Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Hag-Seed (Hogarth Shakespeare, #4)” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Hag-Seed

(Hogarth Shakespeare project)

Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)

3.84 · Rating details · 28,143 ratings · 4,156 reviews

William Shakespeare's The Tempest retold as Hag-Seed

Felix is at the top of his game as Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. His productions have amazed and confounded. Now he's staging a Tempest like no other: not only will it boost his reputation, it will heal emotional wounds.

Or that was the plan. Instead, after an act of unforeseen treachery, Felix is ...more

Get A Copy

Kindle Edition, 295 pages

Published October 11th 2016 by Hogarth (first published October 6th 2016)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Hag-Seed, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.84 ·

Rating details

· 28,143 ratings · 4,156 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Hag-Seed (Hogarth Shakespeare, #4)

Jan 07, 2017 Sean Barrs rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare, contemporary-lit, 5-star-reads

The Tempest is my favourite Shakespeare play.

I’ve read it dozens of times and watched various versions of it over the years. Unfortunately, I’ve not seen it live yet. One day I’ll see it live at Shakespeare's Globe in London. There’s so much to take from this play, and Atwood’s interpretation completely blew my mind. The way she took one of the lines made me consider this in a completely new light.

“This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine”

Caliban, the seed of the Hag, could be Prospero’s son? The Tempest is my favourite Shakespeare play.

I’ve read it dozens of times and watched various versions of it over the years. Unfortunately, I’ve not seen it live yet. One day I’ll see it live at Shakespeare's Globe in London. There’s so much to take from this play, and Atwood’s interpretation completely blew my mind. The way she took one of the lines made me consider this in a completely new light.

“This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine”

Caliban, the seed of the Hag, could be Prospero’s son?

How interesting, I’ve never even considered this before! There’s a very convincing, though of course inconclusive, argument made by one of the characters in here to suggest this.

But I digress. This is far from the main point. This book is about a man called Felix, and he was the artistic director of a major theatre house until his assistant betrayed him and orchestrated a coup leaving Felix stranded in isolation. Sound familiar? Felix is our Prospero and he wants some revenge. So many years after he is disgraced he gets his opportunity. He stages his own version of The Tempest, using prison inmates that he teaches, to get back at those that wronged him. It is marvellously clever. He takes on the role of Prospero in the play, and he also becomes him in his real life.

What does this tell us about the story? Shakespeare wrote some truly brilliant narratives, and they really are timeless. Here one has been used in a modern setting to tell us a story that has happened and will happen again. I hesitate to generalise, but one thing I’ve learnt from reading a fair bit of Shakespeare is that his characters are real. They could be real. They are easily to identify with and the stories they have are easily seen in later works and in people’s actual lives. The point is Shakespeare was a very perceptive man, across his body of work he captured much of the human condition.

So Atwood has recreated The Tempest here and it’s beautiful. She has crafted all the themes of the Tempest into the form of this man’s life. And, ironically, he knows he is living The Tempest. He starts to actually become like Prospero. He becomes unhinged and can only taste that singular bitter pill known as revenge; it is literally all that animates him and it almost drives him too far into the depths of obsessive despair, though he has the power to come back. We all do. Very much in the tradition of the play, Felix comes back to himself.

This really is a great piece of writing. ...more

flag 236 likes · Like · see review

Sep 17, 2016 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have now read three of the four re-imaginings of Shakespeare's plays and this is my favorite to date, by far. Atwood and I have had an on and off again relationship but here she has outdone herself. The Tempest, a sorry of magic and fantasy, revenge and hatred performed in a correctional institute, by non violent offenders, their stage manager Félix. Félix has known his share of heartbreak and loss, most recently betrayed by his assistant and ousted from a prominent position.

What Atwood has ac ...more

flag 183 likes · Like · see review

Mar 25, 2017 Hannah Greendale rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: satire, retellings, literary-fiction, contemporary, adult, fiction, women-s-prize-nominee

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.

Felix is the Artistic Director of the Makeshiwig Theater Festival and a theatrical visionary whose outlandish re-imaginings of Shakespeare's plays have both baffled and awed critics. On the cusp of staging The Tempest, a play Felix intends to make his greatest work yet, an act of unforeseen treachery relieves him of his position and strips him of professional dignity. Twelve years later, after a need to aven ...more

flag 166 likes · Like · see review

Dec 23, 2017 Jeffrey Keeten rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare, canadian

”Ban-ban Ca-Caliban,
Don’t need no master, I am not your man!
So stuff it up your hole, gimme back what you stole,
Tellin’ you it’s late, I’m fillin’ up with rage,
I’m gettin’ all set to go on a ram-page!
Ain’t gonna work for less than minimum wage---
Live in a shack and piss in a pail,
You earn yourself money by puttin’ me in jail!

You kick me in the head, you dump me in the snow,
Leave me there for dead,
‘Cause I’m nothin’ to you.
Ban, Ban, Ca-Caliban,
You think I’m an animal, not even a man!

Now Hag-Se
...more

flag 158 likes · Like · see review

Sep 07, 2016 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, literary-fiction, netgalley, canada

After Felix, artistic director, of the Makeshiweg Festival, gets weaseled out of his job by Tony, his under-cutting 'right-hand-man' ...he moves off grid
into a hillside dwelling - an old rustic small shack with cobwebs, a smelly outhouse, surrounded by weeds. He tidied up the inside space --but
"despite his pathetic attempts at domesticity, he slept restlessly and woke often".

