Richard Revisited
A novel about Shakespeare and Richard III
By Els Launspach
Click cover to find more information & Chapter on Thomas More
Els Launspach is one of the foremost experts in the Netherlands on Shakespeare, Elizabethan drama and Greek Tragedy. She's an emeritus lecturer at the Academy of Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam. In her work spanning decades she investigated power dynamics, gender roles and feminist perspectives.
'an intelligent, multi-layered and very individual book.' - Hilary Mantel
Reality: an intricate fabric of sustained lies.
For centuries Richard III counted as the villainous murderer of his young cousins and usurper of his brother's throne. But how much of this reputation was born of the facts, and how much of political urgency?
Richard Revisited offers a poignant image of three inquisitive minds caught up in an age-old struggle. The statesman Thomas More; master of the revels George Buc; and lastly Jennifer Simpson, witness in the Trial of Richard III broadcast in 1984. In their efforts to be true to themselves, each risks either humiliation or loss of integrity.
In the same vein the novel questions the sources shakespeare used while writing his play about richard III. To what extent did the dramatist falsify the facts?
REVIEWS:
Het Nederlands Dagblad:
The novel offers an intriguing web of themes, among them the subjectivity inherent in writing history. Launspach shows convincingly that history does not exist. only a certain balance of interests. (...) Launspach's game with fact and fiction is clever and exciting.
Trouw:
History and literature are brilliantly entangled.
Additional Information :
Published 2022 (Persevarance Publ.) - ISBN: 9789090359021 - 246 pages - Paperback
Rights: World
(c) By VeteranMP - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30408894
King Richard III & Ann Neville
Glas in lood, Cardiff Castle