowning, which clearly collides with what we know of Ophelia. I accepted it, but I found this drove a wedge between Klein's Ophelia and mine.

I have strong opinions and I spent months developing my own persona as Ophelia, so at that point I had to let it go and acknowledge that this book was not last summer's Hamlet.

Klein bends some lines from the play and stuffs in phrases like "you know" or "of course," which put me off a bit because as a Shakespeare actress I get uncomfortable when people paraphrase text, but later in the story it's said that she's writing this all from memory months later in a convent so I suppose that's forgivable. It doesn't detract- it only led to a couple moments of me stopping and squinting at the passage before carrying on.

When I was Ophelia, our Horatio loved me. The other actor and I talked about the decision a lot and felt that it did add to the play rather than detract from it. Ophelia was oblivious, as she is in the book, but his devotion is evident in small instances in the canon, such as when Horatio remains behind in Denmark when Hamlet goes to England and is not due to return. If Horatio had no reason to stay, he might've returned to Wittenberg, but instead he stays and is next seen in Ophelia's mad scene. He follows her and presumably witnesses her drown herself, and our Horatio carried that guilty devotion with him for the rest of the play.

The nuances of Horatio and his meek dedication and gentleness is really what brought the book back to me. I loved that Ophelia was headstrong and proud, I loved that Hamlet was a confusing, cryptic, emotional boy, but what I really truly loved that Klein explored Horatio's character. When I was in Hamlet, Horatio's love wasn't a big deal, but it was something that I thought about a lot and deeply considered, and I am a huge sucker for unrequited love.

I took that dust jacket off, though. The girl on the cover doesn't really go with Klein's description of Ophelia and it sort of disrupts the narrative when I go back to ask myself why Ophelia isn't an androgynous long-locked tomboy with flowers and pearls in her hair.

One person found this helpful

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Lori Hanes

Captivating, with one caveat!

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2021

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I loved the story and the writing. The only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars, was all the spelling errors! I don’t know who did the editing, but it was very sloppy. You could tell someone let spellcheck decide on the word, very annoying. Other than the spelling/word issues, it was a captivating story.

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Andrea Frankel

Great character, needs editing

Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2020

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I loved Ophelia, who the author vividly brought to life. The story arcs were rich and believable, and added another dimension to Shakespeare's Hamlet that I hadn't realized was missing until this book (and the movie).

There is one serious problem I had with the Kindle version. A great many words made no sense at all, until it occurred to me that this version may have been optically scanned from a book printed in an overly kerned font. Stories became stones, ruin became rum, Cain became Cam, trains and grain became trams and gram. There were other typos or misspelled words as well, which looked suspiciously like OCR glitches. The book was otherwise we'll edited, so I suggest an actual human editor should make a pass through this version to fix these.

I saw the movie first, and recommend reading this book either before or after. There are enough differences that you will not be bored!

2 people found this helpful

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K. Cuthbertson

To like or not to like....

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2020

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I am an admitted Shakespeare geek, and Hamlet has long been my favorite of all of his plays. I am always intrigued by adaptations and reimaginings of his works and characters, though I fear my standards are often a bit unrealistically high.

Honestly, I wavered between giving this three stars or four stars. As I have spent the last several weeks reviewing numerous essays for my first class of AP Language and Composition students, abiding by the mantra of those who read the annual exam essays for The College Board each year, which is, “reward them for what they do well,” I initially determined to err on the side of generosity. So, four stars. But as I composed the remainder of the review, I came back to three stars. I’m still undecided and wish there was a half-star option (for three-and-a-half stars).

