let me tell you
“Paul Griffiths is one of a handful of fine writers to find the secret passage leading from restriction to richness.” — Adam Mars-Jones
Ophelia uses the words Shakespeare gave her to tell her own story. Her account flows solely from the 481 words she speaks in Hamlet. This constraint hints at Ophelia’s struggle against the limits placed upon her by her father, brother, Hamlet and Shakespeare.
First published in 2008 to great acclaim, let me tell you is a ‘hymn to the human’ (Peter Hughes, 10th Muse) that inspired the ‘the greatest classical composition of the 21st century’ (The Guardian on Hans Abrahamsen’s song cycle after let me tell you).
From the author of Mr. Beethoven and The Tomb Guardians.| Weight | 0.240000 |
|---|---|
| ISBN13/Barcode | 9781916218666 |
| ISBN10 | 1916218660 |
| Author | Paul Griffiths |
| Binding | Paperback |
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| Date Published | 6th June 2023 |
| Pages | 190 |
| Publisher | Henningham Family Press |
Praise for let me tell you:
The reader will be captivated by Griffiths’ touching portrait of Ophelia. – Michael Miller, New York Arts
An extraordinary work which extends our sense of what it is to be human beings. – John Goodby, Wales Arts Review
The remarkable achievement is to extend Ophelia’s world into impossible realms while remaining connected through deep feeling to her original. She resembles herself. – Oli Hazzard, Music & Literature
Ophelia shows that “there’s more to me now than the poor, sweet daughter” in achingly lovely words that stem from Shakespeare but bring Beckett’s later prose to mind. – Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
I found 'let me tell you' a beautiful and enthralling work, as well as a great success in Oulipian terms. – Harry Mathews, co-editor (with Alastair Brotchie) of Oulipo Compendium
I was amazed by how moving and true Ophelia’s voice is when up against and, surely thanks to, the constraint. – Caroline Clark, author of Own Sweet Time
Griffiths trusts that his form will effect its own kind of “saying.” That it results in a character with emotional depth that plausibly develops a life story about which Hamlet is otherwise silent only validates the wisdom of the author’s commitment to that form. – Daniel Green, The Reading Experience
Griffiths’ work as music critic and translator shines through; he has composed a prose work whose components recur and resound like familiar notes. – Alyssa Pelish, Rain Taxi