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Nesbø to retell Macbeth as ‘crime-noir’ novel

Bestselling Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø has been commissioned to retell the story Macbeth, giving his own twist to one of Shakespeare's darkest, most psychological dramas.

Published: 14 January 2014 10:54 CET

Nesbø to retell Macbeth as 'crime-noir' novel

Jo Nesbø. Photo: Peter Knudsen

Nesbø has been commissioned by the Hogarth Shakespeare, an international publishing initiative timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, England's most famous playwright.

"Macbeth is a story that is close to my heart because it tackles topics I've been dealing with since I started writing," Nesbø said. Shakespeare's original was, he said, "a thriller about the struggle for power, both set in a gloomy, stormy crime noir-like setting and in a dark, paranoid human mind."

He described Macbeth as "a main character who has the moral code and the corrupted mind, the personnel strength and the emotional weakness, the ambition and the doubts to go either way."

"I will not attempt to do on justice to William Shakespeare nor the story," he continued. "I will simply take what I find of use and write my own story. And, yes, I will have the nerve to call it Macbeth."

Nesbø joins award-winning authors Margaret Atwood, Howard Jacobson, Anne Tyler and Jeanette Winterson, who have been commissioned to retell The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter’s Tale, respectively.

The initiative is being led by Hogarth UK and the works produced will be published in partnership with Hogarth US, Knopf Canada, Knaus Verlag in Germany and Mondadori in Spain; and Random House Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India.

The novels will be published simultaneously across the English-speaking world in print, digital and audio formats.

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Shakespeare's last play discovered hidden in archives in Spain

A scholar has discovered what is thought to be the oldest copy of Shakespeare in Spain. Photo: AFP

Published in 1634, “The Two Noble Kinsmen” is a tragicomedy about love, enmity and madness written by Shakespeare in collaboration with Jacobean playwright John Fletcher.

“It's likely the play reached Spain between 1635 and 1640,” said John Stone, a lecturer in English studies at Barcelona University who discovered it at the Royal Scots College, a seminary in the northwestern town of Salamanca founded after the Catholic Church was outlawed in Scotland.

The importance of the rare edition was immedately recognised by scholar John Stone. Photo: J Stone

Collections of English works were rare in Spain and plays were exceptional in the 17th and 18th centuries, with all books subjected to inspection at the frontier by the Spanish Inquisition, particularly those from a heretical Protestant state like England.

The tragicomedy was part of a single volume of eight English plays printed from 1630 to 1635 that was likely brought over by a traveller and managed to scape falling into the hands of the Inquisition.

“I was going through the section on political economy and on the last shelf, I saw a book that was distinct in its binding from pretty-well anything else,” Stone told AFP.

Having written his dissertation on Shakespeare in Spain, he realised its importance immediately.

“I knew the moment I saw it that it was the oldest copy of Shakespeare in Spain,” said the Canadian researcher.

“The question was whether it had been the first Shakespearean text to reach Spain.”

Photo: John Stone

Under nose of Inquisition

Until now, the earliest known work of Shakespeare in Spain was a compilation of plays found at the Jesuit English College in Valladolid that likely arrived in the late 1640s or early 1650s.

It was sold in the 1920s to Henry Clay Folger, a wealthy American industrialist who went on to found the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC.

Clues as to when “The Two Noble Kinsmen” arrived lay in the margin notes made by Hugh Semple, a politically-ambitious Scottish Jesuit who was rector of the Royal Scots College.

“The handwriting tells us it arrived in Semple's lifetime and he died in the early 1650s,” Stone said of this “highly-networked individual” who was friends with Spanish playwright Lope de Vega and known for being able to bring
in English books.

His international ties were “very active” in the mid-1630s when he “would have had a great opportunity to import the book,” Stone said, suggesting it may have been brought over by a London-based Scottish aristocrat who was liaising between the English and Spanish monarchs.

Although the Royal Scots College was located in central Madrid at the time, right under the nose of the Inquisition, there was no sign its “eclectic mix of English books” was ever noticed by the Holy Office.

It is unclear whether the Shakespeare play was ever performed or used as part of the college's curriculum although Stone said theatre was often used as part of Jesuit teaching.

Stone is now working with a book historian to see if the binding or stitching of the volume could offer further definitive clues as to when it arrived.

By AFP's Hazel Ward

READ ALSO: Nine reasons why Cervantes is better than Shakespeare

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