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Article: Not to Be.(Review)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- March 20, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Gertrude and Claudius, by John Updike (Knopf, 212 pp., $23)
To a great extent, the story of Western literature has been one of imitation. Perhaps homage is a better word. Virgil paid homage to Homer. Dante paid homage to Virgil. Milton paid homage to Dante. More recently Joyce retold the Odyssey and set it in early-20th-century Dublin. Shakespeare, too, appropriated the classics of ancient Greece and Rome, retelling them in plays like Julius Caesar and Troilus and Cressida.
So it isn't surprising that one of the reigning masters of contemporary fiction should attempt his own retelling of what is widely considered the best play ever written. After all, ...