The Tragedy of Macbeth Part II - Hardcover

Lukeman, Noah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1605980110 ISBN 13: 9781605980119

Publisher: Pegasus Books, 2008

Synopsis

In 1610, The Tragedy of Macbeth was first performed. 400 years later: the sequel, written as a five-act play in blank verse.

Ten years king, Malcolm sits on an uneasy throne. If Malcolm’s mind is haunted by the ghosts of his royal father (“gracious Duncan”) as well as the thane and lady who so bloodily betrayed him, Malcolm’s soul is sickened, as was Macbeth’s, by the witches’ prophecy that from Banquo’s seed would spring a line of Scottish kings: a prophecy that remained unfulfilled at the end of Shakespeare’s play. The witches also taunt Malcolm with riddles all his own: that sorrows will visit him from Ireland (where his younger brother fled upon their father’s death); that his love for Macbeth will breed fresh treachery. True to the Shakespearean model, its devious plot unfolding in five acts and its speech set to the measure of blank verse, Macbeth, Part II, draws bold the tragedy of a powerful man undone by the terrors he imagines and the truths he fails to see.

About this title

About the Author

Noah Lukeman is the author of several bestselling books on the craft of writing, among them A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation. Noah lives in New York City, where he runs a literary agency.

From Booklist

Lukeman’s sequel to the Scottish play—which, Lukeman hints, Shakespeare might have written but never got around to—succeeds as both a fascinating literary exercise and an entertaining play in its own right. Taking up the story 10 years after Macbeth’s death, Lukeman explores a Scotland suddenly torn apart, despite years of peace under the good King Malcolm, by ambition, greed, and lust for revenge—all the usual things that tear apart nations in Shakespeare’s plays. This time, we see the downward slope of Malcolm’s career, a reversal catalyzed by sibling rivalry and the sudden appearance of the good-hearted daughter of the evil, now long-dead Macbeths. Readers familiar with the original play will be amused by Lukeman’s myriad variations on the themes and scenes of the original. Readers unfamiliar with Macbeth (and shame on you, if you are) will still enjoy Lukeman’s poetic, well-paced drama. --Jack Helbig

About this edition

• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1605980110
• ISBN 13: 9781605980119
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208