{"id":7423,"date":"2018-08-20T06:37:31","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T10:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7423"},"modified":"2018-10-05T09:11:42","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T13:11:42","slug":"juliet-and-romeo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7423","title":{"rendered":"*****Juliet and Romeo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Verona\"

photo: Lo Scaligero, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

By David Hewson \u2013 Violent gangs roaming city streets looking for trouble, murder, illicit love, poisoning, suicide, and what amounts to the sale of a human being, these are the crime elements of thriller writer David Hewson\u2019s latest reimagining of one of Shakespeare\u2019s works. I\u2019m not talking about one of the Bard\u2019s tales of the murder of kings or caesars, but a story more often thought of as the pinnacle of romance, Romeo and Juliet<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Hewson\u2019s is a wonderfully readable and entertaining recasting of a story that itself was reconceived several times before Shakespeare took his turn with it. According to an author\u2019s note, the fundamental story appeared in a volume published in 1476, which a Venetian writer adapted in 1531, with a subsequent version in 1562 that was translated into French, then into a poem in English, which was the version Shakespeare used in creating the play, published in 1597.<\/p>\n

In the spirit of a story that has repeatedly evolved to fit its time, Hewson has changed some things. Most notable is the ending, which may give purists fits, but the author says, \u201cthat\u2019s what adaptation entails.\u201d Juliet comes first in the title, because, with Hewson\u2019s shifted emphasis, it\u2019s her story. She\u2019s a self-actualized, practical young woman, while Romeo is a dreamer, a little fuzzy around the edges. She knows what she wants and it is definitely not<\/em> the forced marriage to the older Count Paris that her father has in mind. \u201cSo that\u2019s the role Count Paris will perform,\u201d Juliet challenges her father. \u201cNot so much my husband as your proxy son. I marry him because it\u2019s good for business.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to immersing himself in Shakespeare\u2019s plays, Hewson comes to this project with a solid understanding of Italian culture, reflected in the contemporary crime stories he sets in Italy. The book is a full novel rework of an award-winning audio project he did with Richard Armitage, who narrated Hewson’s exciting version of Hamlet.<\/p>\n

Clearing out the underbrush of Elizabethan-era language and putting more modern words in the characters\u2019 mouths creates a refreshing experience. Hewson\u2019s brilliant adaptations Macbeth: A Novel<\/em> and Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel<\/em><\/a>, written in collaboration with Shakespeare scholar A.J. Hartley, prepared Hewson to penetrate to the core of Shakespeare\u2019s characters and situations, making the familiar new again. Read and enjoy!<\/p>\n

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Click the photos below to order one of these books.
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By David Hewson \u2013 Violent gangs roaming city streets looking for trouble, murder, illicit love, poisoning, suicide, and what amounts to the sale of a human being, these are the crime elements of thriller writer David Hewson\u2019s latest reimagining of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"*****Juliet and Romeo - A beautifully conceived and written contemporary slant on Shakespeare's romantic tragedy gives Juliet her due.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[40,311,126,394,785],"tags":[1388,1177,1387,197],"class_list":["post-7423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-novel","category-reading-2","category-romance","category-tragedy","tag-david-hewson","tag-italy","tag-juliet-and-romeo","tag-shakespeare"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1VJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7423"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7502,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7423\/revisions\/7502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}