Both Felix's wife and child are deceased. He lived with grief, yet when Felix was the artistic director of the very repu ...more

flag 137 likes · Like · see review

Oct 13, 2016 Esil rated it liked it · review of another edition

Oh dear. I think that Margaret Atwood and I are just not meant to be. With the exception of Cat's Eye, every time I read one of her books, I admire her cleverness -- her wry intellect and dry wit -- but I just can't connect. Hag Seed gave me the same experience all over again. Part of the Hogarth Shakespeare Project, Hag Seed is a modern retelling of The Tempest. It features Felix -- a fallen director from a thinly disguised Stratford Festival -- who plots his revenge through a staging of The Te ...more

flag 137 likes · Like · see review

Jun 12, 2017 Fabian rated it liked it · review of another edition

Put bluntly, Atwood's last two endevors have sa-hucked.

Yeah, this one's included. & here's why: the premise of "The Tempest Retold" is masterful with the prison standing in for the island and the master portrayed as a theater director--the temptation to bring a 400+ year work from the best English writer of all time into our contemporary one deserves much applause. And follow through. Instead, we get almost exactly where we thought that all of this was going (this, despite never having read this ...more

flag 123 likes · Like · see review

Apr 18, 2016 Justin Tate rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The Tempest is my favorite Shakespeare play and Atwood is a genius. I especially loved her re-telling of The Odyssey in The Penelopiad. Naturally I had to read this novel. Although it didn't quite meet my high expectations—it falls short of "brilliant"—it is entertaining and witty.

Unlike some books in this Hogarth series, Hag-Seed is more on the nose with its Shakespeare infusion. An acclaimed stage director is reduced to leading a cast of prison inmates in a production of The Tempest. Life imit ...more

flag 116 likes · Like · see review

Sep 28, 2016 Cecily rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: usa-and-canada, solitary-protagonist

Old Hat, New Hat

It’s just over 400 years since Shakespeare’s death. How can we ensure his continued relevance?

The publisher’s answer was to commision a series of Shakespeare Retold novels. Atwood’s answer was to demonstrate exactly how to cultivate understanding of and enthusiasm for the Bard to modern and potentially unenthusiastic students: low-literacy prisoners.

Picture: “Do you have anything new by Shakespeare?”

Atwood has a clear agenda: Shakespeare was and is for everyone, literacy matter ...more

flag 102 likes · Like · see review

Aug 13, 2017 Dolors rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Those ready to drop their magic

Shelves: read-in-2017

A contemporary retelling of “The Tempest”, Atwood’s novel is part of Hogarth Shakespeare Series that celebrates the Bard’s 400th anniversary and, in my humble opinion, it more than succeeds in preserving his timeless, thought-provoking genius.
Instead of narrowing down the complexities of the original play, Atwood embraces them all, adding further layers of ambiguity that open up multiple levels of understanding of the plot and subplots, creating a play within a play in a Russian doll narrative A contemporary retelling of “The Tempest”, Atwood’s novel is part of Hogarth Shakespeare Series that celebrates the Bard’s 400th anniversary and, in my humble opinion, it more than succeeds in preserving his timeless, thought-provoking genius.
Instead of narrowing down the complexities of the original play, Atwood embraces them all, adding further layers of ambiguity that open up multiple levels of understanding of the plot and subplots, creating a play within a play in a Russian doll narrative structure.

Like in Shakespeare’s play, the shifting forces between forms of freedom and imprisonment are at the core of the story. Accordingly, Atwood sets the action in the Fletcher County Correctional Institute, an actual prison in Canada where a motley array of criminals play the parts of the famous characters directed by Felix Phillips, our Prospero and former acclaimed theatre director. Betrayed by his financial manager Tony, Felix has to wait for twelve years before he is ready to scheme a revenge that will harbor hilarious situations and heart-breaking moments seducing all kind of audiences, from the most skeptical to the less demanding reader.

Irreverently humorous, eclectic, and subtly mordant about the roles of institutions and politicians on prison policies and social reintegration, Atwood is at her best weaving wit, depth and teasing in this adaptation. The Bard’s fierce literacy blends naturally with the slang, modern language used by the inmates with a touch of impish glee that is most sparkling when Felix persuades the actors to use only curse words that are present in the original text in exchange for smuggled cigarettes. Improbable expressions like “Scurvy awesome”, “Way to red plague go” or “What the pied ninny is this” ensue, making all the convicts not only endearing but also irresistibly funny. An inventive tribute to the Bard that I bet he would have approved of.

In spite of the fast-paced, almost casual style of Atwood’s storytelling and the light-hearted teasing between the somewhat clichéd cast of characters nothing is only one way in “Hag-Seed”. Everything comes in layers of double and triple meaning. Felix is both victim and oppressor, masterful playwright and prisoner of his own text; the actors are potentially dangerous criminals but also dissenters in a corrupt, unfair system. The play itself, like the island or the prison, goes back and forth between illusion and truth, vengeance and forgiveness, confinement and liberating force, like a shifting reflection on a mirror that splits up the light rays into a prismatic rainbow.

The last chapters of the novel are climatic, but they also invite the reader to careful meditation. Atwood seems to be asking whether we can ever get free from the inner prisons we build for ourselves. Grief for his lost baby daughter shackles Felix for twelve years, but her Ariel-like spirit whispers to him amidst the vast oceans of time and possibility, making the implausible more real than reality itself. She seems to say that if you can suspend disbelief and allow the sprites and the goblins eavesdrop into your secret hopes and fears, the poison might slowly turn into sweet wine. But until when?
What ultimately differentiates the villain from the hero is the courage to let go of those you retain at your side, to gather enough stamina to set them free, to send them back to the elements, to the magic of timeless limbo; and bid them a well-meant farewell from our lonely shores, and keep on walking at a steady pace towards the place we belong. ...more

flag 94 likes · Like · see review

Sep 23, 2018 Matthew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, audio, library

This is my second experience with the Hogarth Shakespeare Series. My first try was Vinegar Girl (click for my review) which I did not care for very much. So, I went into this one with much trepedation, but hoping for the best!

