The Lunatic, The Lover, and the Poet by Myrlin A. Hermes

A Divinity scholar at Wittenberg University, Horatio prides himself on his ability to argue both sides of any intellectual debate but is himself a skeptic, never fully believing in any philosophy. That is, until he meets the outrageous, provocative, and flamboyantly beautiful Prince of Denmark, who teaches him more about both Earth and Heaven than any of his books. But Hamlet is also irrationally haunted by intimations of a tragic destiny he believes is preordained.

When a freelance translation job turns into a full-scale theatrical production, Horatio arranges for the theater-loving prince to act in the play-disguised as the heroine! This attracts the attention of Horatio′s patroness, the dark and manipulative Lady Adriana. A voracious and astute reader of both books and people, she performs her own seductions to test whether the "platonic true-love" described in his poems is truly so platonic. But when a mysterious rival poet calling himself "Will Shake-speare" begins to court both Prince Hamlet and his Dark Lady, Horatio is forced to choose between his skepticism and his love.

If you are a Shakespeare fan in any measure - The Lunatic, The Lover, and the Poet by Myrlin A. Hermes is certainly worth reading. Like his plays, there is cross-dressing, disguises, mistaken identities, intrigues, existential crises, bawdy humor, puns all over the place, sex, and of course, a heart-aching love story in the center. Two, in fact. Remember the mysterious dark lady of Shakespeare's sonnets? Horatio, Hamlet's loyal friend? And countless theories on who really wrote the famous plays? Hermes takes all of these elements, borrows some of the best iambic pentameter ever written, and puts it all together to turn "Shakespeare topsy-turvy."

Fictional characters take on lives of their own to form a clever and unique perspective: What if Shakespeare had been in love with both the dark lady and the Prince of Denmark?

Hermes weaves the sonnets with a fair amount of bits and pieces from all the major plays to tell this tale, but Hamlet (the text and the character) takes center stage here. This Hamlet is a dazzlingly beautiful and charismatic man - attractive to both the sexes (A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted/Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion). Horatio, student by day/poet by night, succumbs to Hamlet's spell and falls in love for the first time in his life.

But wait - Horatio is also seduced, to his surprise, by his patron's intelligent but unattractive wife (my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun). Between these two opposite loves, the bewildered Horatio must choose and his poetry is all the better for it. And as if this tragi-comedic love triangle weren't enough, Hermes also manages to rewrite Hamlet from beginning to end in a surprisingly inventive and plausible manner.

"Have we such a perfect amity?" he asked. "Would you be such a friend...and pledge your life for mine, and keep my place, if I had such a need?"....."Swear it!" Hamlet's eyes stared wells into mine. I put my hand to my heart, having naught to swear by....

At once, I felt my universe shift. My heart leaped from my chest, and when it returned again, it beat at odds. I had become an instrument, and turned to Hamlet's key. My mind was trued to Hamlet's truth, aligned with Hamlet's mind in such perfect marriage, it seemed the most natural conclusion in the world when he rose up to seal the vow with a kiss.

Hermes undoubtedly knows Shakespeare inside and out. Each page has some sort of creatively placed allusion to a play or sonnet; I know I didn't get half of them (Make a game of it and try to spot every reference - there's a ton!). I don't think The Lunatic, The Lover, and the Poet by Myrlin A. Hermes can be appreciated without having read at least Hamlet and some of Shakespeare's more famous sonnets, but no worries - you need not be a Shakespeare scholar to enjoy this entertaining, multi-layered book.



My gratitude to Gregory at Harper Collins for providing a copy for me to review!