Othello: And The Shadow of Jealousy [ebook]

A Unique Othello Retelling in a Dickensian Style

In the glowing courts of Venice, where ambition is measured in whispered bargains, and upon the storm-battered shores of Cyprus, where war and intrigue walk hand in hand, there stirs a tale most grievous and affecting. This Othello retelling keeps the original Shakespearian setting but in a classic Dickensian style, composed by author and linguist Richard S. Pinner (Uniliterate).
Here, the noble Othello — stout of heart yet blind to the snares and serpents that lie coiled beneath courtly smiles. He secures for himself a bride of rarest virtue and sweetest nature. Yet even in such triumph, the seeds of calamity are sown.
For envy, that green-eyed fiend, and falsehood, that villainous sprite, conspire to poison the well of trust. Around Othello, friendships curdle, good names are sullied, and the purest love is set upon by creeping suspicion and cankered jealousy.

This is not Shakespeare’s play.

This is Othello retold as a dark, atmospheric novel penned in a vivid, brooding style inspired by the richly textured storytelling of Charles Dickens. A literary adaptation by Richard Pinner, professor of linguistics and digital communication, it reimagines the Bard’s tragedy as a story of manipulation, race, passion, and betrayal in a corrupt world.
This edition also includes a series of short essays exploring key modern themes: race and ethnicity, queer theory, and feminist interpretation.
This unique edition is not the public domain play, but a complete literary novel adaptation, an expanded Othello retelling with critical insights by a modern scholar.

Looking for the physical book? Get the Paperback on Amazon here.

Part of the BARD409 Series.

To mark the 409th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, and to celebrate his birthday, we are created BARD409.

Like nearly every high school student in England, I studied Shakespeare. Unlike most of the others in my class, I loved it. I enjoyed acting it out, and my amazing English teachers seemed to appreciate my enthusiasm. Now, as a teacher myself, I know how that feels. Teachers don’t get paid a lot, so we need to see our students’ enthusiasm as a kind of supplement to our salaries. My favourite role to play was Iago from Othello. He was so utterly cunning and deceitful, I got to play many parts in one— the friendly convincing person who everybody trusted, and then the evil schemer who showed whatever side of himself was necessary to manipulate people to do his bidding. I wanted to create an Othello retelling especially, as it was always my favourite play.

Studying Shakespeare

It may surprise you to learn that Shakespeare was only formally introduced to the UK National Curriculum in 1988, which seems quite recent to me. JRR Tolkien considered Shakespeare a bit too modern, and until the late 19th century even the field of English Literature was looked down upon, being favoured by knowledge of Latin and the classics. But even though I enjoyed performing Shakespeare in the classroom, I must admit that I did not enjoy reading it. I appreciated it, of course! William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the finest writer in the English language. But given that, isn’t it a crying shame he never wrote a novel? In my opinion, the novel is one of humanity’s greatest literary contributions. Could Shakespeare’s plays be rewritten as short novellas, I wondered? Of course, many have adapted his work—some as novels, others as films. Some are set in feudal Japan, like Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (1957); others, like Warm Bodies (2013), take place in a zombie apocalypse. Even The Lion King (Hamlet) and West Side Story (Romeo & Juliet) draw clear and intentional parallels. But why has no one simply written a straightforward, historically grounded novel—set in the period, using the language of the play?