I did enjoy Hag-Seed very much. I have both Shakespearean reasons and overall story reasons.

Shakespearean reasons: I don't know about the rest of you, but I think the original Shakespearean Tempest is quite weird and out there - I have never seen it, but I have read it twic ...more

flag 88 likes · Like · see review

Mar 04, 2017 Maxwell rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

This is by no means a bad book. Margaret Atwood is a fantastic writer, and I've enjoyed so many works by her. But I think the concept overshadowed the actual story for me. The Hogarth Shakespeare series is a really cool idea—to have contemporary writers adapt Shakespeare plays into novels. But the results have been lackluster to me. On one hand, it's fun to see the parallels between Atwood's characters and Shakespeare's. On the other hand, it doesn't leave too much to the imagination. Because th ...more

flag 68 likes · Like · see review

Jun 05, 2017 Phrynne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the second of this series of Shakespeare rewrites that I have read and it was so good! It shows how a really good, quality writer like Margaret Atwood can successfully turn her hand to anything.
Of course her writing is always beautiful, whatever the topic, but in this book she was amazing in her originality. By the time her main character, Mr Duke, had written his version of The Tempest I was longing to be able to go and see it performed. Her interpretation and ideas were just brilliant. ...more

flag 65 likes · Like · see review

Oct 27, 2016 Seemita rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller, drama, toi, fiction, canada, play

[Originally appeared here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/li...]

The Shakespearean scent is high in the air in his 400th anniversary year and a handful of reputed authors are capturing it to present it anew in the Hogarth Shakespeare series. A task so stimulating, so enchanting that it is bound to throw aromas of myriad nature into the literary air. And Margaret Atwood proves to be a fantastic flag-bearer of this spirited bunch.

Hag-Seed follows Felix, Prospero from the original. He is the acc [Originally appeared here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/li...]

The Shakespearean scent is high in the air in his 400th anniversary year and a handful of reputed authors are capturing it to present it anew in the Hogarth Shakespeare series. A task so stimulating, so enchanting that it is bound to throw aromas of myriad nature into the literary air. And Margaret Atwood proves to be a fantastic flag-bearer of this spirited bunch.

Hag-Seed follows Felix, Prospero from the original. He is the accomplished Artistic Director of Makeshewig Festival and is on the verge of staging ‘The Tempest’, his most ambitious project till date. But things go wrong, thanks to his perfidious deputy, and he is fired abruptly, just days before the grand show. Forced to leave the town, Felix totters somehow to a deserted countryside home and spends the next twelve years grieving, teaching and scheming revenge. It all turns worthwhile when in the Fletcher Correctional Centre, where he teaches theatrics to prison inmates under the pseudonym of Mr. Duke, he receives the best news ever – a visit of his nemesis and his partners in crime to the Centre. And thus, the seething ember of revenge suddenly compounds to a raging fire within and he leaves no stone unturned to set the equation right.
....exiled by their unjust hands, lying in wait for them, preparing his ambush. It's taken a while, but revenge is a dish best eaten cold, he reminds himself.
Hag-Seed hinges on The Tempest – the lesser-debated, milder cousin of the soot-dark Hamlet and Othello. But the admirer of Shakespearean literature is me holds ‘The Tempest’ very close to her heart as it was her first exposure to the Bard’s works. It had the good and the bad in remarkable equity and was presented in a most affable yet emphatic tone. The inspired version conjured by Atwood, thankfully, reaffirms my love.

The choice of a prison as her stage is an unconventional but smart decision on part of Atwood. This provides her an almost clean slate to etch her interpretations as the reader is compelled to suspend biases and sway along with her. After all, how many of us are privy to the routine exchanges of prisoners? She imparts spunk, humor and sincerity to the inmates without sacrificing the authenticity of their backgrounds. She puts her vast writing experience to good use while erecting parallel story-lines, so that none of them look out of place and each sub-plot settles comfortably within the entire story like pieces of a puzzle. The new angles she provides to the original story are a delight, especially the part where the inmates are asked to extrapolate the climax and fuse them into their imagination to arrive at the life each character might have had after the story’s finale. Despite no shock element or vertiginous revelation, Atwood’s swift, consistent and uncomplicated language holds the story in good stead and one gets used to it like a face getting used to the unwavering breeze caressing it across a window.

It may not be wrong to say that I dismissed most traces of the Bard’s 'The Tempest’ while reading Atwood’s Hag-Seed and after a while, only the latter’s flag kept fluttering in the narrative space. Now, that, was a mild tempest (and an enjoyable one) in its own right! ...more

flag 65 likes · Like · see review

Feb 14, 2019 Lyn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Deliciously brilliant.

The Hogarth Shakespeare series began in 2015 and was commissioned to have talented contemporary writers reimagine and retell some of Shakespeare’s best plays into a modern setting. These have long been on my radar and my first entry was a jaw droppingly, awe inspiring, knock me down and take my lunch money virtuoso performance by Margaret Atwood: a dramatic vision of my favorite Bard play – The Tempest.

Atwood’s 2016 publication has our new world Prospero as an eccentric fes Deliciously brilliant.

The Hogarth Shakespeare series began in 2015 and was commissioned to have talented contemporary writers reimagine and retell some of Shakespeare’s best plays into a modern setting. These have long been on my radar and my first entry was a jaw droppingly, awe inspiring, knock me down and take my lunch money virtuoso performance by Margaret Atwood: a dramatic vision of my favorite Bard play – The Tempest.

Atwood’s 2016 publication has our new world Prospero as an eccentric festival director whose career is usurped by his devious assistant in a parallel to Antonio’s betrayal. While there is no deserted island for him to retreat, he does take a 12-year sabbatical to rural Canada to plot his revenge. Getting a director’s position at a local prison, he begins production of his own Tempest and lures his enemies in to see the play and we are guided by Atwood’s deft creation into something very special.

