My favorite book discussions with my friends lead from specific details to much wider philosophical questions—so here, in no particular order, are some questions that might be useful to jump-start such conversations. I’d recommend finishing the book before you read the questions. Happy talking…
—Jennifer
Ghosts and Haunting
Kate’s first words are “We are all haunted.” What kinds of ghosts haunt Kate? Haunt this novel?
Layering of Time
How do the 16th- and 17th-century “Interludes” contribute to the present-day story of the rest of the novel? Or, vice-versa, how does the present-day story contribute to the historical fiction of the interludes?
There is also a 19th-century story that Kate uncovers. How does it contribute to (or connect) the Shakespearean and modern stories?
Fact and Fiction
Does truth matter in fiction? How and why?
- What would Kate’s answer be?
- What would the murderer’s answer be?
- Your answer?
What responsibilities do different kinds of books have to distinguish fact from fiction? What privileges do certain kinds of books have to intertwine fact and fiction?
Did reading The Shakepeare Secret prompt you to wonder how much was fiction, and how much was fact? If so, did you follow up by investigating? Did your investigations affect your enjoyment of the novel? In what ways?
Hamlet
As the novel begins, Kate is directing Hamlet at the Globe—an endeavor that’s soon interrupted. Themes from Hamlet carry through the entire novel, however: loss, discovery, revenge, mistrust of authority, self-doubt, madness, and the difficulty of determining the difference between “seeming” (or appearances) and reality. Where do such Shakespearean themes arise with particular strength?
At the end of the novel, Kate’s told that she’s acting like a modern Hamlet. Do you agree? (What would it mean to be a modern Hamlet, anyway?)
Comic relief
What does Kate believe, at the novel’s end?
From your reading of the book, who, in your opinion, wrote Shakespeare’s plays? What evidence (or lack of evidence) swayed you, and why?
Does it matter who wrote the plays?
1. Does it matter who wrote Shakespeare’s plays? If so, in what way? Does it change your understanding and enjoyment of them?
2. Does the identity of any author matter? How?
3. Who and what are the forces which contribute to a story’s meaning? Consider the following:
- The author
- The audience
- The (usually shared) culture of author and audience
What roles do each of these contributors play?
Most books are lucky to have an author, audience, and their shared culture thrown into the mix—that is, they are lucky to get published and read (or produced and seen) at all.
With a long-lasting, widely-read (or seen & heard) author like Shakespeare, things get more complicated. In addition to the author, original audience, and their shared culture, add the following:
- The present-day audience, 400 years hence
- The culture of the current audience—a very different world from Shakespeare’s
With films of Shakespeare’s plays and books telling tales about both the author and his works, you can add another couple of layers to the wedding-cake of meaning. For example, think of Olivier’s film of Henry V, about a medieval Interred With Their Bones: Discussion Guide English invasion of France through Normandy, filmed in 1944 on the eve of DDay.If you watch that film now, here’s what’s in the mix:
- King Henry V’s historical invasion of France in 1415
- Shakespeare (whoever that was)
- Shakespeare’s Elizabethan audience, c. 1599 (when he wrote Henry V)
- The culture of Elizabethan England (if you’re curious about this, read A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599, by James Shapiro)
- Olivier, as director, producer, and lead actor in 1944
- British audiences in the midst of WWII (it was released in Britain in late 1944—where many American military personnel also saw it); American audiences just after the war (it was released in the U.S. in 1946). It is no accident, for example, that HBO’s Band of Brothers took its name from Henry V—or that so many WWII veterans respond viscerally to Shakespeare’s words.
- British, American, and Allied cultural milieus and concerns around DDay and its aftermath
- You, watching the film now
- Your own cultural milieu, attitudes, interests, fears, longings, dreams
4.What layers contribute to your thinking about Interred With Their Bones? In what ways do they influence your understanding and enjoyment of this novel—or the Shakespearean plays it incorporates? Do you need to be consciously aware of all these layers for them to be at work, making meaning?
Shakespeare
What is Shakespeare’s place in modern culture? What, in your view, should be Shakespeare’s place in modern culture?
Beyond Shakespeare
What is the place of traditionally revered stories and persons in modern culture? Should we continue to revere them? How and why?