“Who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?” Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most memorable female characters, but what is it that motivates this murderess in the Scottish Play? Ava Reid uses this Shakespearean drama as loose inspiration for her gritty medieval fantasy tale Lady Macbeth, which came out last month.
War is brewing in eleventh-century Europe. England is consolidating power under King Aethelred, eager to conquer neighboring lands, and Norsemen prove an ever-present threat from the north. Cautious alliances are formed between kingdoms and clans through strategic marriages in which women are treated like pawns on a chessboard. Roscille is one such pawn, sent from her father’s court in Brittany to marry Macbeth, thane of Glamis, at his forbidding stone fortress in the kingdom known as Alba. Roscille is witch-touched, and she must hide her unnatural beauty beneath a veil to protect the men around her from falling under the compulsive spell of her gaze. But Macbeth has no fear of witches; instead, he collects them, keeping three chained beneath his castle to provide him with a stream of advice and prophecy. Roscille is the latest strange prize in his collection, but can she use her unique position to protect herself in this world ruled by violent men? She has studied the ways of Scottish society and come prepared with schemes to invoke ancient customs and manipulate the hierarchies of power around Macbeth. But the castle of a man who believes himself to be invulnerable is no place for games, and the young Lady Macbeth may just find herself in over her head.
In addition to drawing from Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth invokes a number of fairy tale tropes—though think more along the line of the Brothers Grimm than Disney. For example, in an effort to stall before her wedding night, Roscille sets her husband a series of challenging tasks. Unlike the thought-provoking riddles of folk songs like “Scarborough Fair” or “Captain Wedderburn’s Courtship,” however, these challenges turn out to just be more opportunities for Macbeth to showcase his ambition and blood-thirstiness. Ava Reid’s version of Macbeth also includes curses and fantastical creatures, even a young man who is cursed to transform into a beast every time he falls asleep. Lastly, there is something almost Bluebeard-like about Macbeth in this story, as Roscille learns about the all too Gothic fate of his first wife and the wives of his forefathers.
This is no fun fairy tale where everyone lives happily ever after, though. Nor is it an empowering tale of a famous female villain, as many readers entering this story might expect. The mood of Lady MacBeth is bleak and unrelenting. Think Game of Thrones narrated by a female character—and all of the trauma and sexual violence that would entail. Roscille is clever and observant; in another author’s hands, she would be a master manipulator, always outmaneuvering her enemies and surviving by her wit alone. But in this book, Roscille’s schemes fail as often as they succeed, her ambition coming back to bite her with devastating consequences. As Roscille painfully learns, she cannot beat these men at their own bloody games. Instead, it is only when she begins to form community with other women that she finally begins to wrest back some of her agency and power.
If you can stomach the depictions of violence and sexual assault and can tolerate the significant deviations from Shakespeare’s original plot, Lady Macbeth is a fascinating reimagining that blends elements of folklore with immersive historical detail about life, language, and culture in medieval Britain. You can find Lady Macbeth on shelves now at your favorite local retailer, or buy it online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. If you’ve already read it, let me know your thoughts in the comments!