The Tempest, one of Shakespeare’s last plays, has long fascinated me; intrigued, mesmerized, puzzled, befuddled, provoking thought and making me wonder. To me, this was his swan song, his magnificent coda that brings in all the best to a final act: violence (and the threat of violence), magic, mystery, romance, song, humor, and an island full of psychological and social commentary. Was this about colonialism? About family and dynasty and slaves and masters and revenge and retribution? Prospero, easily one of the most complicated characters in the plays has been wronged but he himself has enslaved Ariel and Caliban. And is Caliban a living metaphor for the New World, a grotesque caricature of servitude and seizure? Is it about the prisons we endure and the hells we create for ourselves?

So Atwood has some big shoes to fill, and a lot of ground to cover to make this right. In my very humble opinion, she nailed it. Hag Seed captures the essence of The Tempest, examines it, flushes it out, and then adds to it while all the while paying loving homage to this great drama.

Interestingly, there was a 2005 documentary called Shakespeare Behind Bars that describes a prison in Kentucky that produced The Tempest and I could not help to wonder if Atwood had been inspired by this.

Whether you are an Atwood fan or a Shakespeare fan, or both (as am I) or just love a great story, this is highly, highly recommended. Five stars, two snaps, a thumbs up and a bag of chips.

description

...more

flag 57 likes · Like · see review

Mar 05, 2017 Helene Jeppesen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a retelling of a Shakespearean play I've never read, and it's by Margaret Atwood whom I believe to be one of the finest story tellers. I had a feeling I was going to love this, and I did.
"The Tempest" is retold through Felix who takes on the job of teaching prisoners how to read Shakespeare and how to play him. Felix has a secret wish for revenge, though, which serves as his main motivation for doing this exact play with the prisoners.
It was interesting to see how Atwood mixes two comp ...more

flag 54 likes · Like · see review

Dec 11, 2016 BrokenTune rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

4.5*

Your profanity, thinks Felix, has oft been your whoreson hag-born progenitor of literacy.

When I learned that Margaret Atwood had written a book for the Hogarth Shakespeare series, I was both thrilled and hesitant to pick it up. I love Atwood’s work. I love Shakespeare. However, there are elements of both authors writing that I can see would react like fire and ice.

Atwood is one of my go-to authors for strong female characters. Shakespeare does not come immediately to my mind for that purpose 4.5*

Your profanity, thinks Felix, has oft been your whoreson hag-born progenitor of literacy.

When I learned that Margaret Atwood had written a book for the Hogarth Shakespeare series, I was both thrilled and hesitant to pick it up. I love Atwood’s work. I love Shakespeare. However, there are elements of both authors writing that I can see would react like fire and ice.

Atwood is one of my go-to authors for strong female characters. Shakespeare does not come immediately to my mind for that purpose. On the other hand, I love Shakespeare’s thoughtful and often sensitive male characters, which in turn is not something I have really found in an Atwood novel. Most of Atwood’s male characters I’ve encountered were horrid human beings. I mean look at Atwood’s Penelopiad (part of the Canongate Myths Series) to see even the most ancient of heroes being taken down a few pegs. Not that I object – I very much enjoyed her modern deconstruction of the classic story, but I do sometimes feel a little sorry for the male characters that cross her path.

Therefore it is fair to say, I really had some misgivings how Atwood would approach this re-telling of The Tempest, which is packed with men full of ambition, desire, and longings for revenge, and where the only female character, Miranda, is being maneuvered like a chess piece.

I was wrong. Hag-Seed showed that despite their differences, there are also a few things that Shakespeare and Atwood have in common: the ability to come up with a gripping narrative, imaginative ways of explaining the world as they observe it by relating different angles to the unsuspecting reader, a talent for striking a balance between thought-provoking and evocative writing, and best of all an enormous sense of having fun with words.

Readers who may have been put off Shakespeare by having had to sit through endless recitals of famous lines in school may not remember it but Shakespeare was funny. If nothing else, there are memes and objects out there that still thrive on Shakespeare’s appeal to the sense of fun in people. None more so than the Shakespearean insult kit (see here or here for a bit of fun).

Atwood, who can also be wickedly funny, has picked up on this, and actually uses it to lighten up the otherwise potentially depressing or even threatening setting of a prison, where we get to await in anticipation how the inmates will put Shakespeare’s own words to a more creative use. I honestly looked forward to the inmates getting to grips with Shakespeare’s The Tempest by using his own swear words:

“Born to be hanged. A pox o’your throat. Bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog. Whoreson. Insolent noisemaker. Wide-chapp’d rascal. Malignant thing. Blue-eyed hag. Freckled whelp hag-born. Thou earth. Thou tortoise. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself. As wicked dew as e’er my mother brushed, With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen, Drop on you both. A south-west blow on ye, And blister you all o’er. Toads, beetles, bats light on you. Filth as thou art. Abhorr’ed slave. The red plague rid you. Hag-seed. All the infections that the sun sucks up, From bogs, fens, flats, fall on – add name here – and make him, By inch-meal a disease. Most scurvy monster. Most perfidious and drunken monster. Moon-calf. Pied ninny. Scurvy patch. A murrain on you. The devil take your fingers. The dropsy drown this fool. Demi-devil. Thing of darkness.”

Of course, the investigation into Shakespearean swear words was not the only aspect. I loved. I also loved the scene setting and how Atwood re-imagined the isolation of Prospero’s island in the isolation of the prison, how she transferred the play within the play in The Tempest into a play about a play about a play by making it clear from the outset that Shakespeare’s play The Tempest will be focal point of Felix’s (Atwood’s main character’s) ambition.

