In 1517, Sweden is on the brink of declaring independence from Denmark, and Martin Luther has posted on a church door in distant Saxony incendiary views that will soon set Europe afire. Sweden’s arch-patriot Hemming Gadh has arranged the coincidence. The Danish king Hamlet is plotting to kidnap and deliver Luther to Rome and the stake in exchange for Vatican support of Denmark’s depredations upon Sweden. Gadh knows that the monk’s heresy is the key to his country’s liberation. Sweden must keep Luther alive and encourage his schismatic diatribe.
To fulfill that mission, Gadh engages young Magnus Vasabrother of Sweden’s future kingas protector and confidant of the controversial theologian. Disguised as a Norwegian student named Horatio, Magnus enrolls at Wittenberg’s university. There he encounters the Danish king’s dissolute son Prince Hamlet and embarks upon adventures that will determine not only Sweden’s fate but Europe’s future. Meanwhile, Gadh, Horatio’s mentor and Sweden’s master counterspy, has embedded himself at Elsinore as the evil king’s chancellor Polonius. When King Hamlet’s atrocities culminate in the infamous Bloodbath of Stockholm, Gadh and Magnus Polonius and Horatioswear revenge upon the Dane, his bastard son and their kingdom.
Gadh summons Magnus to Elsinore, where Horatio falls in love with Queen Gertrude, recognizes the recently deceased king’s brother Claudius as a great and kind ruler, witnesses Polonius’s death at the prince’s hand, and finallywhen called upon to duel the Black Prince to the deathfinds his path between patriotism and romantic love, obedience and autonomy, vengeance and forgiveness.
Skillfully written, entertainingly intelligent and historically authentic, Revenge At Elsinore mesmerizes readers with a vibrant romantic adventure that also provides the key that unlocks mysteries that have puzzled Shakespearean scholars for centuries.
Mengenai Pengarang
Author of four non-fiction books and a critically acclaimed historian, John O’Donnell entered college as an English major and left it as an elite miler. After a tour of duty in the Far East as a Russian interpreter with the U.S. Naval Security Group, he returned stateside to earn a doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania and pursue a career as part-time academician and full-time nonprofit executive.
The author has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Delaware, SUNY Buffalo, Rutgers University, and University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He has addressed the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow and the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh, Scotland. His published articles have been reprinted in anthologized collections.
Now an independent public historian, he lives in the urban village of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia. This is his first novel.
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