Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague by Maggie O’Farrell

Maggie O’Farrell, RSL, is a novelist from Northern Ireland. Her acclaimed first novel, After You’d Gone, won the Betty Trask Award, and a later one, The Hand That First Held Mine, the 2010 Costa Novel Award. Hamnet is a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Much ado is made about William Shakespeare’s numerous plays and sonnets, but not much is known about his personal life. Author Maggie O’Farrell has painted a vivid picture of the Shakespeare family that will tug at your heartstrings long after you’re finished reading. Anyone who has ever loved and lost someone dear will relate to her newest novel. With detailed prose, O’Farrell brings to life a boy who has been all but forgotten by history in a tender, loving depiction. Complete with complicated characters such as Agnes (Anne), William’s high-spirited, insightful wife who bears him three children, Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague is a brilliant portrait of marriage and motherhood. Will’s innermost thoughts and the events that led to the creation of his most famous play are interwoven into a storyline that culminates with an uplifting ending.

The author weaves a tightly crafted plot of the couple’s relationship and the events that led to the tragic circumstances of their son Hamnet’s young life. Through flashbacks, we learn about Agnes’ mother, her unusual childhood and how she met William Shakespeare. A healer and a falconer, Agnes is a creature whose soul cannot be constrained by society’s morals. Shunned by most of the country folk, Agnes is misunderstood as a rural idiot with a gift for plants and poultices until the day she meets the Latin tutor, young Shakespeare. Penniless and beaten by his father, Will is drawn to her like a moth to the flame. “She steps inside and, dazed, he follows. It is a small, dim, narrow space, with a desiccated and familiar smell to it. He inhales: the aroma of wood, of lime, of something sweet and fibrous. Also, a chalky, musty undertone. And the woman beside him: he can smell her hair and skin, one of which carries the faint scent of rosemary. He is just about to reach out for her again—her shoulder, her waist are tantalizingly close to him, and why else would she bring him in here, really, if she didn’t also have in mind…” writes O’Farrell.

The actions of Hamnet and his twin sister, Judith, determine the outcome of events. Adding flavor to enrich the narrative are their older sister, Susanna; Agnes’ eccentric mother, Rowan; her malicious stepmother, Joan; protective brother Bartholomew; Shakespeare’s sister Eliza; and their parents, John and Mary.

A product of his time, Hamnet is a bright, caring and active 11-year-old. He adores his mother and admires his father. He evades his grandfather, John, a man with a violent temper. His concern for Judith shines throughout the book; Hamnet’s ultimate sacrifice, as imagined by the writer, proof of his brotherly love. “He feels again the sensation he has had all his life: that she is the other side to him…That without her he is incomplete, lost. He will carry an open wound, down his side, for the rest of his life…It is like asking the heart to live without the lungs, like tearing the moon out of the sky and asking the stars to do its work, like expecting the barley to grow without the rain.”
As much as it is a book about Hamnet, it is primarily a testament to a mother’s love for her children, her husband, her home. While the book delves into Agnes’s fierce protective love for her children, Mary also exhibits a tough, deep love for her children and grandchildren that radiates throughout the story. At a time when women were treated as property—Judith is nearly illiterate, Joan cannot read at all—Agnes discovers her unique talents, her voice, and controls her husband’s destiny. Even when she realizes Will’s treachery, Agnes’s love knows no boundaries.

Delivered in a poignant style, set amidst the backdrop of historical events, this book is exquisitely written. The parts about heaven make you grieve alongside Agnes, with Judith, with all the Shakespeares. As time progresses after the tragedy, Judith prowls nightly for her lost twin at their old homestead. Susanna buries herself in the account books while Agnes falls into deep despair. Only when her conniving stepmother shows Agnes a playbill from Shakespeare’s Hamlet does she rouse from her anguish and heed her heart to act.

Through realistic dialogue and vivid details, we are transported to the 16th century, to a time of the Black Plague, more relevant now after our own recent pandemic. O’Farrell ties together the loose threads that will have readers reaching for their tissues, feeling like they were right there next to the Bard. ®