I loved how she used the diverse characters to show different interpretations of the original play, and how she transposed issues of colonialism, sexism, privilege, politics, gender issues, and others I haven’t even contemplated yet, from Shakespeare’s work into a modern setting.

So, to anyone, who rolls their eyes at reading Shakespeare because they have been bored to despair with a few lines of his most famous works, I say pick up a copy of Hag-Seed. It is just about one of the most gripping, thoughtful, and entertaining ways to find out why people are still enthralled by his works.

“One question. Is ‘shit’ a curse word? Can we use it, or what?” It’s a fine point, thinks Felix. Technically, “shit” might not be considered a curse word as such, only a scatological expression, but he doesn’t want to hear it all the time. Shit this, shitty that, you shit. He could let them vote on it, but what’s the point of being in charge of this motley assemblage if he refuses to take charge? “‘ Shit’ is off bounds,” he says. “Adjust your cursing accordingly.” “‘ Shit’ was okay last year,” says Leggs. “So how come?” “I changed my mind,” says Felix. “I got tired of it. Too much shit is monotonous, and monotony is anti-Shakespeare. ...more

flag 51 likes · Like · see review

Oct 15, 2018 Hugh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-lit, read-2018

Another one that has been sitting on the to read shelf for far too long, I enjoyed this far more than I expected to. Anyone who believes Atwood has no sense of humour (and that might once have included me) should read this clever and outrageous reworking of The Tempest and imagine how much fun Atwood had writing it.

I won't say too much about the plot, since there may still be a few of you out there who have not yet read it, but I found this one of Atwood's most enjoyable books, and it even taugh ...more

flag 51 likes · Like · see review

Nov 21, 2016 Celeste rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book was fan-freaking-tastic. I adored it.

I have such immense respect for Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale is right up there with other dystopian classics like 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 in its scope of influence. But that’s the only book of hers that I’ve read all the way through, and that particular book was assigned for a class. I liked it, but it was homework, which always skews my enjoyment level a bit. There are other books by Atwood that I’ve picked up, but I coul This book was fan-freaking-tastic. I adored it.

I have such immense respect for Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale is right up there with other dystopian classics like 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 in its scope of influence. But that’s the only book of hers that I’ve read all the way through, and that particular book was assigned for a class. I liked it, but it was homework, which always skews my enjoyment level a bit. There are other books by Atwood that I’ve picked up, but I could never get into them. But Hag-Seed was so small. Surely I could get through that one, right?

To prepare for reading it, I assigned myself some homework; reread The Tempest, the Shakespearean play that Hag-Seed retells. And reading it definitely felt like homework. But I’m so glad that I read it, because there was a richness to Hag-Seed that I would have missed without the play fresh in my mind. Do you have to read The Tempest to enjoy Hag-Seed? Nope! There’s a short summary of the play in the back of Atwood’s book, for anyone who isn’t familiar.

So, what did I think of Hag-Seed? I adored it. Five-star reviews are usually reserved for my favorites, books that I will read again and again, but I can’t find enough fault with this book to bump it down to four stars. I was hesitant about it when I picked it up and figured that, if I did enjoy the book, it would be in the same way that I enjoy a classic or a popular novel. That I would (hopefully) like it and feel that I had checked something off of a to-do list. But I should have had more faith in Atwood. Hag-Seed was fabulous! The Tempest is a play-within-a-play, and Hag-Seed added another layer of “within-a-play” to that. Felix was pitiable in the opening chapters of the book, but he wasn’t likable. At all. His growth throughout the story was wonderful to follow. Hag-Seed was deep, and moving, and funny. And that's all I'll say, so as not to spoil it for anyone. I was immensely entertained, and I highly recommend it! ...more

flag 52 likes · Like · see review

Nov 17, 2016 Rebecca rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: updated-classics, newbury-library

Margaret Atwood looks more like a good witch every year, and here she works her magic on The Tempest to produce the most satisfying volume of the Hogarth Shakespeare series yet. There’s a really clever play-within-the-play-within-the-play thing going on, and themes of imprisonment and performance resonate in multiple ways. It’s fun to see the disgraced Felix’s second act as a director of inmate plays at Fletcher Correctional – “I don’t care why you’re in here or what they say you’ve done: for th ...more

flag 52 likes · Like · see review

Apr 12, 2017 Barbara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

'The Hogarth Shakespeare Project' commissions renowned writers to retell and modernize Shakepeare's works. Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood is a contemporary version of 'The Tempest.'

In a nutshell: The Tempest tells the story of Prospero, a duke that's been deposed and exiled by his treacherous brother Antonio, who's in cahoots with the King. The banished Prospero is stranded on an island with his young daughter Miranda, the monster(ish) Caliban, and the mystical spirit Ariel. After many years Prosp ...more

flag 46 likes · Like · see review

Oct 11, 2016 Marie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: retelling, fantasy

“the island is a theatre. Prospero is a director. He’s putting on a play, within which there’s another play. If his magic holds and his play is successful, he’ll get his heart’s desire. But if he fails…”

This is a marvelous re-telling of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” It is a tale of prisons within prisons, of prisoners who do not realize they’re imprisoned, of vengeance and revenge. The most beautiful part of this book is that it is prisoners who are putting on the play. Their thoughts on the char “the island is a theatre. Prospero is a director. He’s putting on a play, within which there’s another play. If his magic holds and his play is successful, he’ll get his heart’s desire. But if he fails…”

This is a marvelous re-telling of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” It is a tale of prisons within prisons, of prisoners who do not realize they’re imprisoned, of vengeance and revenge. The most beautiful part of this book is that it is prisoners who are putting on the play. Their thoughts on the characters, plot and imagined future outcomes are all explored. Margaret Atwood’s retelling, in effect, goes deeper than the original. I, as the reader, was left amazed at how well all the intricacies of plot worked out to mirror the original work in such a way that it actually took the plot further, creating a doubling effect: a play within a play (maybe within another play). It feels genius as you read it, and further intensifies the prisons within prisons theme.