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was a quick, light read; I covered most of it one Sunday evening and finished it the following Saturday morning as I enjoyed my first cup of coffee. The story did drag in places, and unfortunately the final third of the book is where most of that occurred. This is also where we completely leave the framework of Shakespeare’s play in the rearview mirror, though that was beginning to happen in Part 2. And it is not the setting of Part 3 to which I object, nor the introspective nature of Ophelia’s initial time there. (Some reviewers have eschewed what they feel is a treacly “finding God” subplot, but I did not perceive that the focus was especially on “finding God,” namely because it is mentioned only intermittently and really isn’t ever resolved.) Part 3 did not work as well for me because I felt Ophelia suddenly lost her agency and her voice, and it did not read as a byproduct of her grief. To have planned her escape from Elsinore and braved the dangers she did in doing so, the shift she made upon entering the convent felt uneven, at best. In trying to make her a complex character, there were too many loose threads and differing quasi-relationships floating around — and yet most of that time, it seemed that the convent was made up of Ophelia and only five or six nuns. And while I understand the point of Therese’s storyline and what purpose it was meant to serve for Ophelia’s character arc, I felt it was the weakest part of the book, rambling along more than was justified by its conclusion.

There are places where some events stretch the credulity of the reader (the ease with which a pregnancy is hidden — with no particular effort — for all but the last month or two comes to mind), places where troubles and conflicts resolve a bit too neatly or suddenly, and places where conflicts are seemingly thrown in for interest and then simply dropped or forgotten. (Edmund, anyone? He is a character I feel could be removed without altering the story one whit. Even the purpose he supposedly serves in Part 2 lacks real merit, in my opinion. Ophelia’s own paranoia would have been as effective and less distracting while serving the same purpose in advancing the plot, and that would have added another layer to the question of how one defines madness.)

For me, Ophelia’s concerns over keeping her identity and past hidden so long after the storyline we know at Elsinore comes to its inevitable end did not feel they had enough foundation to be as grave as they were. For it is only in the final twelve pages of the novel, after Marguerite reveals what she knows of then-Prince Fortinbras (now ruler of Denmark) and Horatio shares news of the rumors in Denmark of a secret heir, that one feels maybe — maybe? — Ophelia could have (does have?) some real justification for her fears. And speaking of Marguerite, her sudden revelation about her origins beggars belief a bit. A disowned and forgotten princess? Really? Even mildly disgraced princesses had their value on the marriage-as-alliance market.

And yet for this to be the author’s first novel, and in spite of my criticisms, I am not dissuaded from looking into some of her subsequent novels — particularly as she has returned to the Bard more than once for inspiration, and I see she took on the Lost Colony as well. Stay tuned...

5 people found this helpful

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J.J.

Excellent Condition As Promised

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2023

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This book is a library copy that I don't think was ever checked out. It has normal library markings, but other than that, it's in pristine condition.

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BB

Very romantic Hamlet novel

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2020

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This book probably appeals to woman more than men as is a very romantic version of what happened in the trials and tribulations of the young lovers and the events after Hamlets death...much better than the tv presentation which was good but the book has a more uplifting ending.

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Amazon Kunde

Ophelia

Reviewed in Germany on October 24, 2022

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I really liked the book as it is different from other books. It is set in Denmark in the 16th/17th centuries and in France in the last chapters. There is unique connection between Ophelia and Hamlet and we can experience it from Ophelia's point of view. From love to dramatic death. A captivating story!

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Amazon Customer

Excellent and and on time

Reviewed in Canada on July 11, 2020

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Excellent would order from vendor again.

V E C Nicholas

An enjoyable read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 7, 2020

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I picked this up to read after seeing the film, and discovering it was based on a book. This is an enjoyable read, although it is a little clunky in places, and I found it slow going on occasion. However, I love the premise of the book, the characterisation of Ophelia, and found her eminently relatable as a character. Women and nonbinary people's stories so often go untold, or are only told as an aid to elevate the stories of men, so this book was both a good read, and a political action. I reccomend it, but with the warning that it may take a little sticking to it.

Rosaroma

Great storyline

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 29, 2020

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I came to this book having seen the film Ophelia
The storyline is amazing however there are dozens of typing errors i.e. totally wrong words not just spelling mistakes which arrest the flow of the book at times However it did not really detract from the story overall thankfully
Would definitely recommend as an alternative to Shakespeare's version of Ophelia

One person found this helpful

Thalia

A great idea

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2021

Verified Purchase

Its a great idea to write the story of Hamlet from the point of view of Ophelia. The book is really well structured. However it is so poorly written it gets a bit annoying.

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Ophelia Paperback – January 1, 2008

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