Is this a rewrite I see before me? Top author says Shakespeare got Macbeth all ... trends now
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She is the cold-hearted, scheming villain who casts her dark shadow over one of literature’s most famous plays.
As generations of pupils learned in English classes, Lady Macbeth – driven by a lust for power – persuaded her weak-willed husband to commit murder most foul.
Yet according to one of Scotland’s top crime writers, Shakespeare got the tragedy of Macbeth all wrong.
Novelist Val McDermid – with a bit of help from former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon – has written a book exploring the real story of the woman who became Queen Macbeth, first Queen of Scotland.
And part of her aim, she says, is ‘setting Shakespeare straight’.
Macbeth and his wife as portrayed by Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard in the play penned by William Shakespeare
According to the Bard of Avon, the Macbeths are motivated by merciless ambition which ultimately leads to their downfall. Their tragedy stems from their decision to seize the throne by killing King Duncan while he is asleep.
But McDermid, whose novels have sold more than 19 million copies and been translated into more than 40 languages, recasts the tale in a feminist light – as a historical romance seen from the perspective of a strong and determined woman fighting for life and love.
As befits a crime writer, the book contains a major plot twist. But in a departure from the gritty ‘tartan noir’ genre for which she is famous, McDermid also ventures into the realm of erotic fiction.
In the author’s notes at the start of the book, she claims the Macbeths were ‘not the power-hungry bloody tyrants that Shakespeare wrote of in his Scottish play’.