This is fourth installment of the Hogarth Shakespeare Project, in which excellent writers are tackling retellings of Shakespeare’s literature. “The Tempest” is the last written work of William Shakespeare, written in 1610-1611. I plan to re-read “The Tempest” and rewrite this review (or at least rethink it). I am that inspired by this novel.

There were a couple fairly major departures from the novel. The largest being that, Miranda, Felix’s daughter in Atwood’s version has died at the age of 3, however Felix imagines he still sees her and she is there with him until the end of the novel when he is able to release her. I actually think this brings an additional element of fantasy to the novel, a hint of madness to the sorcerer. She actually becomes entwined into the role of the fairy as enacted in the prison. It also allows for another level of imprisonment.

This version does not take place on an island, but Felix (Prospero) banishes himself to a remote area living in a shack with landlords that maybe never were. It is all very mysterious. He lives in seclusion for twelve years prior to taking the job at the prison where through a literacy program he and the inmates re-enact Shakespeare plays. It is here at the correctional facility that “The Tempest” is re-enacted in more ways than one with the outcome that Felix desires, the overthrowing of Antonio who had taken away his theater directorship.

The work that Felix does at the correctional facility feels magical. The relationship he develops with the inmates and the enthusiasm and interest they show for working on the plays seems incredible. As quoted from Felix within the novel, “Maybe the island really is magic. Maybe it’s a kind of mirror: each one sees in it a reflection of his inner self. Maybe it brings out who you really are. Maybe it’s a place where you’re supposed to learn something. But what is each one of these people supposed to learn? And do they learn it?” This seems to be exactly what is happening within Felix’s theater in the prison.

This is a novel full of modern day wit, whimsy, vigor. Margaret Atwood infuses rap, dance, old world swearing, and much self discovery into the prisoner’s re-enactment. It is super fun to read, yet has its dark melancholic side in true Atwood form, and can be dissected in so many ways. The prisoners each have their own interpretations of the characters and their expected outcomes, which is true of all great literature. I highly recommend this to Shakespeare fans or just fans of great literature! This is Atwood at her best!

Thank you to netgalley and Hogarth for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

For discussion questions, please see: http://www.book-chatter.com/?p=674 ...more

flag 46 likes · Like · see review

Sep 25, 2016 Suzanne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, arcs

Firstly, a big thank you to Netgalley, Crown, and Hogarth for allowing me access to this digital ARC for review purposes. I can't wait to have the physical copy in my hands in a few short weeks.

Yet another genius offering from the always excellent Margaret Atwood, Hag-Seed is her unique, modern day retelling of The Tempest. This take centers on Felix, artistic director of the Makeshiweg Festival, who is wrongfully let go from his position. More or less usurped from his proverbial throne by the Firstly, a big thank you to Netgalley, Crown, and Hogarth for allowing me access to this digital ARC for review purposes. I can't wait to have the physical copy in my hands in a few short weeks.

Yet another genius offering from the always excellent Margaret Atwood, Hag-Seed is her unique, modern day retelling of The Tempest. This take centers on Felix, artistic director of the Makeshiweg Festival, who is wrongfully let go from his position. More or less usurped from his proverbial throne by the ambitious schemes of his assistant, Tony, Felix's life work goes up in flames in an instant, and he quickly becomes obsessed with the notion of revenge.

The Makeshiweg Festival was Felix's life - having lost his wife and his daughter, Miranda, he poured his heart and soul into it, so it's understandable that he has a difficult time letting it go. Tony's betrayal is of the worst kind, because he preys on Felix's vulnerabilities, getting close to him little by little while building a case for his own rise to the top. At the time of his exile, Felix was in the process of staging a production of The Tempest, and viewed it as a sort of homage to his deceased daughter, Miranda.

After a self-imposed period of depressing solitude in which he attempts to contemplate what he wants from the ruins of his life now and interacts with only his mysterious new neighbors and the ghostly presence of his deceased daughter (who is no longer three, but has somehow aged and continues to do so over the course of the story), Felix is able to revive the staging of his production in a very different way at The Fletcher County Correctional Institute. Teaching an array of prisoners (mostly low bar offenders) about Shakespeare through a literacy program, soon turns into a form of fulfillment that Felix doesn't anticipate. He grows comfortable enough here over the years, off the grid, living under a pseudonym, but he doesn't forget about the idea of revenge, merely biding his time as Tony once did with him - watching and reading about his former friend turned archenemy's ascent higher and higher, into the upper echelons of government. Felix feels that revenge is a dish best served cold.

The story that transpires in the prison provides some necessary comic relief and a close look at the supporting cast of characters of Felix's world. Felix changes the lives of the prisoners he teaches in a profound way, and they change his, even if the effect of this isn't realized until the end.

This is where Atwood goes meta, and it's nothing less than mind-bending brilliant. The narrative becomes a play for revenge within the staging of the play, with Felix's motley crew of a class/cast assisting him in his quest for revenge enacted in the most satisfying Shakespearean fashion. To add fuel to Felix's already fiery desire for vengeance, Tony and his fellow cronies plan on omitting the literacy program that employs Felix and allows the inmates something of an escape from the monotony of their life within the prison - god forbid government funding go to prisoners having something akin to fun! If the reader had any doubts about the target of Felix's anger before, they are quickly doused with his reappearance. The less said about the roller coaster conclusion, the better, but all the pieces fall into place, and to quote Shakespeare -
"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages."

