Lady Macbeth's Daughter - Hardcover

Klein, Lisa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1599903474 ISBN 13: 9781599903477

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens, 2009

Synopsis

The daughter Macbeth might have had, if Shakespeare had thought to create her...

Albia has grown up with no knowledge of her mother of her father, the powerful Macbeth. Instead she knows the dark lure of the Wychelm Wood and the moors, where she's been raised by three strange sisters. It's only when the ambitious Macbeth seeks out the sisters to foretell his fate that Albia's life becomes tangled with the man who leaves nothing but bloodshed in his wake. She even falls in love with Fleance, Macbeth's rival for the throne. Yet when Albia learns that she has the second sight, she must decide whether to ignore the terrible future she foresees―or to change it. Will she be able to save the man she loves from her murderous father? And can she forgive her parents their wrongs, or must she destroy them to save Scotland from tyranny?

In her highly anticipated follow-up to Ophelia, Lisa Klein delivers a powerful reimagining of Shakespeare's Macbeth, featuring a young woman so seamlessly drawn it seems impossible she was not part of the Bard's original play.

About this title

About the Author:

Lisa Klein is the author of Ophelia and Two Girls of Gettysburg. A former professor of English, she lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her family.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 8 Up—This reworking of Macbeth is told in alternating points of view by Albia, Macbeth's daughter, and Grelach, her mother and Macbeth's wife. Because Albia is born with a crippled foot, Macbeth orders that she be killed. Grelach's servant rescues her, and she is raised by Rhuven's sisters. Albia grows up ignorant of her true heritage, believing herself to be Geillis's daughter. She realizes that she has second sight, and she begins to foresee terrifying, bloody events that are to come. After Macbeth murders King Duncan, Geillis sends her to be fostered by Banquo and his family. As the Scottish kingdom falls into even greater disorder under Macbeth's tyranny, Albia finds out the truth about her birth, and she must decide if she should use her gifts to overthrow her father and help bring order to the realm once again. A number of sections of the book are based directly on scenes from the play. This is a strong feminist reenvisioning of the original that raises issues about the treatment and social positions of women at the time. Grelach, Lady Macbeth, is far more sympathetic than in Shakespeare's version, and Albia is a compelling character who fights for the good of her country and refuses to allow anyone to use her as a political pawn. Klein has gone to historical sources predating Shakespeare's primary source, Holinshed's Chronicles, and has restored some of the history Shakespeare changed, most notably by including the character of Luoch, Grelach's son by her first husband. A great choice for teen book groups.—Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ
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About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1599903474
• ISBN 13: 9781599903477
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304