Hamnet (novel)
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.jpg) First edition | |
| Author | Maggie O'Farrell |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Published | 31 March 2020 |
| Publisher | Tinder Press |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Pages | 384 |
| Awards | Women's Prize (2020), National Book Critics (2020) |
| ISBN | 978-1472223791 (1st ed. UK Hardcover) |
| OCLC | 1104658967 |
| 823/.914 | |
| LC Class | PR6065.F36 H35 2020 |
Hamnet is a 2020 historical fiction novel by Maggie O'Farrell. It is a fictional account of William Shakespeare and Agnes Hathaway's son, Hamnet, who died at the age of eleven in 1596, and focuses on his parents' grief. In Canada, the novel was published under the title Hamnet & Judith.[1]
The book relates to the real-life death of William Shakespeare's only son Hamnet who was buried on 11 August 1596.[2][3] It describes the circumstances of William Shakespeare's marriage with Agnes Hathaway (portrayed as a herbalist), the birth of their children and subsequent death of Hamnet, potentially from bubonic plague, which influenced Shakespeare's subsequent writing in the tragedy of his play Hamlet.[2][4] The story includes some of the known facts of Shakespeare's life in the Tudor Period but also includes myths and other imagined fictions surrounding Hamnet's death.[5]
O’Farrell explained in an interview that she "was always baffled and saddened by how little mention he [Hamnet] receives in biographies and literary criticism". O'Farrell stated she wrote the novel, "to attempt to give him a voice and a presence".[2] O'Farrell wrote with personal experience, citing her fear at the potential of losing her own child who had contracted meningitis at the age of four.[6][7] She herself also suffered from encephalitis when aged eight and this left her with an understanding of the serious effects of bedridden illness.[6][7][8] The book therefore describes the fighting of childhood illnesses and the subsequent psychological impact of sickness and death.[8] As part of her research, O'Farrell researched Elizabethan era England and visited both Stratford-upon-Avon and the Globe Theatre.[9]
Publication
The book was first published in the United Kingdom on 31 March 2020 by Tinder Press, an imprint of Hachette Livre.[10][11] It was published in the US on 21 July 2020 by Knopf Publishing Group of Penguin Random House.[12] By early 2022, Hamnet had sold approximately 1.6 million copies.[13] By 2024, it was reported to have exceeded 2 million copies sold, having been translated into 40 languages.[14]
Critical response and awards
In 2020, the book won the Women's Prize for Fiction[15] and National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction; that December, it was also chosen as Waterstones' Book of the Year.[16] The following year, it was named "Novel of the Year" at the Dalkey Literary Awards,[17] was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize,[18] and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.[19] It was described in Literary Review as "a rich story by any stretch of the imagination, and O'Farrell's stretches much, much further than most of ours."[20]