A wily, witty, rollicking take on Shakespeare - and yet, more than Shakespeare (he provides the framework, Atwood makes it human for today's reader). This is my first read from the Hogarth Shakespeare series, and I'm now inspired to seek out others - but I doubt any will be so satisfying as this one. Atwood's Prospero is set free in the same manner as Shakespeare's, shorn of magic, set free by the shared telling of his tale. ...more

flag 46 likes · Like · see review

Jun 13, 2020 Brian rated it it was ok · review of another edition

“…a door of hope has opened. They like doors of hope. But then, who doesn’t?”

“Hag-Seed” is the fourth book I have read in the Hogarth series. The Hogarth project sees “Shakespeare’s works retold by bestselling novelists of today.” This text sees Margaret Atwood taking a stab at “The Tempest”.
Atwood has chosen to write a very flimsy novel around her theories of that play. I wish she had just written an essay about some ideas and critical approaches she has about the play itself and possible stag ...more

flag 44 likes · Like · see review

Oct 24, 2016 Jennifer rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016-books

This book earns 5 stars for originality (and somebody please tell me that there are really theater programs inside correctional facilities, because that is a brilliant idea!) Atwood is, of course, a master. Her modern-day "Tempset" is quite clever. Yet, somehow all the pieces here were less than the sum of their parts for me.

It could be that, in spite of his personal tragedies, I couldn't quite feel that the lead character Felix really had been professionally "wronged." It could be that none of ...more

flag 43 likes · Like · see review

Nov 25, 2016 Manuel Antão rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, 2016

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

Monotony is anti-Shakespeare: "Hag-Seed: The Tempest Retold" by Margaret Atwood

“’Shit’ off bounds,” he says. “Adjust your cursing accordingly.”
“’Shit’ was okay last years,” says Leggs. “So how come?”
“I changed my mind,” says Felix.
“I got tired of it. Too much shit is monotonous, and monotony is anti-Shakespeare. […]”

In “Hag-Seed” by Margaret Atwood

When approaching Shakespeare in the twenty-first century many writers make an attempt ...more

flag 39 likes · Like · see review

Apr 23, 2017 Glenn Sumi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: canadian

Review to come! Definitely weighing in on this one!

flag 42 likes · Like · see review

Dec 07, 2016 Althea Ann rated it really liked it · review of another edition

What this is not: A realistic, believable depiction of a prison system theater program.
What this is: Pretty damn amusing.

Do you need to have read 'The Tempest' before reading this? Absolutely nope. (Though it wouldn't hurt, naturally.) But Atwood seamlessly works in explanations of everything you need to know.

Atwood's latest is part of the "Hogarth Shakespeare" series, in which contemporary authors have been invited to give us their retellings of and stories inspired by Shakespeare's plays. 'Hag What this is not: A realistic, believable depiction of a prison system theater program.
What this is: Pretty damn amusing.

Do you need to have read 'The Tempest' before reading this? Absolutely nope. (Though it wouldn't hurt, naturally.) But Atwood seamlessly works in explanations of everything you need to know.

Atwood's latest is part of the "Hogarth Shakespeare" series, in which contemporary authors have been invited to give us their retellings of and stories inspired by Shakespeare's plays. 'Hag-Seed' refers, of course, to the character of Caliban in The Tempest, and this is Atwood's take on the play. There's more than one 'Tempest' in this book. We start with famed and eccentric theater director Felix, who's proud as can be of the Makeshiweg Festival, a renowned annual theater event (apparently, a literary equivalent to the real-life Ontario Stratford Festival. [https://www.stratfordfestival.ca]). As the story opens, Felix is planning a radical production of 'The Tempest' but is unexpectedly deposed from his beloved position as director by the betrayal of a power-hungry subordinate who sees theater administration as only the first step on the rung of the ladder of local politics. Broken and angry, Felix retreats to a rural 'hermitage' where he nurses his wounds and nurtures the imaginary(?) ghost of his dead daughter, Miranda. Here, we begin to see the asymmetrical correlation between Felix's life and the plot of Shakespeare's 'Tempest.'

Years later, Felix ventures back into society - of a sort. He sees a job opening advertised for a theater director - as part of an experimental enrichment program at the local jail. He takes the job under a pseudonym, and embarks upon introducing convicts to the glories of Shakespeare. The endeavor actually goes swimmingly - but when an upcoming visit from local dignitaries is announced, and that visit is revealed to include his old nemesis, who on top of everything else, wants to cut funding for the arts, a complex plot for revenge is conceived. And of course, it will involve a production of 'The Tempest.'

A must-read for both Atwood fans and theater buffs.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Hogarth for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinions are solely my own.

...more

flag 41 likes · Like · see review

Jul 28, 2016 Roger Brunyate rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: hogarth-shakespeare, comedy-sorta

Shakespeare in Prison

The outer gate swings open, propelled by invisible hands. My thanks, ye demi-puppets, Felix addresses them silently, ye elves of barbed wire, tasers, and strong walls, weak masters though ye be. As he drives away downhill the gate closes behind him, locking itself with a metallic thud, Already the air is darkening; behind him, the searchlights blare into life.

Felix Phillips, renowned theater director fallen on hard times, drives home to his two-room shack after a day reh Shakespeare in Prison

The outer gate swings open, propelled by invisible hands. My thanks, ye demi-puppets, Felix addresses them silently, ye elves of barbed wire, tasers, and strong walls, weak masters though ye be. As he drives away downhill the gate closes behind him, locking itself with a metallic thud, Already the air is darkening; behind him, the searchlights blare into life.

Felix Phillips, renowned theater director fallen on hard times, drives home to his two-room shack after a day rehearsing his production of The Tempest at Fletcher County Correctional Institute. That's right, he is staging Shakespeare in a prison. After being ousted from his post as artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Festival (think Stratford, Ontario) through the machinations of his once-loyal right-hand man Tony, Felix goes to ground and contemplates revenge. Under a pseudonym, he takes a part-time job as instructor in the Literacy Through Literature program at the prison, where he produces an annual Shakespeare play. This time, his choice is The Tempest, and he intends to use it to turn the tables on those who once deposed him.

By now, I am a confirmed fan of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, which commissions famous novelists to write their own takes on Shakespeare plays. The series started well with Jeanette Winterson's The Gap of Time (The Winter's Tale), then just got better and better with Howard Jacobson's Shylock is My Name (The Merchant of Venice), Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl (The Taming of the Shrew), and now Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed, the best of the lot. The Tempest, she says, is a play about a man (Prospero) staging a play in order to exact revenge on his adversaries. What more natural (and more Shakespearean) than to add a further layer, and make this adaptation about a wronged director staging this play that itself contains a play within the play? Well, to be honest, there were a few chapters early on when I feared that the approach might be too cute for words. But I forgot such thoughts as soon as Felix entered that prison. For what we get there—and this is the larger part of the book—is a brilliant example not only of Shakespeare interpretation but also of superb teaching. As Felix breaks the play down and works with the prisoners to analyze the characters and themes, I—who have taught Shakespeare for thirty years, directed the show twice, and written my own operatic adaptation of The Tempest—was drop-jawed with amazement. Perhaps Atwood occasionally allows herself to play the professor rather than the novelist, but there is a lot of fun too. For example, Felix's rule that the only swear words allowed in the class are those taken from the play itself. Hence delightful (but insightful) dialogues like the following:

   "Caliban should be First Nations," says Red Coyote. "It's obvious. Got his land stole."
   "No way," says PPod. "He's African. Where's Algiers anyway? North Africa, right? That's where his mother came from. Look on the map, pox brain."
   "So, he's a Muslim? I don't whoreson think so." VaMoose, another Caliban aspirant.
   "No way that he's smelly-fish white trash, anyways," says Shiv, glaring at Leggs. "Even part white."
   "I score," says Leggs. "You heard the man, fen head, it's final. So suck it."
   "Points off, you swore," says PPod.
   "Suck it's not a swear word," says Leggs. "It's only a diss. Everyone knows that, and the devil take your fingers!"
   Anne-Marie laughs.

Because the authorities will not risk bringing the prisoners together to watch a staged performance, Felix builds up his shows on video, which allows for much more flexibility in concept than you would get in a straight play. It also allows him to hijack the showing for the visiting VIPs to his own ends; Tony and his enablers have now become politicians. But while it is fascinating to put together the clues about what Felix intends to do, the actual performance—the springing of Felix's trap—falls curiously flat. The events that are the equivalent of Shakespeare's play, rather than the preparations for it, take only a few chapters, and achieve very little catharsis. It is this more than anything that keeps me from giving this otherwise extraordinary book five stars.

The performance ends some fifty pages before the end of the novel, leaving only the summing up. The two greatest speeches of Shakespeare's Prospero—"Our revels now are ended" and "Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves"—come in this section. It is the moral heart of the play and Shakespeare's legacy as a human being, where revenge gives way to forgiveness, the theatrical magus abjures his magic, and we reenter the real world, leaving the enchanted isle behind. In the fifty pages she has left, can Atwood do anything similar? Not quite. She has some marvelous chapters in which the teams behind each of the characters submit their final reports on what might become of their people after the play ends; there is some brilliant imagination here, but this is Atwood the professor, rather than the novelist. The one thing that I did find very touching comes from what may be Atwood's most original stroke of all: that while Prospero was accompanied into exile by his infant daughter Miranda, Felix's own daughter Miranda has died long ago in childhood, leaving him alone. I won't say how Atwood uses this to end her novel, but it was a touch of true humanity in what was otherwise a tongue-in-cheek book. But what a tongue! What cheek!

[Thanks to Amazon Vine for my review copy.] ...more

flag 37 likes · Like · see review

Oct 22, 2016 Kelly rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: its-the-quiet-ones, life-of-a-teacher, owned, theatre, identity-crisis, fiction, 21st-century, woundedsoulsandfragileflowers

I don't know whether I liked this or I loved it, but the last five chapters gave it a huge boost. It's also the first Margaret Atwood I've read with a touch light enough to respond to- it didn't feel like the burden the others have. Perhaps I have Shakespeare to thank for it. Wouldn't be the first time, would it? Nor the last, I'm sure. ...more

flag 37 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Play Book Tag: Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood - 4 stars	1	14	Jun 11, 2019 05:24PM
Play Book Tag: Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood - 4 Stars	6	24	Jun 05, 2019 01:25PM
Around the Year i...: Hag-Seed, by Margaret Atwood	13	73	Jan 09, 2019 03:31AM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Fiction

1,047 users

Fantasy

215 users

Retellings

201 users

Contemporary

178 users

Literary Fiction

174 users

Cultural > Canada

123 users

Audiobook

90 users

Adult Fiction

71 users

Adult

70 users

Classics

63 users

See top shelves…

About Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

66,700 followers

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.

Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, childr ...more

Other books in the series

Hogarth Shakespeare project (7 books)

Books by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)

The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)

More…

5 Great Books Hitting Shelves This Week

Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day. To create our...

Trivia About Hag-Seed

2 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Hag-Seed

“You’re clear, Mr. Duke.” Grins from both of them. What could Felix possibly be suspected of smuggling, a harmless old thespian like him? It’s the words that should concern you, he thinks at them. That’s the real danger. Words don’t show up on scanners.” — 11 likes

“Miranda nods, because she knows that to be true: noble people don't do things for the money, they simply have money, and that's what allows they to be noble. They don't really have to think about it much; they sprout benevolent acts the way trees sprout leaves.” — 9 likes

More quotes…